How To Get Rid Of SkyDrive In Windows 8.1 Explorer

How To Get Rid Of SkyDrive In Windows 8.1 Explorer

Windows 8.1 is here, and it offers some handy new features for both the mobile and desktop crowd, including some clever SkyDrive integration. If you don’t use SkyDrive and feel that it’s in the way, you can easily get rid of it with a simple registry tweak.

To remove SkyDrive from the File Explorer’s sidebar:

  • Press Windows-R (which launches the Run command) and type regedit to open up the Registry Editor
  • Navigate to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID {8E74D236-7F35-4720-B138-1FED0B85EA75}ShellFolder registry key.
  • Right-click on ShellFolder and head to Permissions. Click Advanced.
  • Under “Owner” near the top, click Change. Change the owner to your user and press OK. Check the “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects” box as well as the “Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this subject” box near the bottom. Press OK.
  • Back in the original Permissions box, click on your user if it exists (otherwise, click Add and add your user). Check the “Full Control” box under your user and press OK.
  • Now, back in the Registry editor, you should have permission to edit the registry key. Double-click the Attributes key in ShellFolderand set its value to 0.
  • Restart your computer. When you open File Explorer, the SkyDrive entry will be gone from the list.

We’ve shown you how to do this before with other pre-populated sidebar items, and it’s handy for non-SkyDrive users. You can also disable SkyDrive completely with a Group Policy hack, but for most of us, this is probably all we need. Hit the link below for the Group Policy trick and other methods of disabling SkyDrive integration.

How to Disable SkyDrive Integration in Windows 8.1 [How-To Geek]


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