Issues with unlinking OneDrive account from folders - alphanumeric keys in registry

Question

I did a clean install of Windows 11. I didn't experience this issue before since I would do an "offline" setup of Windows without an account login, but it's a pain to do this with Windows 11. Anyway, OneDrive got installed and folders got linked with it. I thought I had properly unlinked and disabled everything before uninstalling OneDrive, but I guess I was wrong. My Desktop and Pictures folders still remained in the OneDrive folder. I managed to change the Desktop folder to the default location, but Pictures could not be moved, until I found a helpful guide on how to do this with RegEdit. I changed all the applicable folders to default location like so:

+-----------+----------------------------------------+-------------------------+
|  Folder   |              Registry key              |      Default value      |
+-----------+----------------------------------------+-------------------------+
| Downloads | {374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B} | %USERPROFILE%\Downloads |
| Desktop   | Desktop                                | %USERPROFILE%\Desktop   |
| Favorites | Favorites                              | %USERPROFILE%\Favorites |
| Music     | My Music                               | %USERPROFILE%\Music     |
| Pictures  | My Pictures                            | %USERPROFILE%\Pictures  |
| Videos    | My Video                               | %USERPROFILE%\Videos    |
| Documents | Personal                               | %USERPROFILE%\Documents |
+-----------+----------------------------------------+-------------------------+

However, I see "duplicate" entries with the registry key having some kind of alphanumeric value instead of a basic description like "Documents" or "My Pictures". Can I delete these? See photo.

Answer 1

OneDrive takes large liberties with your folders when Backup is specified (which is the default) for your folders of Documents, Images and Downloads.

It will move these folders into its own folder and will remap them so they appear to still be at their old placement, while actually not being there any longer.

The correct way of undoing these mappings is in the OneDrive client, click Settings under the Backup tab, click Manage Backup, and for these three folders to click "Stop backup". However, I understand that you have uninstalled OneDrive (?).

You're probably seeing in the registry this mapping, so be very careful, as removing it might cause problems.

I suggest to backup the folders, save and remove the mappings, then move the folders out of the OneDrive folder and back to their right place. Careful backups are suggested with this operation, so you don't lose the contents and permissions on the data.