Word Documents Will Now Be Saved To the Cloud Automatically On Windows (ghacks.net) 132
Starting with Word for Windows version 2509, Microsoft is making cloud saving the default behavior. New documents will automatically save to OneDrive (or another cloud destination), with dated filenames, unless users manually revert to local saving in the settings. From the report: "Anything new you create will be saved automatically to OneDrive or your preferred cloud destination", writes Raul Munoz, product manager at Microsoft on the Office Shared Services and Experiences team. Munoz backs up the decision with half a dozen advantages for saving documents to the cloud. From never losing progress and access anywhere to easy collaboration and increased security and compliance. While cloud saving is without doubt beneficial in some cases, Munoz fails to address the elephant in the room. Some users may not want that their documents are stored in the cloud. There are good reasons for that, including privacy.
Summed up:
- If you do not mind that Word documents are stored in the cloud, you do not need to become active.
- If you mind that Word documents are stored in the cloud by default, you need to modify the default setting.
Summed up:
- If you do not mind that Word documents are stored in the cloud, you do not need to become active.
- If you mind that Word documents are stored in the cloud by default, you need to modify the default setting.
Gotta train that AI somehow (Score:2, Insightful)
They really are insistent on this OneDrive stuff.
Re:Gotta train that AI somehow (Score:5, Informative)
They will default everything to the cloud such that after some time of use, it will tell you there's not enough space in the free version and you now should pay monthly. (Plus the free benefit of spying, of course.)
Re: Gotta train that AI somehow (Score:2)
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I think they're profitable enough. . .
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It's never "enough" for their shareholders. The only voices who count to Microsoft's C-suite.
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greed is insatiable
MS Mindcropper (Score:2)
Lawfirms, hospitals, public companies (Score:5, Insightful)
Are they going allow MS to pull in all these documents without signing ironclad NDAs?
And Microsoft is going spend all this money to store all these documents without charging more? Or do these documents have some non-obvious value?
If I have access to every document at every company... Hmmmm.
Re: Lawfirms, hospitals, public companies (Score:3)
Of course companies and organizations will be able to block this behavior when they run Windows Enterprise Edition.
Windows Professional is just Windows Prosumer now.
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If I have access to every document at every company... Hmmmm.
I think they already do, I mean companies that subscribe O365 already get cloud space and certainly tell their employees to use it, as it simplifies the life of the IT guy. Nothing to do about backups, and nothing to do when swapping an employee laptop.
Re:Lawfirms, hospitals, public companies (Score:4, Insightful)
"Or do these documents have some non-obvious value?"
They're AI fodder. LLM builders are getting desperate for new raw materials.
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They're AI fodder. LLM builders are getting desperate for new raw materials.
You wish it was that benign. This will be used to control which businesses succeed and which fail. The fact that none of the attorneys general have launched a lawsuit against this states that this is being condoned by the government.
And of course it is being condoned by the government. Some admin schlub somewhere probably was probably the progenitor of the idea.
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Organizations using Office 365 where there are regulatory or compliance concerns typically enter into a Business Associates Agreement (BAA) with Microsoft that covers their necessary compliances. For example, a BAA for hospitals would likely include: https://learn.microsoft.com/en... [microsoft.com]
This won't really change much. It's likely that some of these organizations are already using OneDrive folder backup, which syncs/backs up the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders to OneDrive (a sort of modern, light altern
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If any of these companies are running a personal Windows Home edition with a personal version of Office then they deserve every legal ramification they face.
Business / Enterprise users have had this feature already for years under different terms. - No NDA needed. In fact OneDrive for Business is HIPAA compliant.
And Microsoft is going spend all this money to store all these documents without charging more?
Nothing has changed with how Microsoft store files here. You have 5GB of free storage with Windows. Everything else requires a OneDrive subscription. In fact nothing at all has changed for end users
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With regard to healthcare, I know that Microsoft will enter into BAA agreements with customers who are covered by HIPAA privacy laws. By signing the BAA, Microsoft agrees to be bound by the terms of HIPAA privacy laws, and makes themselves liable in case of a breach.
I would imagine the company will enter into similar agreements for customers who are covered by NDAs, such as legal and public companies.
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It's adorable you seem to think the experience of home/prosumer users is that of enterprise deployments/users.
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It's adorable you seem to think the experience of home/prosumer users is that of enterprise deployments/users.
When my Enterprise version of W10 installed and rebooted at the worst possible time some years ago, I found out that no version of windows is safe from BOHICA.
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Frustrating for those who know directories (Score:5, Interesting)
For me having microsoft automatically store things where I don't want them to store it (and my current version of word at work won't let me change this), means that when I restart my work I have two copies of my work. The one I stored on MY machine and the one microsoft stored for me. More than once I've started using the wrong one and had to merge my work later.
What is worse though is what it has done to colaborative work. Where I workwe store stuff in 20 different places. Finding the information I need is a nightmare. Knowing what I need to know is even worse. Even if I find a document it likely isn't the latest version of anything. People resort to sharing files by attaching them to emails, or teams or
I really wish I was allowed to beat my coworkers until they grasp the concept of heirarchially organizing information.
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We've taken to just putting documents in slack channels at work, and its *terrible* and as much as I complain to the boss that slack is neither "documenting everything", nor is it a sane file storage system, he seems enamoured with the idea.
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Your post is non-sequitur. OneDrive 100% relies on directory structures. 100% of users which are saving files in the cloud here are doing it the same way you are, just that the destination root defaults to the "Cloud Storage" instead of "This PC" to borrow the direct nomenclature used here. Or in the work sense it's usually "OneDrive".
You gripe has nothing to do with the issue at hand.
means that when I restart my work I have two copies of my work
Your synchronisation settings are completely broken. I should make no difference which copy you edit. Whether I edit a word
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I'm not sure what exactly is causing your issues, but it's not this setting, and it's not OneDrive.
I use Word and OneDrive. It never makes two copies. Once I've saved a document on my computer, I can edit in the cloud, and the changes are synced to my hard drive. If I change it on my hard drive, it syncs automatically to OneDrive. This is true even when I have it open in word in both places at the same time, I can instantly see my changes made in either copy of Word, in the other copy of Word.
Your work's se
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Your work's setup does sound awful and dysfunctional. But that's not Microsoft's fault.
Nothing is ever Microsoft's fault.
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I used to have a programmer on my team who, whenever there was a bug in his code, he would quickly conclude that it was a Microsoft bug. Upon further investigation, it never actually was.
Sure, Microsoft code has bugs. But they do significant software and security testing. Usually, when something goes wrong, suggesting that it's a "Microsoft bug" is neither a productive response, nor is it usually accurate. Much more often, it's user error.
Laggy (Score:2)
Explain something to me. Like I'm an idiot. (Score:2)
How is storing in the cloud "improving" security? I keep getting this message from the big tech companies, but none of them have given me any form of an explanation how storing something in the cloud is *MORE* secure. How is shoveling my data out to someone else's server, who may or may not have decent security, more secure?
Yet another step down the "we own your data" path for Microsoft. What a load of garbage.
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It improves security against local hardware failure for people without redundant systems set up.
It degrades security in every other possible way.
Re: Explain something to me. Like I'm an idiot. (Score:3)
Re:Explain something to me. Like I'm an idiot. (Score:5, Informative)
>"vs...
- increases risk of disclosure in a cloud breach or phishing attack"
Really? That's all you could think of as the cons? How about:
- increases the risk of centralized backdoor access
- increases risk of data being used for AI training or other mining
- increases risk of being shut out of access to your data (due to licensing issues, payment, government order, whatever)
- increases risk of not being able access data due to an ISP or other network issue
- increases risk of not being able to access data due to an authentication issue
I am sure there is a lot more. I am not saying cloud storage is crap. It is an option that carries both positives and negatives and its utility greatly depends on the needs and perceptions of the organization and users. And its need also depends on what the user or organization is already doing (or not doing) for security, reliability, backups, etc.
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I can come up with all sorts of risks that ignore technical reality as well, but unfortunately they too wouldn't be valid. Especially none of your last three apply in any case here. Just because you save a file to OneDrive by default doesn't mean it isn't synced to your local computer, quite the opposite in fact. A cloud outage, network issue, or authentication issue has no effect on your data other than you loose the ability to access it remotely.
The default location for saving an Office file now is the sa
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>"Just because you save a file to OneDrive by default doesn't mean it isn't synced to your local computer"
1) The summary says nothing about it ALSO being saved to local
2) Neither does what I replied to
3) I have zero experience with OneDrive
So I replied with the assumption that saving "to the cloud" meant only that. Yes, if it is being saved in both places, that changes things.
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Stuff getting stored in servers of an AMERICAN company. The USA is not a trustworthy party atm.
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But if you squint the right way, it isn't quite a lie.
Textbook definitions of "security" in an IT context tend to emphasize integrity, confidentiality, and availability. I suspect if pressed they'd emphasize "availability" and maybe "integrity" - they hired some dude to swap backup tapes and replicate to distributed DCs, and the average Windows user does not.
Of course that comes at the cost of "confidentiality", which they'll downplay.
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How is storing in the cloud "improving" security?
Did we forget that ransomware is still a thing?
Granted, I'm not excusing what is clearly a user-hostile default setting on Microsoft's part, but their given justification does hold at least a little bit of water.
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Unless that cloud keeps immutable undeletable copies of old documents, all the malware needs to do is to trigger cloud sync.
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Errr that's precisely what it does. Windows Defender anti-ransomware features rely on OneDrive's versioning and temporary storage before file deletion. OneDrive stores files for 30 days even when modified or deleted.
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How is storing in the cloud "improving" security? I keep getting this message from the big tech companies, but none of them have given me any form of an explanation how storing something in the cloud is *MORE* secure.
It's more secure for THEM, because they automatically have your data and can make use of it as they wish. They don't care about YOUR security - they only care about appearing to care about it. And even that seems to be the case less and less as time goes by.
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In cloud storage services like OneDrive, all data is encrypted both in transit and at rest using 256-bit AES encryption. There is also extensive real-time security monitoring and threat detection in the cloud, which may not be present on your hard drive. Those are some specific ways the cloud can be more secure than local storage.
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"How is storing in the cloud "improving" security? "
It improves the security of Microsoft's dividends and stock price. Whose security did you think they were concerned about?
We are the msBorg .. (Score:2)
More fully summed up (Score:2)
- You need to stop using Word
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This isn't going to stop with Word. You need to stop using all Microsoft products. Windows users have been warned about this for decades, but they think they don't care. At least, that's the coping mechanism they use as an excuse.
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Getting off Office is a step in the right direction.
Always tell Word where you want to save (Score:2)
Unless I am working on a highly specific document, every time I save a Word document I tell it where I want to save it. Usually to my desktop.
However, I see tickets every week where someone says they can't find a document they saved or, more usually, the wording is, "I don't know where I saved it." Those are the ones who will be completely flumoxed over this change unless the admins override.
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"Usually to my desktop."
Oh my.
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"Usually to my desktop."
Oh my.
I used to walk into an office where someone was having an issue, and their desktop is completely covered with their work. You can get to the point where it's hard to find stuff when that happens. But I gave up telling them they need some organization.
Now, I sometimes save one copy to the proper folder, then a copy to the desktop if I'm sending an attachment. Then I nuc the desktop copy. Just easier. I do like a clean uncluttered desktop.
Bought a new Dell AMD notebook yesterday (Score:5, Informative)
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Actually that sounds like user error. I got my new PC, installed Office, let updates apply, and then disabled and uninstalled OneDrive. Nothing was lost, nothing needed to be done in a registry. All my files are local.
Worse you don't actually even need to uninstall OneDrive, just disable it on startup and it literally stops doing anything on your PC. I swear these days the term "Power User" means "Do things in the most complicated and difficult way".
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Why wouldn't you just turn OneDrive off? I mean, I get it, stubborn master of your computer stuff, but honestly, you're just making shit difficult for yourself. Just turn it off.
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Why wouldn't you just turn OneDrive off? I mean, I get it, stubborn master of your computer stuff, but honestly, you're just making shit difficult for yourself. Just turn it off.
I don't know how it is an imposition to remove OneDrive. On Windows you go to programs and features and uninstall it, On the Mac you drag the OneDrive icon to the trash.
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Besides, it's actually a good service.
What kind of cloud? (Score:2)
The big puffy summer day ones or the big thunderstorm kind?
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The kind someone sprays in your face a moment before you wake up in a bathtub full of ice in a hotel.
Security disaster coming in 3...2... (Score:3)
With this move, Microsoft is about to make their cloud one of the most valuable targets in the world. A billion people are going to start saving documents (and drafts of documents) in it, most of them without even realizing it or knowing how to turn it off. It's about to become the motherlode of data and metadata (about people, systems, software, locations, etc.) and everyone knows it. There's no way that Microsoft can defend this. None. There's no way that anyone short of a national intelligence agency could defend this, and I have my doubts about that.
If that seems like hyperbole, then consider: how much would Putin spend to get his hands on this? A billion? In a heartbeat - it'd be a bargain. Or the Chinese. Or the Iranians. Or the Saudis. Or the Mexican drug cartels. Or the....
It's not a question of if this will be hacked, only when and how and by whom and how long Microsoft will try to hide it.
Note: if I were the attacker, I'd get in now. That is, I'd either get my people hired into roles in this operation or I'd bribe/extort the people who are already there. After all: you don't have to break in if you're already inside.
Your data belong to Microsoft (Score:3)
It's a Date (Score:4, Interesting)
with dated filenames
We're talking about the date format where it automatically sorts by name, right? i.e. 2025_08_28, and not something silly like 2025_28_08 or 08_28_2025.
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Article misses something simple. (Score:2)
The only thing that's changed here is a default storage location. The default storage location for Word has for nearly a decade now been a folder that is already cloud synced "Documents". If you don't want your files in the cloud you already either disabled OneDrive (in which case this change does nothing since it can't default to OneDrive if OneDrive is not available), or already changed default settings on your PC or manually choose your save location (in which case this change is nothing new for you).
Thi
One more reason to leave Windows for Linux (Score:3)
Microsoft is snooping and prying into everything you do. And now they plan to take copies of everything you write and store them on their servers. They already are recording every keystroke you make on Windows 11. We don't need to put up with this, people! Escape while you are still able to do so.
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Microsoft only stores copies of your documents on its servers, if you explicitly create a OneDrive account and set up your computer to sync there. If you don't do that, this feature referenced by the article, does nothing.
If you see this as "one more reason" then I'd suggest that you already had enough reasons before this. This doesn't really add anything new, except for those who *choose* Microsoft cloud backup.
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If this is a "reason" to leave then it shows you have no idea what is happening or what this does. Hint: There is no change to the user in the slightest, not in snooping or prying, not in taking copies and storing on their servers, etc.
We don't need to put up with this, people! Escape while you are still able to do so.
Why? No seriously why. Picture me as a user who doesn't care or understand about privacy and tell me the impact to me. The personal impact. Assume I am a normal user who doesn't give a shit about privacy in general. How will Microsoft directly make *my* life worse?
This is the
All your documents are belong to us (Score:2)
Enjoy having Microsoft use your documents to train their AI.
Eventually someone will craft documents that would poison AI training and share it to everyone to save in their OneDrive. One can hope.
That's nothing (Score:2)
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Google doesn't have an offline editor. It actually makes perfect sense. For an online cloud based tool to only save online to the cloud.
No Cloud Account, Local Only (Score:2)
Use a local account, no cloud to be found that way...
Re: No Cloud Account, Local Only (Score:2)
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nope (Score:2)
It can save to cloud only if you have a cloud account configured on your computer.
As an IT expert I am .... (Score:2)
... and always have been completely bedazzled on why MS Word even has a business case. How this piece of software could gain the market let alone survive to this very day is a mystery to me.
Of course it stops being that one I encounter regular users, but objectively there is no real reason for MS Word to even exist beyond some fringe niche scenarios.
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... and always have been completely bedazzled on why MS Word even has a business case. How this piece of software could gain the market let alone survive to this very day is a mystery to me.
Because Corel doesn't aggressively market the fact that WordPerfect 1.) still exists, 2.) is less expensive, 3.) is much faster and more stable, because 4.) it's not sold as SaaS, and 5.) it can open and save Word documents natively.
Unfortunately, even if they did, there are too few people who perceive WordPerfect as a "big name" anymore; nobody wants to be the first to shift away from Office or Google Docs and be the office that everyone hates sharing documents with, so it's a classic case of "everyone use
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Copyright (Score:2)
Re: Copyright (Score:2)
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Grave digging (Score:2)
Microsoft are digging their own grave at this point.
There are some documents I don't want on the Cloud (Score:2)
"increased security and compliance" (Score:2)
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Probably have to buy the "Enterprise Gold-Pro++ VIP Edition" to have it disabled.
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It only does this if you're using OneDrive. Before this change, you had to save a new document to a OneDrive folder, before it would start auto-saving to the cloud.
If you don't want this, don't use OneDrive.
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Agreed. Some things to consider.
1. Don't use a Microsoft account for login to your PC. If you did use a Microsoft account, change your logon back to a local account. CyberCPU Tech [youtube.com]
2. Check if your harddrive is encrypted with BitLocker. For a home desktop machine, I see no advantage and I would turn off BitLocker and decrypt the drive. For a laptop, you can decide if having your drive encrypted is needed. I recently purchased two HP laptops with Win11 home and BOTH of them had BitLocker enabled by de
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Your post is confusing. You seem to be worried about security, and yet several of your suggestions decrease security.
Turning off Bitlocker decreases security. Maybe it doesn't have a huge impact on your home computer, but there's no arguing that turning it off somehow increases security.
Ironically, using a local account is less secure than using a Microsoft account for login. This is because, using a local account, your computer can be compromised without knowing any passwords at all. Just enable the built-
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It's pretty easy to disable. You just need to install LibreOffice.
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Re:Can't use this due to confidentiality issues (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah.. there probably is a way to modifiy this bullshit behavior, BUT once modifed, I almost GUARANTEE you that the next major windows/msoffice "update" will turn this shit back on again.. The ONLY way to win with Windows is TO NOT USE WINDOWS or ANY MS product...
Re:Can't use this due to confidentiality issues (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Can't use this due to confidentiality issues (Score:4, Insightful)
Step 1: Download LibreOffice
I've done that long ago. Turns out it is abetterproduct. Cross platform compatibility LO Works on Widows MacOS, and Linux.
Opens files that Office won't.
Doesn't require you to opt-out of the cloud.
And turns out you can delete OneDrive https://support.microsoft.com/... [microsoft.com] although not for W7 or 8.1.
The funny part is you have to do a bit of a tap-dance to remove it on Windows. On MacOS, you just drag the app icon to the trash.
Re: Can't use this due to confidentiality issues (Score:2)
It's better ... until you need to open a M$ Word document your customer has prepared for you. Then you have a WTF moment when all the text is scrambled...
NB: PowerPoint slides are even worse.
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It's better ... until you need to open a M$ Word document your customer has prepared for you. Then you have a WTF moment when all the text is scrambled...
NB: PowerPoint slides are even worse.
Interesting! About half the people I exchange documents with use Microsoft Office apps, and we have no problem at all. And they have no issues with my LO generated documents spreadsheets and ODP's work well. The only thing I have to do is change my documents to a format that the format challenged can use. And I can read their stuff no matter their format.
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Oh? Do tell. .doc or .docx been a problem to anyone using Word.
I never had any trouble with resumes being slurped up by corporate software, nor has anything else I've written in LibreOffice and saved as
And, as a writer, my manuscripts are read just fine by editors, and I've had no trouble dealing with copy-edited galleis sent me to proofread.
Odd that you're having issues.
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Re:Can't use this due to confidentiality issues (Score:5, Informative)
I start by using an autounattend.xml that explicitly creates a local-only account and uses relevant ADMX files to set group policies to prevent using Onedrive as a default save location. I run a script on first user login that enables GPOs for Windows Home SKUs if necessary. My default Windows install does not install OneDrive, Recall, Copilot or Outlook by default, although each product can be installed and used by positive user action if they so desire. I also disable automatic Bitlocker encryption on primary drives in Windows 11, which is another massive headache for systems that aren't going on a domain. I know they mean well but it just makes life harder for no good reason. People don't even know what their microsoft account is and then they rapidly become confused about the difference between the account password and the PIN they set up and it's just awful all around. Just fucking say no.
OneDrive / Microsoft 365 is absolutely invasive and if you don't buy the value add of Office in the first place, Onedrive just brings nothing to the table. I have yet to see the combination of misfortunes that would make Onedrive valuable but I've definitely run across people locked out of their own files because they can't get back to a particular wifi network and told microsoft their phone number was an un-textable land line.
Re:Can't use this due to confidentiality issues (Score:5, Insightful)
Now picture an average non-technical user - who simply needs to not have all his or her shit pwned by Microsoft - doing everything you described. Can't imagine that? Thought so.
I know they mean well ...
You really believe that? Of Microsoft? Might I interest you in purchasing a gently-used bridge in a major metropolitan area? It's a great opportunity, I swear!
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I'm perfectly willing to do it for others, whether they know how to or not. Someone reading Slashdot comments PROBABLY has the know how to implement the fixes I suggest as well, even if they'd rather just hang out and troll.
Microsoft wants to idiot-proof their OS, but I've run across absolutely tragedies that wouldn't have happened if a user had just not switched to Windows 11, like a retired college professor who can no longer access his life's work because it's on an encrypted PC where he no longer has ac
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I would like to apologize Microsoft in the name of all 99.99% of ignorant Windows users who did not hear about autounattend.xml, the slashdot users who hang out and troll here and the professor who received a "feature" he didn't asked for.
And we're all thankful Microsoft takes all the necessary precautions to make Windows idiot-proof and it transforms the OS in a spying tool to make sure we're all safe.
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Now picture an average non-technical user - who simply needs to not have all his or her shit pwned by Microsoft
I'm picturing non-technical users and all I'm getting is a bunch of people who don't care. This scenario seems to nearly always be made up by some technical person who is imaging a fictional user that largely doesn't exist.
The funny part about technical people is they come up with insanely technical solutions while missing the obvious: Anyone who cares will simply disable OneDrive with a few simple clicks and move on with their life.
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Now picture an average non-technical user - who simply needs to not have all his or her shit pwned by Microsoft
I'm picturing non-technical users and all I'm getting is a bunch of people who don't care. This scenario seems to nearly always be made up by some technical person who is imaging a fictional user that largely doesn't exist.
The funny part about technical people is they come up with insanely technical solutions while missing the obvious: Anyone who cares will simply disable OneDrive with a few simple clicks and move on with their life.
Well, we can't do much for non-techies who don't care.
But you are correct. It isn't as simple as on the Mac, where you just drag the icon to the trash. But not terribly difficult in Windows, go to programs and features, select OneDrive, and click uninstall. Windows probably reinstalls it at some point, so you need to stay vigilant.
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Now picture an average non-technical user - who simply needs to not have all his or her shit pwned by Microsoft - doing everything you described. Can't imagine that? Thought so.
Although on MacOS, you drag the app icon to the trash and empty it.
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Let their files sync. Then they won't have to worry about losing your baby pics when their computer dies.