Windows Backup

Windows 11 version 23H2 includes a new app called Windows Backup that helps you configure OneDrive Folder Backup and create a backup of the list of apps you installed from the Microsoft Store on that PC along with a limited set of Windows settings you customized and your Wi-Fi passwords. You can then restore from this backup if you buy a new PC or reset your current PC.

All of this functionality existed in Windows previously: If you sign in to Windows 11 with a Microsoft account, all of this happens automatically. But there are a few niceties that make Windows Backup unique, plus a few configuration possibilities that most users are probably not aware of.

Where did it go?

If you’ve been using Windows for a long time, you may remember another app from the past with the same name. That old-school Windows Backup app bears little resemblance to the new Windows Backup, and because it’s now deprecated, we do not cover it in the book. But it’s still hidden in Windows 11: To find it, use Search to launch Control Panel and then navigate to System and Security > Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Get to know Windows Backup

Windows Backup is not a particularly sophisticated app and it acts mostly as a front-end to file sync and settings backup functionality that has been available for a long time and works automatically in the background without your intervention anyway. That is, even if you didn’t open this app and initiate a backup, much of what it “does” would happen anyway.

To understand this–and why you may want to use Windows Backup regardless–let’s examine how it works and what you can do with the app.

You can find Windows Backup in the Start menu’s All apps list, of course, but a quick search in Start for backup will do the trick. Once it’s running, you’ll see that Windows Backup offers four types of backup: Folders, apps, settings, and credentials.

But as you expand each backup type in turn, you will discover that few are unique to Windows Backup. Furthermore, few of these backup types are directly configurable in this app. So let’s dive in.

Folders. This top item is a front-end to OneDrive’s Folder Backup feature, and it’s the one part of Windows Backup that lets you directly configure the underlying feature: You can toggle the backup (really, sync) of your Desktop, Documents, and/or Pictures folders to OneDrive.

This functionality can also be configured in OneDrive settings, of course: Navigate to Sync and backup and click “Manage backup.” And if you do so from there, you can choose to backup (sync) the Music and/or Videos folders as well.

You can learn more about OneDrive and Folder Backup in the OneDrive chapter.

Apps. Windows 11 has always saved the list of the apps that you install from the Microsoft Store to your Microsoft account automatically, but it now also saves your “pinned app preferences”; that is, it remembers which of those apps you pinned to the Start menu or Taskbar. This interface in Windows Backup is non-interactive by default (meaning that apps backup is On): In this case, it simply tells you that Windows 11 is backing up your apps list and pin preferences, but it doesn’t let you configure this setting here.

You configure whether Windows 11 saves a list of your installed apps and their pinned preferences in Windows backup settings. To do so, open Settings and navigate to Accounts > Windows backup settings and toggle the option “Remember my apps” On or Off, according to your preferences. If you set this to Off, Windows Backup will then display an On/Off toggle so you can reenable it.

Settings. Windows 11 syncs a limited list of accessibility, personalization, language, and other system settings to your Microsoft account automatically. As with the Apps backup item noted above, this interface is non-interactive in Windows Backup by default because this happens in the background automatically.

And as with Apps backup, you configure this feature in Windows Backup settings, in this case under “Remember my preferences.” But unlike with Apps backup, if you disable any or all of the settings backup options there and open Windows Backup, it will ignore your preferences and note that these items will be backed up regardless.

Credentials. Windows 11 automatically syncs the credentials for any Wi-Fi networks for which you sign in to your Microsoft account: That way, if you encounter a saved Wi-Fi network with a new PC, it will automatically sign in. So here, again, Windows Backup simply notes that this information will be backed up.

As with the previous two items, you configure Wi-Fi credential backup in Windows backup settings. To do so, expand “Remember my preferences” and toggle “Accounts and passwords” as you prefer.

Create a backup

You can only store one backup for each PC you use. So when you create a backup, it overwrites the previous backup.

To do so, open Windows Backup, optionally consider and configure the Folders backup item, and then click “Back up.” There’s really not much more to it: Windows Backup will display a “Backing up your PC…” screen and you can optionally monitor the progress if you’re bored. It usually just takes a few minutes, and Windows Backup will report that “You’re all set!” when it’s done.

But what did you do exactly? After all, Windows 11 automatically syncs your OneDrive folders and backs up your apps, settings, and credentials anyway. What advantage is there to using this app?

We can think of two. First, there is a peace of mind element, as noted in the app itself, because making a backup explicitly means you don’t need to worry about it happening automatically in the background. And second, it’s not clear when things happen automatically in the background: When you click “Back up,” you know the backup is there now and is up-to-date.

Manage your backups

There’s no way to manage backups in the Windows Backup app. But there are three other places you can visit to do so:

OneDrive settings. Folder Backup is configured in OneDrive settings: Navigate to Sync and backup and click the “Manage backup” button.

Windows backup settings. Apps, settings, and credentials backup are all configured here. Open the Settings app and navigate to Accounts > Windows backup.

Any changes you make here will reflect in the Windows Backup app, and in the resulting backup, of course. For example, if you expand “Remember my preferences” and set “Accessibility” to “Off,” and then open Windows Backup and expand “Settings,” the Accessibility item will display with an On/Off toggle, hopefully set to “On,” so you can change it back if desired.

Microsoft account website. To view your backups, sort of, open the Microsoft account website with your favorite web browser, sign in, and navigate to the Devices page. Here you will see a list of the PCs that are linked to your Microsoft account, each of which has an associated backup. To delete a backup, remove that device.

The Devices page also has a Cloud synced settings area down at the bottom that lets you remove certain settings–saved Wi-Fi credentials, language preferences, and app lists–from all of your PCs. If you wish to clear all of this data, click “Clear stored settings.”

Restore from a backup

If you’re at all familiar with more traditional backup apps, you know that backing up is only half of the equation: You also need to be able to restore what you backed up. But there is no way to use Windows Backup or any other interface to restore any of this data while running Windows. Instead, you restore from a backup when setting up a new PC, or any other time when you find yourself stepping through the Windows Setup Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE).

As we discuss in that chapter, the OOBE prompts you to “restore from your PC backup” as soon as you’ve successfully signed in with a Microsoft account.

And if the backup you want isn’t the one you see offered there for some reason, you can click “More options” to see your other available backups or select “Set up as a new PC.”

This raises an interesting point: Since your Microsoft account automatically syncs the contents of your OneDrive storage via your Microsoft account and automatically backs up your apps, settings, and credentials information anyway, what’s the difference between restoring from a backup and setting up as a new PC?

There is only one difference unless you go to the trouble of configuring Windows Backup differently on different PCs: Setting up as a new PC will not restore your installed apps (again, Microsoft Store only) and their pin preferences. To gain this benefit, you need to restore from the appropriate backup. It’s the only way.

And to be clear, there is nothing about a backup that is literally specific to a certain PC. If you own a PC, back it up with Windows Backup, you can restore from that backup using any other PC with no worries. It will work fine.