Microsoft OneDrive is my choice of Cloud Storage. Mainly because it has the files on demand feature and I even managed to keep my 30GB free storage from way back when. Since I regularly use OneDrive for both work and personal reasons, having it start with Windows and running in the background helps with automatic sync.
Now, though I like OneDrive to start with Windows, I want to delay OneDrive startup just a bit. This improves the Windows startup time. You can do this by scheduling the OneDrive startup using Task Scheduler. So, without ado, let me show you how to delay OneDrive startup on Windows.
There are two major steps to delay the OneDrive startup. The first one is to stop the OneDrive from starting with Windows. Second, use Task Scheduler to schedule OneDrive Startup 15 minutes after starting Windows.
Delay Microsoft OneDrive Startup
1. If OneDrive is already running, right-click on the OneDrive tray icon and select Settings.
2. In the Settings window, go to the Settings tab and uncheck the "Start OneDrive automatically when I sign in to Windows" option. Click on the Ok button to save changes.
3. Now, search for Task Scheduler in the start menu and open it.
4. Task Scheduler allows you to create custom scheduled tasks. In the Task Scheduler window, click on the Create basic task option appearing on the right panel.
5. The above action will open the task creation wizard. Here, type a name of your choice and click on the Next button. I'm naming my task as "Start OneDrive with delay".
6. Since we want to start OneDrive when we start the system select When the Computer Starts option. Click Next.
7. Select Start a program option and click on the Next button.
8. In the Program/Script field, enter the below file path while replacing <username> with your actual username. Next, add /background in the Arguments field. This argument makes sure that OneDrive starts silently. i.e, it will not open the OneDrive folder when it starts. Click Next.
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\OneDrive.exe
9. Verify the summary and click on the Finish button to complete the procedure.
10. We now need to add the startup delay functionality. So, find the task we just created in the Task Scheduler, right-click on it and select Properties option.
11. In the Properties window, go to the Trigger tab. Now, select At Startup from the list and click on the Edit button.
12. Here, select Delay task for checkbox and select 15 Minutes from the drop-down menu. Click on the Ok button to save changes.
13. You are done configuring the task to delay OneDrive startup. To make sure the task will run, find the task in the Task Scheduler, right-click on the task and select Run option.
14. The above action will trigger the task and starts OneDrive. If OneDrive is already running, you will not see any response. In that case, run the task again after quitting OneDrive.
Conclusion
That is it. OneDrive will now start with a 15-minute delay when you start your computer.
As you can see, it is pretty simple to delay OneDrive startup on Windows 10.
Here are some more OneDrive related articles.
Directions were excellent! Thank you. There is a slight twist in the process when it is time to add the time-delay. I assume this is because my version of Windows is newer than when the directions were crafted. Again: Thank You!
Nice. What’s not clear is that when testing the scheduled task at the end if manually running it should start the app after 4 minutes or immediately. The only way to test would be to restart.
Not sure if i did everything right. Could not find OneDrive.exe the location you suggested C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\OneDrive.exe
Instead I found Onedrive in location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft OneDrive\OneDrive.exe . I don’t know why it is 32-bit version as the (x86) folder suggests it is. Should it be 64-bit as my win10 is 64-bit? I downloaded OneDrive app through Microsoft Store as that was what my PC suggested. Checked OneDrive.exe properties with systernals process explorer, which says OneDrive.exe was build in Wed March 20, 2002! version is 19.232.1124.8
I just checked on my side and I still have the executable in the AppData\Local folder. If you have it in the “Programs Files” location then that’s fine too.
OneDrive is still a 32-bit app. So, don’t worry about it.