When did MS remove the ability to delete a user but save their data?

[HCHTech]

I *know* I've done this recently, but maybe it was on 20H2 or something. Anyway, I tried to do this on a Win11 computer today and was surprised to find the only option was to remove account & data.

Followed by this when you click the Remove button:


I just checked my Win10 box (21H2), and it's the same. Now, I *know* it used to be different, right? You had the choice to delete the account but save the data? This was occasionally very useful, I'm surprised they removed this functionality.

 

[britechguy]

I can absolutely confirm your memory is correct. I have no idea of exactly which Feature Update introduced the current situation.

I just tried this for a test local account on this machine, which is running Win10 21H2 Pro, and it is doing exactly what you've shown above. I wondered if this could have been a Home versus Pro thing, but it appears not.

 

[fincoder]

I think that ability has gone since they removed it from the legacy Control Panel. Maybe in recent Windows 10 builds (and Windows 11).

 

[Sky-Knight]

Honestly, I've always hated that feature. It caused so many more problems than it solved. And leaving behind old user profiles is just cancer for a machine.

 

[fincoder]

But it didn't leave the old user profile in place, it moved it to a folder on the Desktop of the user doing the deletion. From there the stuff wanted could easily be moved before deleting the appdata etc.

 

[Sky-Knight]

But it didn't leave the old user profile in place, it moved it to a folder on the Desktop of the user doing the deletion. From there the stuff wanted could easily be moved before deleting the appdata etc.

Yes, which created endless loops of symlinks... it was a huge mess, and at times would utterly destroy the drive with writes trying to move it.

Honestly, this is what FABs is for! It does a much better job, and doesn't break things while doing it.

 

[HCHTech]

It was faster than Fabs, and you could then move the data you wanted to keep somewhere else and delete the created desktop folder, which solved the symlink problem. Like anything else, tool-to-task. There were definitely times when this was the right choice. It's not common, or I would have noticed it before now. It's not a crisis that it's gone, just a curiosity.

 

[britechguy]

Like anything else, tool-to-task.

Amen, brother! And I'm with you that for certain select cases, this was a great tool for the task of doing a "quick and dirty" preservation of user data for a deleted account until you could deal with permanent storage. I very seldom used it, but it was a nice option to have had.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I shove people kicking and screaming into M365, and once there there is no local backup required.

Want your files back? Login, watch onedrive put it back. I don't have time to wait for file copies and all the associated stupidity, and the clients that have these issues don't pay enough for the time I have to take anyway.

 

[britechguy]

I shove people kicking and screaming into M365, and once there there is no local backup required.

And bully for you if you succeed! (And that's sincere).

But you need to acknowledge that a great many of us here, myself being one of them, do not have a client base where that's ever going to happen. I have one senior client that I've been trying to drag, kicking and screaming, to M365 and she just won't have it and won't use anything that's a subscription service. I did get her to using Word Online, though, as that was her primary need and she wouldn't go for Libre Office, SoftMaker Free Office, etc.

The client demographic(s) we serve can very often limit our options if we wish to continue serving those demographic(s). Many have entirely jettisoned residential because they just don't want to deal with what residential entails. [I seem to recall you fall into that category except, perhaps, for a very select few residential clients you've worked with for years.]

 

[Sky-Knight]

@britechguy It only doesn't happen because you don't make it happen. You're the master of IT, your customers are not. And while I understand that we work for them, we are the masters of this space.

Demographics are irrelevant, the needs and the solution are uniform.

And no I do not primarily target residential because the margins are too slim. They don't want to pay anything... ever. It's a constant fight to get the solutions in the right place. And the people that have brains enough to not do the two former things, are all self supporting and don't need me.

That is... until they make a VERY expensive mistake.

What you're describing is calling for keeping that old heat pump limping along, and I'm simply replacing it with a more efficient model that not only cools better, but costs less to operate. And yes, keeping that old heat pump around is "cheaper" in the short go, but it's always a loss in the long run, and always a bad idea.

 

[britechguy]

You're the master of IT, your customers are not.

Speak for yourself. I present best practice, the client makes the decision - always.

I would not work with an IT professional who absolutely insisted I do something I do not wish to do, for whatever reason. And I deal with the consequences of accepting or rejecting advice.

Our role is no different than that of medical service providers, and I don't know of anyone who has not, at one point or another, declined to follow the advice their doctor/nurse practitioner/therapist is giving. The good ones actually say that to your face (as I have been a therapist, too) and you work to find something you are both willing to do, or agree that the given area is something you cannot mutually agree upon and move along. Depending on how critical that might be, moving along could mean ending the relationship.

M365 is not, and never will be, a make or break for me. What you do is up to you, but you can be sure that the majority of IT professionals do not consider M365 a make or break a relationship item. Clients get to make the final decisions.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@britechguy The game is changing, governments are starting to yell and the insurance providers have spoken.

You will enforce best practice soon, or get sued right out of existence.

M365 isn't the sum total answer, but it is one of the few ways to defray all the liability that's about to run us all over. If you want to work in the business space this reality is already here. You can do plenty via Google too, I just hate it so I don't.

 

[britechguy]

You will enforce best practice soon, or get sued right out of existence.

Virtual zero probability on both counts.