I upgraded to and installed RM11 on my computer only to find that installing on onedrive was my only option. I am not a fan of onedrive and do not want anything to do with it much less install Rootsmagic 11 there. How can I install Rootsmagic to a drive of my own choosing.
your programs should not be on OneDrive.
You can have your DB on OneDrive or not. It would depend on your computer/OneDrive Setup.
just have folder on your local computer outside of folder paths that sync on OneDrive. I have two one drives as I have two harddrives on my main computer. The other option is to disable OneDrive entirely which is not neccessary
Not sure why it installed on OneDrive (I don’t use it) but I would uninstall it.
Logout of OneDrive.
Install and look for the drive location where it wants to install (C:\Program Files). If it wants a different location just change it.
I can’t picture what that means. Programs will normally be installed in C:\Program FIles as indicated by MadDog. And after installing RM, your RM database files can be anywhere you want them. It’s under your control. You can put them in OneDrive or not, and not in OneDrive is the official recommendation.
I wonder if maybe your downloads are going to OneDrive. That’s totally possible. The RM download is an executable file that installs the actual RM executable that you then use when you are using RM. That’s the only time the RM installer is ever used - to install RM. Is that maybe where you are seeing OneDrive involved in the installation process? If not, exactly where in the installation process are you seeing OneDrive?
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Recently I had to replace my second laptop when the dog broke its screen. Microsoft had done a backup of the computer with the broken screen at some point to the cloud. When I started the new laptop, an old backup from one of my laptops automatically restored itself to the new computer and put most of what it imported on OneDrive. I had to call a tech support person to assist me to get OneDrive turned off and remove what had automatically been installed, so that my new programs would not go there. Why Microsoft setup does not ask whether or not one wants info to go to OneDrive or to the new computer’s hard drive is a mystery. I simply could have chosen to pause it or better yet turn it off , and not have to later get rid of what the computer put there. It sounds as if sgibb encountered a similar setup situation of his new computer.
Consider a Local Account rather than a Microsoft Account. Definitely do your research before making the change. This would stop OneDrive taking over without your knowledge. Your OneDrive would not be erased but access then requires you to use your browser. Note - a local account would mean no syncing and OneDrive becomes a backup.
It’s probably only a matter of terminology, but I have a local use account on my Windows computer and I consider that what my OneDrive actually is doing is syncing. Which is to say, it backs up my OneDrive folder on a continuous basis unless I pause it. I don’t have to have a Microsoft account on my Windows computer in order for OneDrive to sync.
I have been trying to research this whole question further, and I think it is more complicated than I credited with being. For example, OneDrive can backup your Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders in addition to your OneDrive folder. That can have big implications for RM. For example, suppose you store your RM database in your Documents folder to keep it away from OneDrive and then OneDrive syncs it anyway because it is syncing your Documents folder. That’s not a good thing unless you pause OneDrive while you are using RM.
I knew that Dropbox backs up your Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders in addition to your Dropbox folders. But I didn’t know that OneDrive would do the same thing. Perhaps it doesn’t on my two computers because I run Dropbox and OneDrive on both of them and Dropbox got there first. Also, Windows supports things called libraries which are a collection of folders, and your computer my have a Documents library. It’s not clear to me if OneDrive is backing up the Documents folder or the whole Documents library which in theory could be any folder on your computer. And finally, OneDrive can create a new folder called Documents as a sub-folder of the OneDrive folder and it can redirect files from the real Documents folder to the new Documents sub-folder in the OneDrive folder. When OneDrive backs up the Documents folder, I don’t know if is backing up the real Documents folder or the redirected Documents sub-folder of the OneDrive folder or both.
Finally, I come back to the notion that the OneDrive folder or any if its variations as described above is for your data, not for your apps. You apps are stored in as sub-folders of C:\Program Files (or C:\Program Files (x86) for 32-bit apps). On its face, this has nothing to do with OneDrive. However, when you get a new computer, Windows can try to move your apps from your old computer to your new computer for you. This can appear to be OneDrive in action, but I don’t think it is. I think it’s happening at the same time that OneDrive is moving your data files to your new computer, but I think it’s a different process.
I have very little familiarly with this process because I have always moved my apps to a new computer myself. The best I can tell, the process depends on your using a Microsoft account as your Windows user account rather that a local account, and it also depends on being on Windows 11 rather than being on Windows 10. But I’m not sure of those details because I have a local Windows user account and I’m still on Windows 10. Maybe some of it does work on Windows 10. I would love to hear from anyone knowledgeable about the issue of moving apps automatically with either a local Windows user account or with Windows 10. And in general, I’m sure that my new research thus far on these issues is not yet complete nor yet totally correct.
I wish there were a good white paper about these issues provided by Microsoft, but I cannot find one. I think it’s going to become a bigger and bigger issue because Microsoft wants all users to have Microsoft user accounts, they want all users to use OneDrive, and they want all users to move to Windows 11. It’s getting harder and harder to keep your Personal Computer to truly be Personal. And I think it’s going to be harder and harder for casual RM users on Windows to keep their RM databases from being synced while in use.
I’m not a Mac user, but I don’t think Macs are immune from this problem. Macs have both Time Machine and iCloud which can have very similar issues.
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Time Machine is a little different from iCloud or Dropbox or, probably, OneDrive in the way it works - it just freezes the whole file system, takes a copy of the whole file system metadata, and then uses the copy to decide what to include in this particular backup. Data that gets included in the copy is data as it existed at the time of the freeze - disk data blocks never get overwritten and are only released to the free pool when a future backup makes it no longer necessary to retain obsolete (updated or deleted) data. So, yes, the backup of the active RM data may mean that the copy captures an in process update and so, in that case, the RM database would be corrupt.
iCloud has user options, one of which is to backup everything in the Desktop and Documents folders. If this option is taken, it will have the issues that Jerry explained. So, if that option is used, then RM users should ensure that their active data is stored elsewhere - but RM backups are fine.
In standard windows, using a Windows account, you can change the location of your documents, pictures and other libraries from the default OneDrive location to wherever you wish.
Just open File Explorer, find Documents with a page icon and right click and select properties. The location tab shows the folder being used and that can be changed e.g. I change mine to D:\Documents to put it on my data drive.
Same with Pictures, Downloads, Music and Videos.
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Apple products / software are heavily focused on user control. You decide where time machine backs up to a particular drive and what goes on iCloud and iCloud drive. You are experiencing the wonders of Microsoft doing what it wants and ignoring the user.
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Thanks for the response. There is more than one way to setup a Local Account and depending on what you choose OneDrive will work in different ways. In the past a simple tick box on the Windows install wizard was enough but through time Microsoft have tightened their control. You can accept their defaults - install a Microsoft Account - then switch back to a Local Account at some later date (with or without OneDrive account disconnection).
In my specific case and a recent new Windows desktop I went for a clean Local Account install. This was using the Media Creation Tool and a USB stick (I also considered the Rufus installer), then the Command Line to close my internet connection > start ms-cxh:localonly and at the appropriate stage > ipconfig /release. Once installed/reconnected/updated then I have an empty non synced OneDrive folder on the local machine leaving my online OneDrive account untouched.
Did something similar my main OneDrive (1tb) is on 2nd hard drive – “O” (appropriately drive chosen)
I do have a 2nd personal OneDrive (100mb) which is used for other stuff and only certain folders on my main C drive (not programs )
In answer to my own questions:
- OneDrive does not backup Desktop, Documents, Pictures, and a few other folders on my computer because Dropbox is already backing them up. Even If I were not running Dropbox at the same time on the same computer, there are some OneDrive options concerning whether or not it should backup these extra folders.
- OneDrive can only backup folders, not libraries.
I have, with all your help and ideas, fixed it I believe. Thanks to everyone.
Margaret’s response did remind me that sometime back when I had to purchase a brand new machine which came of course only with Windows 11 automatically installed. It came set up to put everything in microsoft onedrive. I haven’t used onedrive in ages and long ago had transferred all my information within it to other directories of my own making, in particular downloads and documents. Thankyou Margaret for reminding me of that.
Creating a local account is an attractive option to consider.
If you attempt to install or update a new program in a new Windows 11 computer, be prepared for onedrive to take over as it did for both Margaret and me. Because I already had all the data within onedrive elsewhere, here’s how I solved it.
If onedrive is still enabled go to Options, then Unlink this computer. I my case I could only do it from the cloud.
Because I totally wanted to be done with onedrive, I deleted onedrive from the control panel. After rebooting my computer, I was successfully able to install rootsmagic 11 in the directory of my making.
For now all seems well. If others, using a new machine that came with windows 11 have a simpler solution, would be grateful to hear it.
Thankyou all
Susan