Here's how to remove the OneDrive icon from Windows 11 File Explorer navigation pane. By default, it displays the OneDrive - Personal item with no option to get rid of it. Luckily, it is easy to change this.
Advertisеment
OneDrive is a software client for Microsoft's own cloud service. It allows syncing your documents and files between your computers. Similar to Windows 10, Windows 11 has OneDrive preinstalled.
OneDrive storage capacity depends on your plan. For consumers, Microsoft offers 5GB of space for free. If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription, you will get 1TB on OneDrive. Finally, you can pay a little for extra space, say 2TB.
OneDrive is available on all popular platforms. It also works as a Web app. In Windows 11, the OneDrive icon appears in the Navigation Pane.
If you are not happy with defaults, here's how to remove it.
Remove OneDrive Icon from File Explorer in Windows 11
- Open the Registry editor; press Win + R and type
regeditinto the Run box. - In the left pane, go to the key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}. You can copy-paste it to the address bar of the Registry editor. - On the right, double-click the
System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTreeDWORD value. - Change its value data from 1 to 0 and click OK.
- Now, navigate to the key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace. - Right-click the
{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}entry on the left and select Delete. You need to remove it.
- Close all Explorer windows to apply the change.
You are done!
Now, if you open File Explorer, it will no longer show the OneDrive icon in the navigation pane on the left.
You can undo the change at any moment later. All you need to do is to change the System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree value from 0 back to 1. After that, create the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6} key. Finally, re-open File Explorer.
To save your time, I have prepared a couple of REG files.
Download ready-to-use REG files
First of all, download the following ZIP archive and open it. Now, extract the two registry files to any folder of your choice.
To remove the OneDrive icon from File Explorer, double-click the file Remove_OneDrive_from_navigation_pane.reg. Now, re-open File Explorer, and OneDrive will disappear from the left.
To restore OneDrive in the navigation pane, use the file Add_OneDrive_to_navigation_pane.reg.
That's it!
Support us
Winaero greatly relies on your support. You can help the site keep bringing you interesting and useful content and software by using these options:
If you like this article, please share it using the buttons below. It won't take a lot from you, but it will help us grow. Thanks for your support!
Advertisеment
Sorry but this doesnt work. No matter what you do its still there.
You did something wrong then.
Apologies to Sergey, he is absolutely correct. The issue I missed was, I am in an environment that is locked down. You cant enter anything in our out of the registry. I was using a RUNAS to bring up the registry, the problem is, you are bringing up registry settings for THAT USERID and NOT the locally logged in use sooo….the hard way is to find the the SID of the user that you want to change, go to that users registry settings and use the SAME corresponding keys and it WILL work. Thanks again Sergey!
In Windows 11 (up to date) you can just uninstall OneDrive and it disappears from file explorer automatically.
The problem with that is, many users are One Drive for Business users, if you uninstall you have no One drive for consumer OR One drive for Business. Use Sergey’s way it works! If you are just someone who only has the one drive for consumer then yes, just uninstall it.
Hi, Downloading his REG file, extracting it and running it worked perfectly for me… took me 1 minute, thanks a lot!
This solution will only work properly btw if you are already and admin on your computer…many are not.
In my case, standard user can also succeed.
I found a post on MS’s support (joke) forum which suggested the same registry edit. The OP replied that it did not work as the listed registry key is not in his registry at the correct location. Using the find function turns up a REFERENCE TO the suggested CSLID at another location, but not the actual CSLID. The only response to him was to tell him he’s wrong.
Nope. I find the same thing. That CSLID is not in my registry, and uninstalling OneDrive does not help. This makes me very reluctant to experiment with importing the registry keys above.
The only difference between his problem and mine is that I’m not trying to remove the “OneCloud” icon, I’m trying to remove the “Document” folder which points to the “C:\Users\\OneDrive\Documents\” folder, instead of the “C:\Users\\Documents\” folder.
Any suggestions?
THE PROBLEM IS – YOU TOLD EVERYBODY THE WRONG INSTRUCTION!
You say change First reg value ….
‘Change its value data from 0 to 1 and click OK.’
Later on you say to revert back…
‘undo the change at any moment later. All you need to do is to change the System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree value from 0 back to 1’.
You can’t reverse something by doing the same thing – the first one is Wrong, it’s change it to 0 (zero).
Obviously the Deleted Key part is correct.
Looks like you need to edit your Html.
Thank you sir. It was indeed a typo, as it needs to be changed from 1 to 0.
I have fixed the text, thank you!
The Regedit worked fine & the space-wasting OneDrive shortcut is now gone.
Good, clear instructions. Thank you!
I followed the procedure carefully but it wont’t work. When navigating to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace” there is also another key called {04271989-C4D2-A69A-8D28-A14DE811C2CD} which I cannot see in your screenshots. Any advice?
Edit: simply uninstalled OneDrive via control panel which eventually removed the icon from explorer window. (Now also the registry key “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}” is gone, as well as everything under “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace”.)
Hi and thanks for the post.
I have uninstalled OneDrive and edited the Registry to point my to my User/Desktop, instead of User/OneDrive/Desktop
But, I still see “OneDrive – Personal” in my Save dialogs.
However, under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
I see a “OneDrive” folder. Can I delete this folder?
Sergey , YOU DID IT!!! I have tried to get rid of that stupid OneDrive folder (after uninstalling it) and nothing I tried worked. Your solution above made it happen..it’s no longer there, bothering me and being useless!!! Thank you a thousand times.
Sincerely, Handiewmn
Easy way to revert back and add onedrive to file explorer is to open
Control Panel->Appearance and Personalization-> File Explorer Options-> General Tab-> Restore Defaults
This adds the onedrive back to the file explorer menu, way easier then how explained here.
thank you for the valuable addition
It doesn’t work for me.