Word documents will be saved to the cloud automatically on Windows going forward
56 comments
·August 27, 2025yodon
clejack
While incompetence might be an issue, I think the greater problem is that Microsoft is rolling back control and generally sucks at UX.
Why does this app that's been working just fine as desktop software need to save anything to the cloud by default? It's conceptually odd.
I've used Google docs from the beginning, but I actively choose what docs I want on that platform.
All MS had to do was add "save to cloud" as an additional save option along with "save" and "save as" (maybe renamed as "save to desktop") then auto save could activate where your last save location was. This would be good design.
stuaxo
Their competitor is cloud native, so where else would it be stored?
This is still a local app, so it doesn't feel like a natural default.
mc32
It should be the default for corp accounts. But even home users would benefit form seamless document retrieval (recovery).
Corp users’s biggest IT headache is lost Word or Excel files.
Xelbair
It's even simpler.
People who wanted that kind of treatment and walled garden already moved to apple's ecosystem, and people who do not want this stayed with windows.
Now more and more of my non-technical friends are moving towards linux because microsoft is pushing them away.
127
Just recently moved onto Linux. Most likely not coming back when these kind of things just keep happening. I'm really surprised how well everything works. 120Hz HDR 4k Nvidia no issues on Wayland. Kubuntu 25.04/Plasma 6.3 is very nice. EasyEffects/PipeWire makes audio better compared to Windows. Steam/Proton/Wine works very well for games outside ones that have kernel level rootkits. Outside DualSense controller having issues connecting to bluetooth I can't think of anything that's worse than Windows while many things are better.
gregoryl
Ditto; ~20 years of dotnet dev, 1000+ games on steam. Couldn't be more baked into the ecosystem. Its just the work laptop left with windows now, and the team is working to support a non-windows dev env.
bdhcuidbebe
> Outside DualSense controller having issues connecting to bluetooth
This is a gotcha. The issue is probably that your user dont have the permissions to interact with udev devices.
reddalo
I work on a mac, but I have Linux at home.
I've started using LibreOffice at home and I'm surprised at how snappier it is compared to Word. Exported PDFs are even lighter that the ones Word do.
crinkly
Only thing that keeps me off Linux is Lightroom and Photoshop. Nothing even remotely comparable. So it's Mac for me, but I get you.
fzeroracer
I moved over to Linux about a year or so ago when Microsoft announced they were going to start pushing their AI shit on every Windows system. I created a small partition intending to just give it a shot but ended up never moving back since 99.9% of everything I tried just works. It's really quite amazing how far Linux has come in the past decade alone and right now the only reason I keep Windows on my work machine is because there's still specific dev pipelines I can only do on Windows.
kylebenzle
[dead]
ryankrage77
Microsoft's accouncement: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft365insider...
Word has defaulted to saving in OneDrive (if you turn on autosave and you're signed into an MS account) for years now, I think since the Office 2016 > Office 365 update. The only real change I see is that the document will now be given a name with the date instead of just 'Document 1'. Maybe it's a little more aggressive about turning on autosave for you? The autorecover location is still in appdata.
ommz
Seems like Microsoft's Modus operandi the last few years has been: Make anti-consumer move -> get backlash -> repackage same egregiousness while stalling & deflecting -> repeat cycle
Steamrolling their users then getting rewarded with their stock going stratospheric. Excellent!
mrweasel
> Steamrolling their users then getting rewarded with their stock going stratospheric
Welcome to the world of modern capitalism. I'm seriously starting to question if a company can survive on the stock market by creating a solid product and caring about the users of that product.
jgalt212
That's pretty much it. If MSFT stock was punished for such actions, they would stop today.
nerdjon
If I am reading this right I assume this is only if you have onedrive enabled?
If that is the case, I think it makes some sense if you are already setup to use that to default to saving there since it makes it easier to find your files on other devices and they be safe. Theoretically if you have it setup you already agree to the risks of storing data in the cloud.
however... The real problem to me is that onedrive is enabled by default and that they are now requiring you to login with a microsoft account to use Windows. If both of those were not the case this makes complete sense.
But until they stop enabling one drive by default and making it a pain in the ass to disable this is bad.
N-Krause
The next reason, following hundreds of others, to start using Linux for the Desktop. If my non technical SO can do it, you can do it as well.
farmin
Yes I moved away from Windows to MacOS but couldnt get used to the UI and they have now sprinkled bad AI tools throughout. I use KUbuntu now which feels a bit like Windows 10 and really is all I need. But what I really want on my Thinkpad with KUbuntu is the perfect open/close screen management like the Macbook has and changing from second monitor to no second monitor often causes issues and doesnt just work argh.. Maybe one of these linux first laptops will fill the void.
rpdillon
Yep, I'm constantly astonished by adults that insist that Linux is too hard to use on the desktop. My entire family has been using it for years. I raise my kids on it. Works great.
reddalo
My family has also been using it for years, but I'm the one who always had to install, update, fix problems, etc.
I think the biggest obstacle to widespread adoption of Linux is not using Linux itself, it's installing it on a computer. 99% of people don't know how to format a USB device, or how to enter the BIOS.
N-Krause
To be honest, I think most non-technical people that are not close to someone technical probably don't even know about Linux and/or just don't care about it.
If it isn't a problem it's not worth fixing. A lot of people don't even know where they are saving their stuff to, so if it's in the cloud or on their device doesn't really matter to them.
colejohnson66
Ubuntu's Wubi was a great attempt at a "try Linux" solution, but - Canonical being Canonical - killed it.
pmontra
Hopefully, but most likely a lot a people will shrug or won't notice. Others will start using Libre Office and discover that it's more than enough for their very basic tasks.
chistev
What reasons did your non technical SO have for switching?
N-Krause
I am using Linux personally for the last 5 years or so. When she bought a new laptop I told her that she wouldn't need windows for her use case and the (free) Linux would be more than adequate. She is mostly using it for education (university), browsing internet. Just casual stuff.
She then proceeded to install and test the programs she needed and everything worked basically out of the box, so now she continued to use it because it doesn't matter to her what she uses, as long as she can use it.
(She is using Fedora on a Framework laptop)
sombragris
I wonder what would lawyers and doctors writing very sensitive, liability-ridden info would have to say about this move.
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nubinetwork
We recently started rolling out 11 at work, and we have all sorts of group policy hacks to disable stuff... one thing I noticed is that despite copilot being disabled, the button still appears at the top of every office app. I'll have to check on the weekend, but I wouldn't be surprised if we hard enable this option as we have our own OneDrive instance to replace our terabytes of network shares.
Semaphor
FWIW, I don’t have any copilot buttons anywhere (checked Excel, Teams, Outlook), on 24H2.
terminalshort
My computer broke while I was traveling a few years ago, so I bought a cheap Windows laptop at Walmart. It took me an hour to figure out get that thing up and running without setting up a Microsoft account online. I even had to change a freaking BIOS setting! I bet you can't even do it at all now.
gregoryl
You still can; its a pain in the ass tho. They keep changing it, I suspect in the hope that out of date tutorials will deter less technical users.
pjmlp
While I am not fan of this, remember that most people that dislike Microsoft are using Google Office cloud only products.
bdhcuidbebe
Who cares?
When did Google offer an non-cloud installable app and changed it to upload to the cloud?
pjmlp
Because usually everyone that throws stones forgets about their own roofs.
I bet all those cool SV people "we're better than Microsoft" aren't using Libre Office on a GNU/Linux system.
Maybe it is time for some donations?
postdoc74
I don't know what's new on this. For the last two years all Office apps I own have insisted on saving to OneDrive first. I have always had to explicitly click on the path and select another folder. Every. Single. Time.
JanneVee
I'm old as dirt but I recall one of the arguments for TPM was showed down our throats was the ability to tie documents to machines and organizations. Something something... industrial espionage. Now we know that is a lie. They just wanted to fill landfills with old working computers.
Borg3
Nah.. Ill grab any old HW between 2005-2015 they throw up :) Who say I need to run newest windows on them, eh? :)
More than anything, Microsoft is incompetent at messaging and communications.
This is a feature that has been among the most loved aspects of its main competitor for more than a decade.
Somehow, Microsoft managed to make the same feature sound and feel and be creepy.