Why does Microsoft OneDrive run on my Windows 10 PC, when I do not have a OneDrive account?

Question

I've never in my life used OneDrive (so I've never even logged in there) - and as I was trying to close all programs on a Windows 10 PC, to ensure I have a sort of a clean slate, and expecting CPU usage would drop - I was quite surprised to see it eating some 18-20% CPU for quite a long time; here's how task manager looks like (not sure why is it 32-bit on a 64-bit machine):

I'm aware it can be turned off: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/turn-off-disable-or-uninstall-onedrive-f32a17ce-3336-40fe-9c38-6efb09f944b0

I mean, if I had a OneDrive account, I would not have been surprised to see it running in the background - but given I've never logged in there, nor do I want to backup files on the cloud from this machine - what could it possibly be doing? Does this program have other legitimate uses, than syncing files to the cloud for those that want it?

Answer 1

Go to Windows 10 Settings, Apps, scroll down to Microsoft One Drive and uninstall it. That will work.

One Drive is part of both Windows 10 and Office subscription which is why it is there. You can also just ignore it as it does no harm if not used.

Answer 2

For stop and remove OneDrive:

• Obs.: Run as admin...

rem :: in command line ::

"%__APPDIR__%taskkill.exe" /f /im OneDrive.exe 
for %i in (System32,SysWOW64)do if exist "%SystemRoot%\%~i\OneDriveSetup.exe" "%SystemRoot%\%~i\OneDriveSetup.exe" /uninstall
"%__APPDIR__%reg.exe" add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\OneDrive /v DisableFileSyncNGSC /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f


rem :: in cmd/bat file ::

@echo off 

"%__APPDIR__%taskkill.exe" /f /im OneDrive.exe 
for %%i in (System32,SysWOW64)do if exist "%SystemRoot%\%%~i\OneDriveSetup.exe" "%SystemRoot%\%%~i\OneDriveSetup.exe" /uninstall
"%__APPDIR__%reg.exe" add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\OneDrive /v DisableFileSyncNGSC /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

For only disable OneDrive file sync...

"%__APPDIR__%reg.exe" add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\OneDrive /v DisableFileSyncNGSC /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

• After reboot, you can also delete OneDrive...

• Sources