Microsoft Flips Windows Backup On By Default Outside the EU (theregister.com)
- Reference: 0184347168
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/07/07/1933209/microsoft-flips-windows-backup-on-by-default-outside-the-eu
- Source link: https://www.theregister.com/systems/2026/07/07/microsoft-flips-windows-backup-to-on-by-default-unless-youre-in-the-eu/5267664
> Now dubbed "Windows settings backup and restore," the service backs up a device's settings and a list of installed Microsoft Store apps, which can then be restored to a new device. Microsoft [2]gave a use case for the technology: "Imagine a lost laptop, a hardware refresh, or an unexpected reset. These are some of the moments when your users need backup most. And that's rarely when anyone wants to discover that backup was never turned on."
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> However, some organizations might not want it on. Perhaps those with strict privacy or data sovereignty requirements, or those regulated by the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), for whom the default-on behavior won't apply. Windows 11 25H2 and earlier are also excluded, as is any device with a backup policy that explicitly disables the setting. Everything else running Windows 11 26H1 will get switched on after a feature update, and the same applies to 26H2, currently with Windows Insiders in the Experimental channel.
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> Administrators might reasonably be wary of this being opt-out rather than opt-in. Backups are useful, but Microsoft is clear that this is not a comprehensive backup solution, calling it only "one step in a broader Windows resiliency effort." The implications still need consideration. An opt-out setting that quietly ships settings data off-device is exactly the sort of thing that adds to administrators' workloads rather than lightening them.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/systems/2026/07/07/microsoft-flips-windows-backup-to-on-by-default-unless-youre-in-the-eu/5267664
[2] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windows-itpro-blog/windows-settings-backup-becoming-a-new-resilience-baseline/4530757
Just no (Score:3)
Security updates due to newly discovered exploits? Yes.
ANYTHING ELSE NO! Do not change my OS from the one I purchased unless and until I explicitly request it.
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft never bought into the whole "no means no" idea.
Re: (Score:1)
Once a month it tries to force my browser default back to Edge. I tell it to fuck off.
A few times they've done it BEHIND MY BACK and I had to fix it manually after a fake "patch" to windows.
Before the days of Dumbass Fuckwit Trump and the Constitution Hating Treasonshit GOP, we had government entities that SUED Microsoft under Antitrust law for this shit.
Fuck the GOP. Fuck them for enabling this shit. Every crossburning Constitution-hating member of the GOP is a fucking shitrag.
Can Microsoft touch your data inappropriately? (Score:3)
Yes or Ask Again in Three Days
Re: (Score:2)
Then do not install any updates other than security updates. If you turned on automatic updates and get updated to 26H2, guess what, you requested it. If you manually install 26H2, guess what, you requested it. Get off your high horse.
Re: (Score:1)
Congratulations, they've now gated the security updates behind 26H2, because Dumbfuck Klanbitch Trump and the Treasonfuck GOP allowed them to.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly.
But "Oh no, they turned a setting on that doesn't hurt me or have any actual downsides and can be easily turned back off! Waaaah!"
That's all I'm hearing from these chucklefucks.
Might be for fingerprinting (Score:4, Insightful)
This could be actually intended to be used for user fingerprinting. People tend to have same settings across devices, connect to the same wifi, use the same bluetooth devices, similar names, themes etc. Possibilities are endless and accuracy will be down to an individual level. Even inside a large org or university
Re: (Score:3)
The backups are going to be under a Microsoft user account which is already tied to [1]device fingerprints [slashdot.org]. There's not much more fingerprinting to be done.
[1] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/07/07/1650237/microsoft-can-track-users-via-a-windows-device-id
Re: (Score:2)
A user that logs into Windows with an organizational account does not have a Microsoft user account. The backup data itself is stored in the enterprise's domain, and the feature does not support cross-tenant migration. Cloud PCs are also not yet supported.
All this "backup" tool does is enumerate the installed programs that came from the Microsoft store so provisioning a new computer or creating a new profile on an existing computer offers the user the option of installing the previous set of listed program
government repository (Score:2)
Just what someone wielding search warrants (or not) needs, a giant pot of data to dig through. It's not a dragnet it's a query, pinky swear.
Re: (Score:2)
Not sure what naughty stuff you have in your Windows registry or what illegal Windows Apps you downloaded from the Microsoft store are. But they already have your [1]device guid tied to IP addresses [slashdot.org] and people who are saving their "documents" to OneDrive via "free storage" when signing in with a Microsoft account, which are both the more valuable data for law enforcement.
Since there's not really much more mineable data than what they already have, the value add for them is more likely just keeping people tied
[1] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/07/07/1650237/microsoft-can-track-users-via-a-windows-device-id
Opt-in vs opt-out (Score:5, Insightful)
Opt-in is a backup. Opt-out is exfiltration.
I'm sure they've covered themselves from liability deep in a click-through EULA somewhere, though.
Re: (Score:2)
Note that they've split this into about a dozen different settings which all have to be turned off. So that's a dozen things I have to change on four or five different PCs to disable this new "feature" which I'm sure wasn't added to steal my data, honest guv.
Re: (Score:2)
And at any point MS can just turn it back on during an update.
That won't be a real problem for you though, since your personal files probably aren't stored on C. I bet most users here put everything on a second drive (or partition) and leave the first to Windows and software. They also use File History or a high-quality third-party backup program and check on it semi-regularly. They also don't use Edge, nor have much interest in what's on the Microsoft store. They also have a unique password for their Micro
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. Probably the reason why this is off in the EU: MS does not want another high fine for criminal behavior.
This is disgusting (Score:2)
Microsoft has gone way too far.
Seems to be off with local account as well (Score:2)
Or rather the "Backup & Restore" options are not even there. Makes sense, no one-drive. This is yet another reason to configure a local account. It prevents the MS corporate assholes from pushing their choices on you.
for eligible Windows 11 business devices (Score:2)
How can I become ineligible>
Re: (Score:2)
ONE DOES SIMPLY
(aragorn.gif)
NOT USE MS STORE APPS
I N V E R T (Score:2)
Well, of course they're going to set defaults by what profits them. Long gone is any consideration of what users might want.
Me, I just invert any default I'm not sure I want. Every last one. Works great when I'm in a hurry.
settings and policies (Score:2)
"An opt-out setting that quietly ships settings data off-device is exactly the sort of thing that adds to administrators' workloads rather than lightening them."
Fine, but there's *tons* of them. This is a drip in an ocean. The opposite, settings you need to turn on are also fucking huge depending on the corperate environment it's used in. I mean, fiddling over one setting on a product with a user base as huge and diverse as Windows is nitpicking imo.
Places that have to deal with this are setup to be proacti
Re:There is no way your data doesn't make it into (Score:5, Informative)
Did you even read TFS? It's a backup of the device settings and a list of installed Microsoft Store apps (which all competing app stores do anyway, otherwise they'd have no way of letting you restore previous purchases). Maybe this data has some marketing value, but they're not using it to train AI models.
Making it opt-in by default is shady, but IIRC, Apple has iOS's iCloud backup on by default (and quickly runs out of space and then nags you to subscribe to a paid tier). So, it's not exactly an unprecedented consumer-hostile behavior.
Re: (Score:3)
but IIRC, Apple has iOS's iCloud backup on by default (and quickly runs out of space and then nags you to subscribe to a paid tier).
DUH. That's the play. They force you into a "service" as an "opt out." Then - oh, the free tier is insufficient. Or the free tier JUST GOES AWAY and then they're holding your computer hostage.
Retardican GOP failed utterly at governance, the government entities that were supposed to be watching out for us and enforcing antitrust law died under Trump. Every Retardican traito