
To download iCloud for Windows, follow these steps:
In any case, I just went through this a week or two ago (I've written about it here in r/iCloud) and I am happy now when I have them all "local" and working, adding new photos daily.With the growing popularity of Apple devices, many users find it useful and convenient to sync their data across multiple platforms and devices. However, for now the sync does not seem to go the other way delete out of windows folder, and file still reamins in iCloud (and all Apple devices connected to same account). So if you delete a file out of iCloud (via phone, web interface, or Mac), it will also disappear out of the local folder on your Windows PC.

To be noted also is that iCloud for Windows now SYNCs sort of to 75%. Apple has not officially said if it throttles traffic in and out of iCloud, but it would not be unreasonable there is a daily or weekly limit. But take it easy and only try 500-1000 files at the same time. You will have to tell File Explorer that 1) you want to keep them "keep on this device" (right-mouse-click" and wait (forever), or 2) copy said files to a new temporary location (doing this will force a download).

What you see in File Explorer is only a marker.

But the files (the actual files) are still ONLY in iCloud. It'll sync the content in iCloud Photos to the local PC. Now iCloud for Windows acts more like OneDrive. Remember that iCloud for Windows works differently now, compared to past versions (when it "just" downloaded photo and video files onto a Windows PC and after that never cared to what happened to a a photo file in iCloud).
