Help! I am very new to Windows 10. If files under "This PC" are just shadows of those under my name in "users" (and I am the only user), why are files with the same name different in content? Shouldn't using a document in This PC automatically change the one under Users?
'This PC' gives a hierarchial view of the drives in your machine and is basically the shortcut formerly known as 'My Computer'
Library folders (from the currently logged in User Account) also appear.
Hence, the drill down C:\Users\%CurrentUser%\Documents is the path to 'Documents' you see in 'This PC' by default on a local account.
If, during Windows setup or OOBE you signed in and chose One Drive as your default Document location, then the objects in 'Documents' will be the One Drive 'Documents' that is synced to your Microsoft Account (which creates a User account based on characters from your email OR uses the previously named User account folder if it was converted to a Microsoft Account). Finally, simply changing the setting in One Drive for the Documents folder would also change the files displayed.
In the above instance 'Documents' from 'This PC' would differ from C:\Users\%CurrentUser%\Documents because you would be viewing C:\Users\%CurrentUser%\OneDrive\Documents
Thanks for the info. This helps alot!
Another questions....do I really need OneDrive? I know it comes with Windows 10 but I don't use other computers and I understand it is best used between devices. What is the harm of having nothing there?
No harm, it's just cloud storage (with all the usual caveats). It does 'automagically' become available if you set up the other devices with the same login, it's basically akin to a roaming profile on a properly structured domain. Desktop and browser favourites are synced as well as email (if you use Outlook.com as your MS Account address).
So apart from the the desktop themes there's not an awful lot different to using Chrome Sync and Google Drive, etc.
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