OneDrive Archives - Ed Tittel

Given the considerable flap that’s erupted online about MS dropping a OneDrive Photos app willy-nilly on Windows PCs recently, I’m having trouble finding same. Indeed, on the 8 PCs running Windows 11 here at Chez Tittel right now, it pops up on only one of them. It could be present on another, but I can’t tell right now. Thus, for me at least, finding OneDrive Photos proves elusive if not outright mysterious.

Why OneDrive Photos Proves Elusive

For one thing, there is no separate “OneDrive Photos” app, all the recent flap nothwithstanding. It’s actually part of the OneDrive executable itself OneDrive.App.exe. That said, it shows up on Windows 11 PCs with work and school accounts, even though it works only with personal MSAs. Thus, uninstalling it on corporate and school accounts is a real concern. For examples, see the coverage at WinAero, Windows Central and Windows Latest for a good sense of what’s been shaking.

I wanted to see the gosh-darned thing, but had trouble finding it. Turns out you have to be running version 26.139.0720.007 (it’s a preview version) AND you must be running a personal MSA for it to show up as such. Then you login into onedrive.live.com with said MSA, click the photos button at top left of onedrive login home and Presto! there you are.

As for uninstalling it if you can’t use it? That’s coming, but not quite here yet. But before I uninstalled it, I wanted to see it in the first place. Thus, as Murphy would have it, first I had to find it. Gosh! I have to laugh at the things that occasionally happen here in Windows-World. It’s a real gut-buster, sometimes…

In reading this morning about how Build 27788 enables an Apple Hand-off like experience, I looked around my mini-fleet of PCs for Apps > Resume. It’s not only present in that build, it’s also in the current production build (26100.3037), too. In fact, the only build I’m running where it’s MIA is Beta (26120.3073). I was also able to observe that Settings > Apps > Resume works between WinPCs, as well as from phones to PCs and vice-versa. Good stuff.

OneDrive Is Why Apps > Resume Works Between WinPCs

If the same MSA is open on both desktops for a pair of Windows 11 PCs, OneDrive and its synching behaviors make the same files available in the primary user account folders (e.g. Desktop, Documents and Pictures). That’s the mechanism that lets you ping-pong working on the same file across two or more PCs (and other devices as well). In my case, these files show up in a OneDrive (cloud icon) folder named “Ed – Personal” like so:

I used text for a reply to an AskWoody column (boxed item) as my example.

To me, this makes OneDrive file sharing more user-friendly. I don’t just want to be able to open and use files shared in the cloud. I want to be able to pick up where I left off. That’s what made Apple’s Hand-off initially compelling, and what explains the motivation for Microsoft’s implementation in the form of Apps > Resume. I can — and will — use this!

Author, Editor, Expert Witness