Sync settings annoyance! What are the sync'd settings?

In another post today in another area, I've mentioned that I've re-installed Windows 10 on my desktop PC. I would log in to that installation with the same Microsoft Account as I would my laptop (which I am using now)

I have always turned off the following settings on my Windows installations as I don't want my themes or "Other Windows settings" sync'd:



And today I've noticed on my laptop when browsing through File Explorer that all my Folder Options that I've set previously (such as show hidden files, and hide file extensions for known file types etc) have all been reset to their defaults! I had a hunch that Windows had sync'd the settings from the new install on my desktop PC to the working installation I have on my laptop - and I looked in Windows settings and sure enough, the "Theme" and "Other Windows Settings" toggles had been switched to the on position why on earth would it change these to "on" on my laptop when I had specifically set them to not be sync'd?

Now the next bit is the fun part: what do the "Other Windows Settings" entail? I have had my laptop installation of Windows 10 for the past year and have fine-tuned it to my liking, and I am sure it's probably not just limited to the Folder Options dialog. I hope it has not changed my Power Management settings also!

This setting makes me so angry because it has happened even when the toggles were specifically set to off and now I've got to hunt around looking to see what it has actually changed!

As another note, how can I make sure that my new installation of Windows 10 on the desktop doesn't try and sync settings? Annoyingly this seems to be enabled by default.

Thanks for any advice.

You could try those settings:

Code:

reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SettingSync\Groups\DesktopTheme" /v "Enabled" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SettingSync\Groups\Personalization" /v "Enabled" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SettingSync\Groups\Windows" /v "Enabled" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\SettingSync" /v "DisableDesktopThemeSettingSync" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\SettingSync" /v "DisableDesktopThemeSettingSyncUserOverride" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\SettingSync" /v "DisablePersonalizationSettingSync" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\SettingSync" /v "DisablePersonalizationSettingSyncUserOverride" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\SettingSync" /v "DisableWindowsSettingSync" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\SettingSync" /v "DisableWindowsSettingSyncUserOverride" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f

Thanks for the reply, @TairikuOkami, I was literally about to bump this thread with another question this morning as I want to get some answers on this for whenever I do a clean install. I find the sync settings useful for some things, but I don't want mouse pointer speed, folder options settings, power profile settings etc being transferred across.

Which leads me onto another question about this I was going to ask - in which 'direction' does sync settings work?? I ask this because surely if my laptop settings are in the cloud, shouldn't a clean install of Windows 10 on another PC grab the settings that my laptop uses, rather than what's happened here: that my laptop has synced to the settings of the clean installation on my PC. It just makes no sense to me, it isn't logical that my laptop would then want to override all the settings I've set up over the past year with the defaults from a clean installation.

What do those commands do above and is it possible for me to run them before I set up Windows with my MS account?

Thanks!

alexncfc said:

What do those commands do above and is it possible for me to run them before I set up Windows with my MS account?

They should disable syncing themes, personalization and windows settings.
You can use a local account, apply settings, restart, then switch to MS account.

TairikuOkami said:

They should disable syncing themes, personalization and windows settings.
You can use a local account, apply settings, restart, then switch to MS account.

Thanks, that worked a treat. I now had those items greyed out and non-changeable in the "Sync your settings" screen before even setting up my MS account, so hopefully the theme and Windows settings syncing won't be any bother.

The only problem I now have is knowing where to look on my laptop to see which settings were changed by syncing to the system defaults that were synced across from my clean install on the Windows desktop. I've changed my Folder Options back but I am unsure what other settings it may have carried across.