Microsoft confirms an upcoming Windows 11 26H2 default change

Microsoft has confirmed the upcoming feature update, Windows 11 26H2, adds default organizational backup.

Last month, Microsoft officially confirmed Windows 11 version 26H2, and so far, we have an idea of some of the features that will be landing in the OS with the next feature update. These include a redesigned Start menu (can already be tried out with new official policies), a much-needed GPU driver update improvement and a highly requested Search feature, among others.

Alongside those, Microsoft has also confirmed a new change coming to Windows 11 version 26H2. The company has published a new blog post to explain the new behaviour in its Windows Backup for Organizations app.

For anyone not familiar, this is an official Microsoft application designed to help organizations and enterprises backup and upgrade, and over time, it has received some pretty useful features.

First up, the application is set to be renamed to "Windows settings backup and restore", and secondly, the backup functionality will be enabled by default on the upcoming OS version on all eligible devices. Microsoft explains that "a recoverable list of settings and Microsoft Store apps is becoming a baseline part of the Windows experience rather than an opt-in configuration step."

If you are wondering what those eligible devices are, the tech giant says they meet the following conditions:

• Running Windows 11, version 26H2 or later

• With the backup policy in a "Not Configured" state under Windows settings backup and restore

• In countries or regions not regulated by the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), and not in sovereign or restricted cloud environments

• Devices not in privacy-sensitive countries or regions

   

Microsoft says that this change is currently rolling out to Windows 11 Experimental channel builds 26300.8772 and 28120.2387, so if you want to test and validate it, you can do so by enrolling in the Insider channel and trying it out. Restore behaviour, however, remains unchanged.

If you notice, this behaviour is available on both 26H2 (build 26300.8772) and 26H1 (28120.2387) Insider channels. In the case of the latter, Microsoft has confirmed that the following feature update, likely version 27H1 (although this isn't confirmed), will be when we see the same treatment.

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Posted Tuesday 7 July 2026 at 5:02 pm AEST (my time).

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