How to Disable All Office 2013 Cloud Features

If you’re using Microsoft Office 2013, you might be familiar with its integration with cloud services such as SkyDrive and SharePoint. In addition to those services, I had shared tips in the past month on how you can add Dropbox and Google Drive to the list of supported cloud storage services.

If you don’t use any of those cloud features in the Office suite, instead prefer saving your work on the computer only, then you might want to disable the cloud features entirely.

There are two ways to turn off Cloud features in Office 2013:

• Using Registry Editor
• Using Group Policy Editor

Turn off Cloud Features in Office 2013 using Registry Editor

1. Open Registry Editor by entering regedit in the Run dialog box.
2. When Registry Editor opens, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\SignIn key. If the SignIn key doesn’t exist, create it by right-clicking on Common > New > Key > SignIn.
3. In the right-pane of SignIn key, create a new DWORD value named SignInOptions.
4. Double-click on SignInOptions and change its value to 3.

That’s it. The sign-in functionality and the option to add a new cloud storage place shouldn’t be available in any of the Office 2013 program.

To restore the functionality, simply set SignInOptions value to 0.

Want ready-made registry edits? Download this zip file.

Turn off Cloud Features in Office 2013 using Group Policy Editor

1. For this method you need the Office 2013 Administrative Template files installed. If you don’t have it already, grab the version appropriate to your system from Microsoft Downloads and install it.
2. After installing, enter gpedit.msc in Run dialog box to open Local Group Policy Editor.
3. In it, navigate down the tree to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Office 2013 > Miscellaneous.
4. Find “Block signing into Office” in the list of settings, and double-click on it.
5. In the properties window, click “Enable” and select the option “None Allowed”.

That’d do it.

To re-enable cloud features, navigate down the same policy tree and change to “Not Configured”.