In a move that could redefine how millions work, Microsoft is steering Word users toward the cloud, sparking debates over convenience, control, and the future of local storage.
Microsoft Word logo in Windows 11 Search. Word and OneDrive just got a lot closer. (Image credit: Windows Central) Microsoft held a special OneDrive and Copilot event today where it announced a number of new features for the cloud-storage service. Buried in the announcements is one change that Microsoft is soon making to Word that might ruffle some feathers among those who are still pushing back against OneDrive and the cloud.
"Starting today, new documents in Word desktop on Windows (Insiders) now save directly to OneDrive, with autosave enabled," says Microsoft. This means that creating new documents in Word in the future will automatically save said documents to your OneDrive storage, with autosave enabled from the get-go.
The change is designed to make it easier for users to back up and access their documents across devices, but some might find Word attempting to automatically upload documents to the cloud by default to be a privacy concern. Many will likely not even notice that Word's behavior has changed, as the entire saving and backup process is automatic.
61 Comments
MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca · 111 pts · 328d
That’s clearly for Copilot to scan all your documents for "indexing" without your consent
socialsecurity@piefed.social · 21 pts · 328d
Is it even possible for regular person to get a an enterprise license of windows?
Seems like of this is intentional to funnel people into OS that spies and steals.
MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca · 31 pts · 328d
Try Linux and LibreOffice.
mesamunefire@piefed.social · 12 pts · 328d
Daily driver for the last 10+ years!
oftheair@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 328d
and Collabora Office on mobile devices!
socialsecurity@piefed.social · 6 pts · 328d
On it
kaidenshi@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 328d
I've heard that there is a mass grave one can visit where you can find information about obtaining and activating enterprise versions.
fullsquare@awful.systems · 3 pts · 328d
there is an ancient spell that will help you:
india romeo mike space hotel tango tango papa sierra colon slash slash golf echo tango dot alpha charlie tango india victor alpha tango echo delta dot whisky india november space pipe space india echo xray
kazerniel@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 327d
check out massgrave.dev
socialsecurity@piefed.social · 2 pts · 327d
Ohh wow... Looks very interesting. Thank you
Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org · 2 pts · 328d
Goto ebay (cover your mouth and nose)
socialsecurity@piefed.social · 1 pts · 328d
Is this actually a valid strategy?
Pistcow@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 328d
Its implied consent just like when a woman looks at you, duh.
teft@piefed.social · 96 pts · 328d
Bullshit. The change is so microsoft can mine more data to feed openai.
Wooki@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 327d
Time to start saving ai poisoning documents
TDCN@feddit.dk · 6 pts · 328d
Jokes on them, I use AI for all my text writing anyway.
Taldan@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 327d
I feel like it's more direct than that. They want more OneDrive subscriptions. Cloud storage is absurdly profitable
themeatbridge@lemmy.world · 49 pts · 328d
Yet another reason to use alternatives to Microsoft.
starlinguk@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 327d
Tell that to people who have to use certain software that only works with Office for work.
Even more fun in my case: for security reasons I am not allowed to save my work in any cloud.
betanumerus@lemmy.ca · 36 pts · 328d
kadu@scribe.disroot.org · 7 pts · 327d
The current admin? Were you asleep during the Snowden scandal? PRISM? Four Eyes? The US, and services that store data in the US, are never trust worthy and are always stealing your data regardless of who is the clown in power at a given year.
betanumerus@lemmy.ca · -2 pts · 327d
Tweak@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 327d
It really is.
There are laws against going into someone's garden and picking their fruit, because fruit is valuable produce. This is slightly different, they invite you into their website, then they steal your valuable data for their commercial purposes without paying you for it.
dalekcaan@feddit.nl · 26 pts · 328d
Oh no! Guess I better continue to use Libre Office instead.
oftheair@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 328d
And Collabora Office on mobile devices :)
jstin86457@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 328d
It seems like every new day has a new reason to remind me why I'm glad I ditched Microsoft.
Rhaedas@fedia.io · 15 pts · 328d
They did this already with Excel, and broke a lot of macros. Also changed how it could use IE for automation, and of course there's no way to convert it to Edge. If Microsoft didn't have 99% of the business world already tied up in their stuff they'd go out of business soon for the stupid things they break of their own products.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 15 pts · 328d
Although it took me forever to switch to linux I switch to libreoffice in the early twenty teens I think. Once you could export to pdf it became the better way.
Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org · 14 pts · 328d
Does not change my opinion :-)
This company is becoming more and more toxic, and everybody should abandon their stuff ASAP!
Dogiedog64@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 328d
Thanks, I hate it.
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 11 pts · 327d
Squizzy@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 325d
I switched too but I would be lying if I said it is easy. The muscle memory and expectations are there for office, I hate them but it is hard for people to leave them.
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 325d
RFKJrsBrainworm@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 328d
Microsoft is steering customers to Linux
NoodlePoint@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 327d
Meh. That's why LibreOffice exists.
Buffalox@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 328d
Congratulations, you've just won the play stupid games and win stupid prices game.
No reason to complain, your documents can now be handed over to the authorities quickly and efficiently without any inconvenience to you, and we will also use them to train AI.
In the near future:
You can now open all your documents from OneDrive for the low price of 10 cent per document per time you open it. Also you don't have to worry about where to store anymore, it's all completely locked in to Microsoft formats, so you can't really move it to another platform anyway.
bufalo1973@piefed.social · 7 pts · 327d
"All your files are belong to us"
fubarx@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 328d
I was trying to create an Excel pie chart based on a downloaded CSV file. No big, but something I might only need once a year. Couldn't remember the PivotTable params. Search in help. It offers to do it for me. Sure, I think, not realizing it would try to turn on CoPilot, then try to upload the file to their cloud for analysis, then save it to OneDrive cloud.
The only thing that stopped it was that by default the 'auto-save' toggle wasn't on. So it stopped and complained. Killed it and started over, making sure everything was local. Ugh.
CottonMcKnight@midwest.social · 6 pts · 328d
Nice try M$, I completely removed OneDrive from all of my Win11 installs. It still tries to get me to save to the folder that once upon a time was OneDrive by default. Auto save off, and save as on every save and select the folder on my file server.
Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org · 5 pts · 328d
Kindly asking for a tutorial.
kadu@scribe.disroot.org · 1 pts · 327d
The easiest way is firing up Chris Titus' script on the Terminal, going to Tweaks and selecting the OneDrive removal script. I don't endorse Chris Titus' content... but the script does work well as an aggregator for a bunch of other scripts that you'd have a hard time finding or running yourself.
CottonMcKnight@midwest.social · 1 pts · 319d
Well here we are 9 days later, my bad.
Didn't want to write it out, so here is a LLM writing it more succinctly than myself:
Windows 10 Option 1: Using Settings
Press Windows + I to open Settings.
Click Apps.
Under Apps & features, scroll through the list or use the search box to find the program you want to remove.
Click the program, then click Uninstall.
Follow the prompts from the program’s uninstaller to complete the removal.
Option 2: Using Control Panel
Press Windows + R, type control, and press Enter to open Control Panel.
Click Programs → Programs and Features.
Scroll through the list to find the program you want to remove.
Right-click the program and select Uninstall.
Follow the uninstallation wizard to complete the process.
Windows 11 Option 1: Using Settings
Press Windows + I to open Settings.
Click Apps from the left-hand menu.
Click Installed apps.
Scroll or search for the program you want to remove.
Click the three-dot menu (⋮) next to the app and select Uninstall.
Confirm by clicking Uninstall again and follow the program’s uninstaller prompts.
Option 2: Using Control Panel (same as Windows 10)
Press Windows + R, type control, and press Enter.
Click Programs → Programs and Features.
Select the program you want to uninstall.
Click Uninstall and follow the prompts.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 327d
Before I got really into FOSS, there was a glitch at my college which revoked my Office365 licence. I switched to LibreOffice and never looked back, even when the glitch was patched.
starlinguk@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 327d
But they've been doing that for ages. I had to change it more than a year ago.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 326d
Yeah, WTF, this guy just used his computer for the first time in 2 years?
Taldan@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 327d
OneNote stopped working for me because of some OneDrive connectivity issue. It wouldn't give me the option to just save locally
Rather than fight with it, I just stopped using it. There are other note taking programs
It's no a privacy issue to me, it's usability. My harddrive is always there and connected. The internet and OneDrive are not. More than anything else, availability is the #1 thing I need with basic office applications
Moodel@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 325d
I've spent the last year or so migrating small businesses to Linux.
Thus far none of them want to go back and this announcement is just another reason for people to move away from them.
southernbrewer@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 326d
Isn't onedrive a paid feature? What if you don't pay for it?
Chip_Rat@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 326d
If it's like Google, they give you a seemingly generous amount of storage for free. Then they causally switch where you are saving everything to their cloud (one drive, Google drive) and then, if they have done their math right, a few years later you start getting polite prompts to upgrade your storage so you don't lose all your stuff. Usually by then you are invested enough that spending the time pulling everything back from there and storing it locally seems hardly worth the effort when it only costs $3 a month or whatever to quadruple your storage and kick the can down the road.
Rince and repeat
pirateKaiser@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 326d
Apple does the same with icloud storage-many apps use the space to back up their data.
Google does the same with gmail and Google drive- your emails fill the space in your cloud.
If anything, MS are behind on this particular enshittification
Xanthrax@lemmy.world · -8 pts · 328d
Who the fuck uses word except children?
flandish@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 328d
a metric shit ton of businesses.
Xanthrax@lemmy.world · -4 pts · 328d
Like small ones? I've worked for a few corporations, and the only Microsoft products we used (other than the OS) were Outlook and Excel. We were specifically told DO NOT OPEN WORD DOCUMENTS. Maybe that's just me.
SpicyLengthiness@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 328d
Lol what. Every person I know that works in a corporate environment uses Microsoft's entire suite. Never heard of anything else. I don't like it either, but every corporation does it.
Xanthrax@lemmy.world · -8 pts · 328d
What the fuck corporations are you working for? I worked for Petco, Geico, and Spectrum (I'm sorry, I know their services suck). We were taught and TOLD not to do that. We were told IF YOU OPEN A MICROSOFT OFFICE DOCUMENT, IT'S A PHISHING EMAIL AND IT'S GOING TO RUN A MACRO.
Dog, I'm honestly getting pissed off.
SpicyLengthiness@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 327d
Hey everyone! This guy's getting pissed off about being wrong. See? No one cares.
Xanthrax@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 327d
Who are you?
kadu@scribe.disroot.org · 2 pts · 327d
How would that logic make any sense? If you're worried about macros as a vector for attack when opening Microsoft Word files... why would you accept Excel files, that can also contain macros?
flandish@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 328d
i work for a large corp and ms products are forced on us. :/
Xanthrax@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 328d
Damn, same, but not word
9point6@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 328d
I'd bet the majority of office jobs?
BCsven@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 328d
Lol. I had this conversation with a coworker. We were tasked with building product documentation and user guide. I suggested we use LaTeX or typst so it looks professional, and follows proper formatting. They want to use word. Word always looks like janky shit, and edits are a disaster even if you follow best-practises
HK65@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 328d
A recruiter just asked me to give them my CV in Word because their ATS couldn't hack my PDF resume.
protist@mander.xyz · 4 pts · 328d
People whose employers retain a Microsoft contract
jqubed@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 328d
Nowadays it seems like the children are mostly using Google Docs thanks to their time on Chromebooks in school.