Google Drive on Windows likes to invent a virtual disk, then drop your files one level deeper under My Drive. That is extra clicking for people who only keep one Drive account and just want a normal folder.

The fake disk also clutters Explorer. I do not need a whole drive letter that only points at one or two folders. I fixed it with symlinks on Windows 11. Sync kept working after the change.

Changes

After Before #1 Before #2
E:\Drive G:\My Drive E:\Google\ibnuhdev@gmail.com\My Drive
E:\DriveRedacted H:\My Drive E:\Google\ibnuh@REDACTED.com\My Drive
E:\DriveRedacted-Shared H:\Shared drives E:\Google\ibnuh@REDACTED.com\Shared drives

Disable the virtual drive

Open Google Drive Preferences, pick a normal folder path for the files, and turn off the virtual drive layout. I append the account email under E:\Google\.... That gives the Before #2 shape and removes Before #1.

You can stop there. I still hated the extra My Drive hop, so I added links on top.

Disable ugly google drive virtual drive

A symlink is a filesystem pointer. Programs treat it like a real path more often than a plain shortcut does.

  1. Open PowerShell as administrator.
  2. Create the link with New-Item.
New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path E:\Drive -target "E:\Google\ibnuhdev@gmail.com\My Drive"

More accounts means more links:

New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path E:\DriveRedacted -target "E:\Google\ibnuh@REDACTED.com\My Drive"

After that I open E:\Drive like any other folder. Sync still runs, and Explorer lost the junk drive letters.