WTF?! Trust Microsoft to find new ways of making something (even more) annoying. The act of closing the OneDrive for Windows app will now force users to explain why they are doing such a thing. And don't think you can just ignore the question - Microsoft won't let you quit the program until you answer.
Update: Microsoft says the box was presented to a "small subset of users" and it has been removed – for now.
The file-syncing OneDrive app, which by default runs when Windows starts, isn't easy to close even in normal circumstances. The standard procedure requires right-clicking on the small cloud icon in the taskbar, selecting Pause Syncing from the drop-down menu, then clicking Quit OneDrive.
But it seems that Microsoft has added another layer of irritation to the process. After selecting the Quit option, a pop-up box appears warning users that closing the app means their files won't sync or back up to the cloud. The pop-up contains a cancel button that stops OneDrive from being closed and a Quit OneDrive box that is greyed out. The only way to access the latter is to select a reason for quitting the program from the following options.
- I don't want OneDrive running all the time
- I don't know what OneDrive is
- I don't use OneDrive
- I'm trying to fix a problem with OneDrive
- I'm trying to speed up my computer
- I get too many notifications
- Other
This isn't the first time Microsoft has demanded an explanation when you try to leave one of its products. It was only last month when we heard that anyone using Edge to download Chrome installation files would find that a survey appeared in the Activity Center sidebar asking why they were leaving. Answers included the likes of "can't access my Google documents" and "too many ads and pop-ups." The options did not include "crap like this."
Going back to the needy OneDrive survey, greying out a quit button feels like malware-style tactics. Again, this is something Microsoft has been accused of, twice. There was the 2016 Get Windows 10 (GWX) pop-up that turned the standard X in the corner from a way of closing the box into an option to unwittingly give consent.
More recently, there was a pop-up asking users to switch their default search engine to Bing in Chrome. This came in the form of a rogue executable file, signed by Microsoft, that appeared in c:\windows\temp\mubstemp, making many believe it was malware.
It's unclear if the OneDrive survey is being shown to all users or only those in certain locations – it doesn't appear for this writer. Perhaps the negative reports have prompted the company to end the survey. The best option, of course, is just to quit OneDrive via Task Manager.