Mildly Infuriating @lemmy.world sgibson5150 @slrpnk.net 7mo ago

Microsoft extolling the benefits of cloud storage in their Office save dialog

"If you don't save your data to someone else's computer then we can't monetize it."

I know they're not explicitly selling SkyDrive or OneDrive or whatever it's called now, but they kinda are.

What's funny is, this file is stored in an encrypted container that does live in the cloud. 😄

Edit: Thanks to user @NoneYa@lemm.ee I now know about F12 in Office applications to bring up the "classic" Save As... dialog. Today I learned!

26 comments

I only use Windows in corporate settings and OneDrive / file management has been the single biggest pain point for me, by far.

Deleted files magically reappearing

Files not showing up after saving

Confusing save location of files

Confusing navigation in the file manger

Windows tries to copy Apple and fails miserably.
- And it creating a whole other OneDrive folder in your user directory and moving your documents and desktop folder there... It's so annoying
- Sounds like your IT team messed up the setup. In their defense, Microsoft doesn't make it easy to set it up well.
  
  A "good" setup hides all this shit from the end user. All your "library" folders (Documents, Desktop, Pictures, etc) can be invisibly made into OneDrive folders. Still save your shit where you normally do, navigate in the file manager like you normally do, no lag for changes you do locally to show locally, minor lag (like 1-2 minutes) for changes to propagate to OneDrive itself (and other machines you are currently logged into). Just now everything is backed up to the cloud.
- Indeed, that’s exactly what it is. And godawful too.
- I have managed to convince IT that Linux is essential for my line of work. My work goes smoothly while I watch my Windows colleagues raise the most absurd tickets for their problems.
  
  "Yeah, it's a known issue. This needs access to Microsoft servers but our firewall won't allow it. You need to connect to a hotspot to resolve this."
  
  "You need to install a package for LaTeX for a different font? Better raise an RFC and get it approved by your supervisor"
  
  "md5sum? Never heard of it. Please justify the business requirement for this tool"
  
  Meanwhile Linux go brrr
- Right. I save things in the shared folder but I don’t see them when working from home.
- I've had exactly the same experience. Let me addd one more: when OneDrive decides to back up open files, they ate regularly deleted both from local and cloud. Those are the files I tend to use the most, and I grew so frustrated that I ended recreating my Documents folder steucture in my Downloads folder, which doesn't get synced. (IT is useless; when I complained abou that, they told me that One Drive was a third-party application, and they didn't support those. )
Permanently Deleted
- Holy cow. Thank you! Didn't know that was there. ❤️
  
  Permanently Deleted
- Years ago we learned useful Microsoft keyboard shortcuts to save time, and passed those around the school yard.
  
  Now we’re learningMicrosoft advertisement/predatory privacy-invasive bypass shortcuts and passing it around the school yard.
- I feel like I’m using save locations more than I should be because MacOS has tagging. Just haven’t taken the time to research how useful tags are and, if people like them, the time to get used to it as part of my workflow.
- Classic Save As LOL. Condolences to everyone who has to deal with this shit.
Microsoft needs to go back from "This Computer" to "My Computer".

When they renamed that OS staple, it really highlighted how they see the device you paid for as theirs.
- I still hate "My Computer" just as much as I did when I first encountered it.
  
  Nothing was wrong with good ol' C:\
  
  / has never let me down.
Remember the good old days where doing a Save-As immediately brought up the file explorer dialog?
- It still does, provided you use the "Save as" keyboard shortcut (F12). No such way, however, to prevent Outlook's OneDrive shilling whenever you attach an Office file.
It is BEYOND time to switch to Linux
- Can you have a word with my boss as we use windows, teams, outlook, copilot, azure, visual studio professional, c# .net.
  
  We do support Facebook too and use Typescript react. Not sure who runs GraphQL maybe hitler.
  
  Yeah fair enough, same shit where I work too. It’s a little crazy how protective they are of their proprietary secrets, but they just straight up rely on microsoft to handle all the data, be it via email, cloud services, or that Sharepoint shit. I wonder how many companies would have their secrets exposed if that data was ever stolen from the MS servers?
- Yep, just gotta get off my lazy butt and do it.
“It’d be a real shame if something happened to your work file. If you pay us monthly, we can make sure your work is protected”
i mean this isn't really infuriating considering a lot of people have lost documents by not backing them up
- I hear you, though I think this is less about education and more about getting folks to fork over $9.99 a month. Like so many others, I've a long frustrating relationship with Microsoft. They're literally the largest company in world atm and they just keep laying off people. I don't hate them quite as much as EA or Comcast, but it's getting pretty close.

26 comments