Microsoft makes Windows settings backup the default in 26H2

Windows 11 26H2 is out, and Microsoft has enabled Windows settings backup by default, a move that could send administrators scrambling to opt out where they once had to opt in. The latest release hasn't made a lot of shockwaves in the community featurewise. Users with up-to-date versions of 25H2 will unlikely notice much difference - 26H2 has the same code base, delivered via an enablement package. It even has the same set of known issues, although all are now "mitigated" in one way or another. However, administrators will spot several important changes. The end-of-support clock is reset, and Microsoft has flipped some switches behind the scenes; notably, enabling Windows backup and restore (formerly Windows Backup for Organizations) by default. On by default The service, which was previously off by default, backs up a device's settings and a list of installed Microsoft Store apps. The idea is that when a user moves to a new device, a restore can happen during setup. Microsoft also listed an objective of the service as allowing "organizations to transition to a cloud-first approach for managing devices and user settings." The problem is that many organizations are prohibited from sending this data to the cloud. As a result, the default-on setting won't apply in privacy-sensitive regions such as those covered by the EU Digital Markets Act, or in sovereign and restricted environments. For many others running Windows 11 26H2, it'll now be enabled by default on eligible devices - Entra joined or Entra Hybrid joined. Unless an administrator has explicitly said no to the functionality, the act of installing the update will flip the switch, and the backups will begin. Administrators will rightly be wary of anything that switches from opt-in to opt-out, even something so apparently useful and innocuous as a backup. Why wouldn't you want your users to be able to leap to a new device with ease? That assumes their data is also in the cloud, of course, since this only backs up settings and a list of Windows apps. Backing up data is something else entirely. That is the real issue with the change. The release of Windows 11 26H2 isn't particularly exciting in itself, but flipping a long-standing opt-in to opt-out as part of it is likely to set more than a few nerves jangling. (R)