If you’re having problems with Windows Backup, or you don’t want to use it anymore, you won’t find an option to reset its settings. However, if you want to start over or disable the feature, you can complete this task with a few commands. In this post, we will show you how to reset Windows Backup to Default in Windows 11/10.
Reset Windows Backup to Default settings
To reset the ‘Backup and Restore (Windows 7)’ feature, aka Windows Backup settings to its default, follow these steps outlined below:
Press Windows key + R to invoke the Run dialog.
In the Run dialog box, type cmd and then press CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER to open Command Prompt in admin/elevated mode.
In the command prompt window, copy and paste the command below and hit Enter.
reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsBackup /f
The command will delete the Windows Backup registry entry.
Next, copy and paste the command below and hit Enter.
schtasks /delete /tn "Microsoft\Windows\WindowsBackup\AutomaticBackup" /f
The command will delete the automatic backup scheduled task.
Next, copy and paste the command below and hit Enter.
schtasks /delete /tn "Microsoft\Windows\WindowsBackup\Windows Backup Monitor" /f
The command will delete the backup monitor scheduled task.
Once you complete the steps, the Backup or restore your files page will reset to its default settings, removing any previously configured backup settings and allowing you to set up a brand new schedule or leave the feature disabled.
Alternatively, you can create a Batch file to reset Windows Backup Tool with a click. Open Notepad and save the following as a .BAT file:
reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsBackup /f reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsBackup schtasks /delete /tn "Microsoft\Windows\WindowsBackup\AutomaticBackup" /f schtasks /delete /tn "Microsoft\Windows\WindowsBackup\Windows Backup Monitor" /f
Run the file administrator to reset Windows Backup.
Restart your computer when done.
Note: Resetting Windows Backup to default will only reset the settings back to default and will not delete any previously backed up files.
If you want to delete any created backups, you have to manually delete them from the source drive as necessary.
Windows Backup
On Windows 11/10, Backup and Restore Tool (aka Windows Backup) is a legacy tool that has been around since Windows 7, and it’s been designed to create and restore full and differential backups of files or the entire system. It was deprecated in Windows 8 and removed in Windows 8.1 but has been included in Windows 11/10.
The tool is quite useful, and many users still use it in Windows 11/10 to back up files or create full backups in case a rollback is necessary after an upgrade or hardware failure.