#Documents and settings windows 10 windows 10
#Documents and settings windows 10 download
#Documents and settings windows 10 free

This is very helpful if you are setting up a new Windows 10 PC with limited storage-like a 256GB SSD-and itвЂ™s nice to not have to eat up all of the bandwidth on your network downloading gigabytes of files. But, until you actually click on a file to access it, OneDrive just shows you a pointer to the file and keeps it stored in the cloud. The beauty of it is that you can still see all of the files listed-so it is like having them stored locally. If you check the box, it only downloads files as you use them. There is an option in OneDrive Settings for вЂњFiles On-DemandвЂќ.

#Documents and settings windows 10 download

That means when I add, remove, or change files in a folder on one PC, those updates are automatically reflected on every other PC I use and I always have access to my current versions of everything because there is technically only one version that every PC is sharing.ДЄs a bonus-you donвЂ™t actually have to download all of the data. By setting all of the computers up the same way, they are all actually working off of the exact same data in OneDrive.

I also find this invaluable because I use multiple computers at once depending on where I am and what I am doing. Once you point the location of the system folders to your OneDrive versions, all of your files will magically appear, and you are back in business. You wonвЂ™t-or shouldnвЂ™t-need to transfer or copy data from the local drives because it is a new PC with no data on it yet. Just log in and youвЂ™re all set.Д«ut, what about your data? Well, now that you have been using OneDrive by default, just go into the system folders on the new Windows 10 PC and follow the steps from before. Windows 10 allows you to sync a variety of settings, such as language preferences, passwords, color themes, and even File Explorer settings, and notification preferences, so you donвЂ™t have to start from scratch and configure everything again. Microsoft has already streamlined much of the process from the user profile and preferences side. The real magic happens when you set up a new Windows PC. When you transfer photos of your kidвЂ™s birthday party to Pictures on your Windows PC, you are actually storing them safely and securely in the cloud in the Pictures folder in OneDrive. Voila! Now, when you view the files on your Windows desktop, you are actually seeing the files from the Desktop folder in OneDrive. There is an option to automatically back up files from the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders to OneDrive, but that still leaves out Downloads, Music and Videos-and it doesnвЂ™t really accomplish my goal. The issue I have with this approach alone is that the Windows operating system doesnвЂ™t default to those folders. With data stored in the cloud, I no longer need to worry about backing files up, and when I get a new computer, I can still just access the data in the cloud. Storing data in the cloud does solve some of these problems. It would be a shame to lose family photos from my Pictures folder or an eBook IвЂ™ve invested days writing because the data was not backed up. When those folders were actually local storage for me, not only was it more challenging to switch to a new PC, but it also meant that I needed to backup my data regularly in case something happened to the computer.

#Documents and settings windows 10 free

I generally try to keep the Desktop and Downloads folders free of clutter, but the Documents folder gets very large over time, as do the Music, Pictures, and Videos. Windows sets up standard folders for the PC for Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos.