Windows 10 no longer does auto backup of registry

50Twuncle

Starting in Windows 10, version 1803, Windows no longer automatically backs up the system registry to the RegBack folder. If you browse to to the \Windows\System32\config\RegBack folder in Windows Explorer, you will still see each registry hive, but each file is 0kb in size.

thorganby

This change is by design, and is intended to help reduce the overall disk footprint size of Windows. To recover a system with a corrupt registry hive, Microsoft recommends that you use a system restore point.

If you prefer however to have this valuable feature still available you can re-enable it, ironically via a registry edit.

If you have to use the legacy backup behavior, you can re-enable it by configuring the following registry entry, and then restarting the computer:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Configuration Manager\EnablePeriodicBackup
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1

Windows backs up the registry to the RegBack folder when the computer restarts, and creates a RegIdleBackup task to manage subsequent backups.

Chino

50Twuncle wrote: »

Starting in Windows 10

thorganby wrote: »

This change is by design

Why did neither of you post the source for your quotes instead of passing them off as things you had each discovered yourselves?
The system registry is no longer backed up to the RegBack folder starting in Windows 10 version 1803

grumpycrab

Chino wrote: »

The system registry is no longer backed up to the RegBack folder starting in Windows 10 version 1803

"This change is by design... To recover a system with a corrupt registry hive, Microsoft recommends that you use a system restore point."

And to check system restore points are being created run rstrui.exe

virgo17

thorganby wrote: »

This change is by design, and is intended to help reduce the overall disk footprint size of Windows.

False economy IMO.

The backup of my registry is just over 100 Mb. Pretty small amount of disk space in the overall scheme of things when compared to the 7GB+ W10 will be reserving for updates.

John_Gray

It might be a naive question, but when has anyone ever wanted/needed to restore the registry just by itself?

JJ_Egan

2019 does not everybody have a full windows / PC backup image to revert to .

Neil_Jones

John_Gray wrote: »

It might be a naive question, but when has anyone ever wanted/needed to restore the registry just by itself

It used to come in useful for the odd occasion where somebody (claiming to be Microsoft) tricked somebody to allowed remote access to their computer and then enabled the little known Hive Encryption technology and tried to to get you to pay them money to remove the password.

The only real resolution in this sort of situation (aside from paying) is to manually restore the registry hives. System Restore would apparently do it but getting that far was half the challenge:
https://fixedit.itxpress.biz/2015/01/16/unlocking-after-the-microsoft-support-phone-scam/