On 6 January 2021 I wrote about a prematurely leaked 64 bit version, now it is so far. Because two months later, Microsoft published the first PreView of a 64 bit variant 21.062.0328.0001 of the Next Generation Sync Client (OneDrive.exe) on 8 April 2021. Why I write about it only today has a valid reason. I want to test a new version first.

The Microsoft announcement by Ankita Kirti (Twitter) can be found here. And also a few questions, which were added as an update then on 9.4.21.

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What version of OneDrive am I using?
Installation per Device
Choose between the 64-bit and 32-bit verison of OneDrive

There are two possible installation locations:

First, there is the user directory:

Here everything is in one place. With each update we always get the group policies included. That fits for most, but if for example several employees share a computer, then newer versions would have to be brought to the new version for each employee individually. It’s only 175 MB, but they each have to be downloaded from the Internet and installed individually. The installation in the program directory was created for exactly this target group.

The second group are the users of OneDrive Personal and the possibility of the vault. To make the security mechanisms for the vault optimal, the installation also had to be done (automatically) in the program directory.

This also protects Windows 10 Home for the OneDrive vault with Bitlocker, for example, which is normally not included in the Home edition.

The pre-release version of the 64-bit variant has the version number 21.062.0328.0001 and still has to be installed manually.

Later, the Final version will install itself automatically, and the 32-bit version will be updated to 64-bit. Of course, only if the Windows 10 operating system is also based on the 64-bit version. In her article, Ankita Kirti describes the advantages of the 64-bit version. And an essential aspect, to which there is still no statement, is the limitation to 300,000 files. Here, Microsoft first evaluates the customers‘ data in order to then make a recommendation.

To get around this limit, the path currently remains with the „Add to OneDrive“ function, where I have already written several times.

Five steps from „Classic Sync to „Sync with shortcut“.
OneDrive: differences in syncing

This is also a long-term strategy, because no employee needs access to more than 300000 files. These are relics from the past, whereby when file servers were migrated, they were brought 1:1 to the cloud. The new capability creates quick access to subsets that can be quickly rolled out to all of a user’s devices (including smartphones), and just as easily taken away and their data deleted from all devices as well.

Summary:

The current preview contains all the functionality as the 32-bit variant. So far, I have not noticed any abnormalities in the tests. They have consistently converted all 32-bit code parts to 64-bit in the last 2 months.  In the leaked variant I noticed a correction of a bug, a bug that has existed for some time. It was fixed there.  Unfortunately, when converting from 32 bit to 64 bit in, the bug was ported along, so it is there again. I have again pointed out this error to the OneDrive product group.

But that does not change the fact that the 64 Preview runs „smoother“. This was also confirmed to me in extreme tests by my customers.