New OneDrive behavior after Personal Vault Setup

Farvatten · 27 Sep 2019

As of Sept 18th there's been a new method of desktop OneDrive installation for all users:

“OneDriveSetup.exe /allusers”

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/one...e-installation

"By default, the OneDrive sync app installs per user, meaning OneDrive.exe needs to be installed for each user account on the PC under the %localappdata% folder.

With the new per-machine installation option, you can install OneDrive under the “Program Files (x86)” directory, meaning all profiles on the computer will use the same OneDrive.exe binary. Other than where the sync app is installed, the behavior is the same."

However, I'm now seeing evidence that my OneDrive install switched yesterday to this new "/alluser" option after I enabled the 'Personal Vault' feature found in these posts:

Personal Vault and More details about OneDrive Personal Vault

I only noticed this after opening my OneDrive, which I keep off until I want to sync, where I was then prompted about this new OneDrive feature called 'Personal Vault'. Clicking on [Next], I successfully implementing it with the Windows Authorization Android app, but also noticed it started doing an install of what appeared to be a new version of OneDrive. I have but one user account on both my platforms.

Afterwards I found the OneDrive.exe program that had been under:

C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\OneDrive.exe

...had been removed and installed in a newly created folder 'Microsoft OneDrive' under Program Files (x86)

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft OneDrive\OneDrive.exe

I only found this out when my pinned task bar icon became obsolete because it pointed to the %localappdata% .

And later, a subsequent SFC /SCANNOW found and repaired corruption in the Start Menu OneDrive.lnk that had been pointing to this now obsolete AppData location:

Code:

2019-09-27 05:04:13, Info                  CSI    000003db [SR] Verifying 100 components
2019-09-27 05:04:13, Info                  CSI    000003dc [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2019-09-27 05:04:16, Info                  CSI    000003dd [SR] Repairing corrupted file \??\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\\OneDrive.lnk from store
2019-09-27 05:04:16, Info                  CSI    000003df [SR] Verify complete
2019-09-27 05:04:53, Info                  CSI    0000042b [SR] Repairing 1 components
2019-09-27 05:04:53, Info                  CSI    0000042c [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2019-09-27 05:04:54, Info                  CSI    0000042d [SR] Repairing corrupted file \??\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\\OneDrive.lnk from store
2019-09-27 05:04:54, Info                  CSI    0000042f [SR] Repair complete
2019-09-27 05:04:54, Info                  CSI    00000430 [SR] Committing transaction
2019-09-27 05:04:54, Info                  CSI    00000435 [SR] Verify and Repair Transaction completed. All files and registry keys listed in this transaction  have been successfully repaired

I have since disable this Personal Vault feature online at the OneDrive site. After which, and worth noting, my Laptop was not prompted with this 'Personal Vault' promotion and subsequently did not move the install to this new all users directory 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft OneDrive' location even though it upgraded it's version from 19.152.0801.0008 to 19.152.0801.0009. While oddly enough my Desktop, which clearly has had some type of installation, remains at 19.152.0801.0008.

Yet another Windows mystery I felt worthy of sending a heads up on.

Steve C · 28 Sep 2019

I just installed Personal Vault and noticed the same issues. Can you still sync OneDrive separately for each user account?

Farvatten · 28 Sep 2019

Steve C said:

I just installed Personal Vault and noticed the same issues. Can you still sync OneDrive separately for each user account?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by each user account?

I have but a single OneDrive account that I can still sync between my Desktop and Laptop.

To recap:

My Laptop, which I didn't start till after I hid the 'Personal Vault' folder online and thankfully never prompted me to initiate the 'Personal Vault' promotion, also never change the laptop's file structures from AppData to Program Files (x86).

It did however update it's version from 19.152.0801.0008 to 19.152.0801.0009, but it never prompted me about this 'Vault' promotion, and does not show this sfc /scannow repairable corruption of the OneDrive.lnk.

However, my Desktop, the only one I initiated this 'Personal Vault' set up on, and which behind the scenes subsequently reinstalled OneDrive.exe from what has always been 'single user mode' in the ...\Users\USERNAME\AppData file structure to this new '/allusers mode' within Program Files (x86) and later showed this repairable corruption to the OneDrive.lnk, updated itself again last night from 9.152.0801.0008 to this latest version 19.152.0801.0009.

So now both laptop and desktop are running the same version.

But it appears this update on the Desktop again caused this OneDrive.lnk corruption:

Code:

2019-09-28 05:04:08, Info                  CSI    000007ff [SR] Verifying 100 components
2019-09-28 05:04:08, Info                  CSI    00000800 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2019-09-28 05:04:10, Info                  CSI    00000801 [SR] Repairing corrupted file \??\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\\OneDrive.lnk from store
2019-09-28 05:04:11, Info                  CSI    00000803 [SR] Verify complete
2019-09-28 05:04:49, Info                  CSI    0000084f [SR] Repairing 1 components
2019-09-28 05:04:49, Info                  CSI    00000850 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2019-09-28 05:04:49, Info                  CSI    00000851 [SR] Repairing corrupted file \??\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\\OneDrive.lnk from store
2019-09-28 05:04:49, Info                  CSI    00000853 [SR] Repair complete
2019-09-28 05:04:49, Info                  CSI    00000854 [SR] Committing transaction
2019-09-28 05:04:49, Info                  CSI    00000859 [SR] Verify and Repair Transaction completed. All files and registry keys listed in this transaction  have been successfully repaired

It's now possible this OneDrive.lnk corruption might be a recurring behavior after every OneDrive update that installs using this new Program Files (x86) file structure.

More I'm sure will be revealed..

Farvatten · 30 Sep 2019

New 'C:/OneDriveTemp' directory appears with a UID folder that contains a virtual disk file after initializing Personal Vault in OneDrive.

New OneDrive behavior after Personal Vault Setup-onedrivetemp.jpg

After seeing what I thought was some suspicious BitLocker activity in the Event Viewer, I found this OneDriveTemp folder directly under C:/. One that it must have created, then added this virtual disk (*.vhdx ) under a folder named for my account's UID.

This might explain why OneDrive would reinstall in '/allusers' mode to better manage these virtual disks that must be tied to the Personal Vault of each user on the one machine, which I'm assuming are encrypted by BitLocker processes now. Still seems like this could have all been done under the existing /Appdata structure.

Personally I'd rather have seen this OneDriveTemp directory tucked under Program Data so I won't have to look at something I'm unlikely to ever use now. Needless to say I'm looking forward to my next semi-annual cleaning with a fresh1909 install in few weeks. My hope is that OneDrive, now knowing a I'm not interested in a 3 file Personal Vault after having disabled it online, won't bother with these new alternations.