Hans Brender's Blog

As of 31.7.2020, the fetch files via OneDrive Personal will come to an end. I always mentioned it during my workshops:

• prohibit OneDrive Personal through group policies
• if OneDrive Personal is alloewd, prohibit fetch files remotely via Group Policy

Again: This applies only to OneDrive Personal (Consumer). And as of next month this security hole will be closed. Well, Microsoft is selling that in other words: "It was underutilized".

To understand what you can do with it, here are some pictures:

I call up OneDrive Personal in the browser:

In the left menu I select the computer on which OneDrive Personal is also installed. After a possible security check I have access to the computer:

Access to which files?

Access to all files on the "Remote PC", which I have as a normal user. Including network drives. Simply everything.

In the past there was no security check. This made it more difficult, because then either the smartphone or the email address (private) had to be hijacked to get access.

But if I want to get data out of the company network without following all company policies, I know my OneDrive Personal access data.

And that is exactly what it is all about. Because if OneDrive Personal is allowed on company PCs, the company administrators have only limited possibilities to prevent this. You could, but then you had to activate at least one of the group policies.

I asked Microsoft again. From 1.8.2020 it is no longer possible to use this function. With or without this group policy. And I can save 5 minutes with this group policy in myOneDrive workshops…

Addendum:

Before I moved everything completely into the cloud, all my data was onPremises. That means in a 19" rack in many servers. And I used this feature very often. Even when I was on the road and had forgotten an important file. The 19" cabinet still exists. But the data is already in the cloud. And I saved almost 50% on electricity costs after the move, because the servers were switched off.