OneDrive lets you back up and sync your folders and files in the cloud, then share them with friends, family, and colleagues.
You can house your files in the cloud via a variety of online storage sites—including Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and iCloud—but only Microsoft OneDrive is built directly into Windows. With OneDrive, you can store documents, photos, and other files online, sync them across multiple devices, and share them with others. Here’s how to set up OneDrive and get all your files online.Sign Up For an Account
To use OneDrive, you’ll first need a Microsoft Account—not a local account. You can sign up for one through the Microsoft account website. The free base plan gives you 5GB of storage space, so you’ll need to sign up for a paid Microsoft 365 plan if you need more. You can get 100GB for $19.99 per year, 1TB for $99.99 per year, or 1TB for up to six users for $129.99 per year. These subscriptions offer other perks such as Microsoft Office and the Copilot AI.Set Up OneDrive
OneDrive is automatically available and ready to use in both Windows 10 and 11 and works the same in both versions. In fact, when you go through the Windows setup process, you’re asked if you want to use OneDrive. If you missed that opportunity, you should still see a OneDrive icon in the System Tray. Click the icon to access the service.
If the icon doesn’t appear, you’ll need to trigger it manually from a .exe file. To do this, open File Explorer and click View > Hidden items. Drill down to the following location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft OneDrive\. In that folder, double-click the OneDrive.exe file, and the icon should appear in the System Tray.
If you haven’t yet set up your account, you’ll be prompted to sign into OneDrive. Click the Sign in button, then enter your Microsoft account email address and password. A window for Your OneDrive folder points to the default location for your local OneDrive folder. Click Change location to pick another destination or click Next.
The necessary folder will then be created if it doesn’t exist. If it does exist, click the Use this folder button. Review the subsequent screens to complete the initial setup. At the end, you may be prompted to open your OneDrive folder, which you can do if you wish.Add Folders and Files to OneDrive
Your next task is to select the folders and files you wish to add to your OneDrive location in File Explorer. For example, if you use a folder called Word Documents for your Microsoft Word files, move that entire folder into OneDrive (so that typically would be C:\Users\[username]\OneDrive\Word Documents). You can also create new folders that you want to sync in OneDrive.
You then need to set up the folders you want to back up and sync to OneDrive.
