OneDrive done right is back, and now it works properly

OneDrive placeholders are back. A new OneDrive client is available for the latest Windows 10 Insider build, and it brings back seamless integration with OneDrive cloud storage under the name “OneDrive Files On Demand.”

With cloud storage services, it’s very easy to have large amounts of storage and data “in the cloud” that you don’t necessarily have room for locally. The traditional solution has been some kind of selective sync; some folders are nominated to be stored locally, while others are visible only through the service provider’s Web interface. While this addresses immediate size constraints—it means that your hundreds of gigabytes of cloud files won’t overflow your laptop’s paltry 128GB SSD—it typically represents an awkward usability trade-off. Those files that aren’t synchronized locally become invisible to the operating system, so you can’t browse and manage them in Explorer, and neither can you open them directly in your applications.