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 ...