Best way to decommission OneDrive for desktop?
Posted by nico8576@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 36 comments
My org is moving from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace. All OneDrive data will be migrated to Google Drive which will be the new source of truth.
I plan to remove user’s licenses for OneDrive and set gpedit to restrict the usage of OneDrive. We also have Mac’s, so I was going to use the office-reset tool to remove all M365 apps including OneDrive.
In my testing, however, in both cases (Windows + Mac) it seems to leave broken shortcuts within the user’s desktop and documents folders if they had folder redirection enabled. Is there a way to fix this before I decommission, or should I have them just manually clear their desktops themselves? Thank you
TrainAss@reddit
Ohh boy. You're in for a time...
I'd never use google for work ever again. Did it for a year and it was absolute hell.
Horsemeatburger@reddit
We are a large multi-national with >10k users, and we completed the migration to Google Workspace a bit over four years ago. And for us it's the opposite of "hell".
In fact, you couldn't pay us to go back to the misery of Windows and MS365 ever again.
newboofgootin@reddit
How many additional products did you have to purchase to reach feature parity in Google Workspace?
Master-IT-All@reddit
Now is that because the Windows/365 configuration was a legacy burdened environment, or the service itself?
My experience has been that when migrating from legacy AD, Exchange, file services, the first place a business lands always gets a shitty landing due to trying to keep some SQL DB working locally or whatever. Then the organization gets fed up of all the problems, fixes them, but the shit stuck. All the lessons learned go into the migration to another platform due to the 'vibe' and yes it seems like it's a golden change.
WeleaseBwianThrow@reddit
We found (with some caveats mentioned elsewhere) that Google Workspace is far more reliable and solid that 365. The Admin Panel works (seriously, in 3 years I remember one time it was down for maybe 5 minutes). Its clean, its simple, its well targeted to what it does and it does it pretty well.
You'll lose some granularity of configuration on Gmail vs Exchange though - Exchange is far more powerful. And there is a reason we still use Entra as our IDP rather than Google's authentication. But by and large I am un-filled with rage when I have to use Google Workspace Admin in quite the opposite way than when I have to use the Rube Goldberg UI of 365.
iama_bad_person@reddit
MsGraph of nowdays is actually amazing. When it first launched it sucked and I held my Azure modules until they died, but about ayear ago MSGraph finally felt mature enough to rely on and I can't think of using anything else.
screampuff@reddit
Most of what 365 Offers isnt office apps and email though, it's Intune/device management, conditional access and privileged access management, purview/DLP/insider risk, cloud, infra and endpoint scanning, power platform/BI/dataverse, etc...
Not that I'm a huge fan of 365, but having to get 1 off tools for all of these things that we're required to have would be a huge adminstrative PITA.
WeleaseBwianThrow@reddit
None of that is necessarily 365 though, those are all separate SKUs
We use all of that (except Purview/DLP/Insider Risk, we have other solutions there), and use SentinelOne MDR for that side of things, by licensing Mobility and Security because we also don't want 1 Off tools for most of that (except where it makes sense), and realistically Entra is probably the best and most feature rich IDP at close to its price point
TreeSimulatorEnjoyer@reddit
left a bad solution for an even worst solution. good luck.
Fritzo2162@reddit
Haha…they’ll go back. They always go back.
matt0_0@reddit
There's a lot of reason m365 is superior to Google workspace, but g drive vs OneDrive isn't one of them IMO.
What's worse about Google drive for your shop?
Cloudraa@reddit
yeah drive is one of the things i find is significantly better about workspace lol
the sync client is bulletproof compared to onedrive and the web ui is significantly better
WeleaseBwianThrow@reddit
We find the opposite with the Sync Client
Oh MacOS We regularly get GDrive completely failing to Sync because its cache gets stuck on something, only way to clear it is to nuke the cache, which has its own issues.
OneDrive is garbage too, but GDrive isn't all fun and games.
Master-IT-All@reddit
I think for a Windows desktop and Office document focused user, Microsoft 365 Business Premium is pretty much unmatched for the breadth of features included at its price point.
-But it is true that the OneDrive/SharePoint experience itself is a very legacy burdened environment with limitations that feel very 90s. File path lengths being the most glaring.
sdeptnoob1@reddit
Use Google migration tools. I did that in opposite and it worked pretty well but it was microsofts side. You need to set up you google sweet and do some test migrations for a few test accounts to find the kinks and gotchas.
Ubera90@reddit
Out of the fire and into the frying pan.
ferengiface@reddit
So glad I am not OP.
CrustyPeeCrystals@reddit
great now ive got meatloaf stuck in my head
BlazeReborn@reddit
I would use any cloud on Earth, but I won't use that. (points at Google workspaces)
fizzlefist@reddit
I can see Paradise by the Dashboard Error Lights!
thatfrostyguy@reddit
Lol yikes. One shitstorm to another
badogski29@reddit
Man first time I’ve seen someone move from m365 to GW. God speed brother!
FlameBeast123@reddit
the broken shortcuts are expected if you remove the sync client while redirection is still active. You basically need to reverse the known folder move via policy or script before decommissioning. Order of operations matters a lot here.
DeathTropper69@reddit
We just use ThreatLocker to block OneDrive and all other consumer grade drive solutions.
rokiiss@reddit
Eh? Do you just folder redirect to fs?
VNDMG@reddit
Only way to get rid of OneDrive is to burn all the laptops and throw them in and landfill. Then switch to Linux
hihcadore@reddit
Yes, force non-technical users to learn Linux, just to prevent having to restart the OneDrive app once in awhile sounds like an amazing solution.
/s
VNDMG@reddit
Wait I thought everyone was technical now that they have Claude?
hihcadore@reddit
You’re right!
Not just technical but you don’t even need any coding or devops experience. You can just point it to your repo and API keys and give Claude a two liner and it can pump out a premier business webapp for you.
Technically I don’t even think you need an OS anymore.
VNDMG@reddit
Hahaha amazing response 10/10 no notes
DeathTropper69@reddit
Facts
ArborlyWhale@reddit
Clarify: Broken shortcuts to other folders/files in the desktop folder of the user drive? OR The desktop folder is broken because the user profile is trying to load the now missing onedrive desktop folder?
On windows and Mac or just Mac?
VNDMG@reddit
Only way to get rid of OneDrive is to burn all the laptops and throw them in and landfill. Then switch to Linux
Edit: forgot the /s.
stained_grandeur@reddit
folder redirection cleanup is manual no matter what you do. the broken links will just sit there unless you remove them before decommissioning. id have users clear their desktops ahead of time rather than deal with the fallout after. way easier than trying to script around folder redirection quirks.
cogiskart@reddit
I've recently done the same switch. Deployed a script that runs a deep uninstall of OneDrive after we performed a mirroring of the users OneDrive files over to Google Drive.
The script runs automatically after every large Windows update just in case OneDrive decides to pop up again.
nico8576@reddit (OP)
Did you revert folder redirection first or was that not an issue for your org? Are you able to share the script? Thanks!