Did you know Windows 10 doesn't store Registry backups by default?

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Windows 10 v1803 system registry backup

Microsoft warned Windows 10 users about an existing bug that affected Windows 10 October Update. Surprisingly, the bug is not actually a bug. It’s a feature introduced by Microsoft itself.

Around 8 months ago, the Redmond giant disabled Registry backups in Windows 10. However, the tech giant didn’t bother to inform Windows users about this move.

They still think that the System Restore is backing up their system on a regular basis. In fact, no backup files are stored on your system even though it says “The operation completed successfully”.

Windows 10 Registry backup

Windows backup is an important feature specifically for businesses who can’t afford to lose important data. You can imagine the impact of this change on large enterprises.

Many people want to know why Microsoft decided to disable the feature. The tech giant aims to reduce the disk size occupied by Windows 10.

On a quick note, the registry back is just 50-100MB in size. Therefore, this attempt does not look feasible at all.


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How to enable Registry Backup on Windows 10

Don’t worry, there is a quick workaround. According to Microsoft, you can still enable the System Restore feature in Windows.

You need to change a Registry key value to enable the functionality.

  1. Type regedit.exe in the Start menu. You will see a list of results, click Registry Editor option.
  2. Now look for the Configuration Manager key by navigating to HKLMSystemCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerConfiguration ManagerEnablePeriodicBackup
  3. Select Configuration Manager and right-click on it. Create a new entry by selecting New >> Dword (32-bit) Value named EnablePeriodicBackup.
  4. Once the new value is created, change its default value to 1.
  5. Finally, restart the system to activate the new changes.

However, you should keep in mind that the upcoming feature update may disable the feature again. Therefore, you need to repeat the entire process after each upgrade.

Many think Microsoft shouldn’t lie to them

Many Windows users didn’t like Microsoft’s approach at all. According to Redditors, Microsoft should properly notify its users that the System Restore process is now disabled by default.

I don’t care how infrequently this functionality might have been used, folks, intentional breakage like this by Microsoft is just unforgivable. If they wanted to disable it and let the end user know that then fine, but don’t lie to them and let them think that the backup completely normally when in fact it did nothing! 

Others are concerned about the fact that the registry tweak may not be a feasible solution.

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