Can I unlink a computer, from my OneDrive app on another computer, or iPhone?

This doesn't lose anything, it just moves the Desktop folder back to the user folder. The desktop is just a variable, it can be stored anywhere, but presently yours just happens to be stored inside the OneDrive folder. Moving it away from the OneDrive folder and back into the user folder is a non-destructive process. It just means OneDrive won't backup the desktop anymore (although since OneDrive isn't installed, the backup is not happening anyway).

Please don't try to type it, just follow those instructions exactly:

1. Open user folder on one side of the screen
2. Open OneDrive folder on the other side
3. Drag the desktop file out of OneDrive and in to the user folder and drop it there.

Here's an example.

I can think of a small snag you MIGHT experience but I don't want to get into the weeds if it isn't necessary. Although I'm going to take this opportunity to write up a little guide and video post about it since this is a semi-common question and trips up people pretty consistently. There's some nitty-gritty details to it because of features where your Documents folder isn't really just a folder, it's more like a variable. But if you don't know about it, it can present in a very confusing way.

For example, you could set it so that when you save a file into C:\Users\Shawn\Documents, it actually stores it on another hard drive like D:\MyFiles. It might look like it's at the earlier path, but that's for convenience. Or system administrators might setup their computers so that the Documents folder actually stores on a network file server so if the employee (or a student at a school or whatever) breaks/loses/destroys their computer, the files are safely stored elsewhere. They might access the files by opening C:\Users\Shawn\Documents, but again that's just for convenience.

This functionality has been around for decades (nearly 30 years now), but it's transparent to all but the system admins that work with it and 99.95% of the world doesn't know this is the case. These folders like Documents/Pictures/Desktop/Videos/Music, these are all called "user shell folders" and they all have this redirection capability.

OneDrive's backup system leverages this same functionality to perform backups. So while you might see a folder called "Desktop" inside your user folder like C:\Users\Shawn\Desktop, it can be redirected to actually be stored inside C:\Users\Shawn\OneDrive\Desktop.

--

PS about the security issue. You can certainly send this to Microsoft in their feedback app. They can do better at the messaging here. However there's also a bit of information you can be aware of for the future. Next time you sign-in to Word to use a file, you'll notice a popup asking if you want to "add this account to Windows: yes or just sign into this app". If you click the big bold Yes button, it'll add your account to the entire computer. So be careful of that popup and don't click the prominent button. Or even better -- should you ever need to do a similar task again -- simply open up the web browser and go to www.onedrive.com and open the file from there. Even better yet, do it in an incognito / private mode window so your credentials can't possibly be cached for later.

In any case I'm 100% positive I can help you accomplish what you need to, and hopefully the easy steps I mentioned in my earlier reply take care of it at once. If not, I can still help, even if it takes a little more tweaking. And when I do have the guide/video done (possibly tonight, I'm a little obsessive when I have a task), I'll share that too!

I will not be able to try this till Friday. I really hope you are right. Cause this has been a HUGE headache for me.

Also, if it happened as I say it did....we're talking a huge security hole. How does one report this to MS?

If there's no OneDrive app installed, then items on the computer are no longer being backed-up to the OneDrive file storage. So all that remains to be done is to simply put your folders back how you want them and delete the "OneDrive" folder that's inside the user folder.

I will say that it would be easier if you just reinstall OneDrive on the computer (it doesn't require admin rights to do so), unlink its backup from the Documents/Desktop/Pictures folder, and then uninstall OneDrive once again. However if you don't wish to do that, you can do it the "hard way".

This is easier if you open two File Explorer windows, side-by-side.

1. Open the C:\Users\Manager\OneDrive folder on one side of your screen.
2. Open the C:\Users\Manager folder on the other side.
3. Drag the Desktop folder out of OneDrive and place it into the user folder ("Manager" in this case)
4. Drag the Documents folder out of OneDrive and place it in the user folder.
5. Finally, drag the Pictures folder out of OneDrive and place it in the user folder.
6. Move any remaining files in the OneDrive folder to the correct location you wish to store them in.
7. Delete the (now empty) OneDrive folder.