How do I change iCloud photos location on PC?

This is not applicable to my comment as I'm not talking about the ask of having it in a "networked folder".

The ask is exactly to NOT BE in a networked folder with the possibility of the end user to select in which folder they want to have their iCloud Photos to be synced rather than only be bounded to the Windows 11 default Library/Photos/Pictures folder.

The responsibility of allowing the user to change the default folder, from the Microsoft specialist information it's 100% on Apple's end, Apple has delivered the app without the simple ability to be able to change the default iCloud Photos location which will always be the default Windows 11 default Pictures/Library/Photos location rather than just allowing the end user to change the directory with freedom.

This is such an amateurish UX/UI decision considering factors such as anyone that's using an external/networked folder as the default Windows 11 Photos/Pictures/Library or someone who doesn't have enough space in the storage drive which contains his default Pictures/Photos/Library.

Example, most of users let the default which is likely to be at C:\.

Sometimes his backup drive is the D:\ which has way more space.

Why shouldn't the end user be able to simply create an iCloud Photos folder at D:\ then just change the (currently locked) setting in iCloud app (as it used to be not locked in past versions) to this folder that he created?

I've seen hundreds of cases in which that happened and even made folks lose their backup due to it.

Even if you have space enough on your C drive it seems not to be possible to change the location of the iCloud Photos folder.

I don't want it to be like this: C:\Users\xyz\Pictures\iCloudPhotos

But like this: C:\Users\xyz\iCloudPhotos

How to change?

You might be needing to talk to a Microsoft forum. On a Mac, the "Photos Library," which holds the pictures shared with iCloud, can be located anywhere in a user's folder. The Library is typically kept in user's Pictures folder, but it can also be on a properly formatted external drive. Because of the way the Mac's Photos app works, the Library has to be on a Mac formatted drive connected by wire, but otherwise there are no restrictions in location.

I've spoken with a Microsoft specialist and even though it bounds to the default library that we can set a different location and it works, the responsibility of being able or not to change the folder it's 100% on Apple's end.

In my case I have my pictures default location library set to a Google Drive (desktop) folder which is part of my workflow.

This made my entire iCloud (photos part) to glitch.

The ask to have the possibility to change the default folder to iCloud photos is crucial and not having it is a blatant UX/UI issue.

Exactly my point reinadezt.

Thanks for describing it much better👍 than I was capable of.

Yes, and this is exactly what is an horrendous UX/UI decision from Apple.

If you change your default Pictures path in Windows libraries it's also malfunctioning.

Example, if you set the default Pictures folder from the path that Forcix shared to D:\Pictures, the iCloud app will detect this new folder, but will not sync anything, this is clearly a glitch as well.

The Photos Library cannot be in a networked folder. If external, it must be connected by wire. I assume this is all true for a Windows machine, as well. I don't understand what "the responsibility of being able or not to change the folder it's 100% on Apple's end" means.

What's hard to understand?

Apple purposefully designed iCloud for Windows such that the path for iCloud Photos is hard-coded to C:\Users\<username>\Pictures\iCloudPhotos