Microsoft enrages users as it demands an explanation for quitting OneDrive
Pexels, The VergeWindows 11 users have expressed outrage at a new requirement to fill in a survey every time you quit OneDrive.
Microsoft really wants users to embrace OneDrive, having the program take over the functions of the Documents and Pictures libraries in Windows 11 by default. The explanation is that this lets users sync to cloud storage and therefore never lose access to their files.
In addition, Microsoft regularly pesters users who haven’t set up OneDrive on their accounts. This prompt appears regularly after an update, and can even show up if all you want to do is change your desktop wallpaper.
Pop-up dialogue box on exiting OneDrive
Now, OneDrive goes a step further, as a new feature is annoying users with a pop-up dialogue box that contains a survey. It prompts users to enter a reason why they want to close OneDrive from the taskbar. The reasons that users can choose from are as follows:
- I don’t want OneDrive running all the time
- I don’t know what OneDrive is
- I don’t use OneDrive
- I’m trying to fix a problem with OneDrive
- I’m trying to speed up my computer
- I get too many notifications
- Other
Note there isn’t an option for ‘none of your business’, unless ‘other’ counts here. What makes it worse is that the option to quit is greyed out unless you select one of the presented options. This is after you have managed to find the option to quit, hidden away under the ‘pause syncing’ option in the right-click menu.
This nagging, potentially anti-consumer behavior from Microsoft has angered many users, who have taken to social media to express their discontent. One user on Twitter/X called Narancia Gaming posted: “Microsoft when someone tries to close out of OneDrive:”
This was followed by a clip from Breaking Bad containing the quote “Explain yourself.”
The Twitter account called VX-Underground pointed out that killing the OneDrive process via the task manager didn’t trigger the survey. The controversy even spread to Mastodon, with the user Mr. Pommer, referring to the survey pop-up as “New frontiers of ensh*ttification” about a term coined by Cory Doctorow.
This isn’t the first time Microsoft has done this, The Verge identified, that Microsoft has previously pushed a poll at users who downloaded Google Chrome, asking why they weren’t using the Edge browser. Let’s hope this kind of behavior doesn’t go any further.
