Windows 11 has seen the introduction of yet another annoying feature designed to drive usage of yet another Microsoft service, but as always, this runs the risk of having the opposite effect.
Windows Latest announced a new move regarding Microsoft's promotional activity: a pop-up to promote the Windows Backup app (which was introduced in Windows 11 and 10 last year).
Windows Backup does what its name suggests, it provides a client to handle backing up the files on your PC, and it leverages OneDrive, Microsoft's cloud storage server, to do so.
Windows Latest received a notification that appeared in the notification panel on the right side of the desktop and triggered the Windows Backup app. It informed the tech site: “A full backup of your PC was not performed. Backup is not enabled for credentials and folders. Please back them up now to save them if something happens to your PC.”
As the site notes, this is apparently rolling out via a server-side update (so it could automatically arrive on your Windows 11 machine at any time – though we're hoping it'll only show up for those not already using the backup app, of course).
The notification gives you the option to dismiss it or choose “Back up now” – choose the latter option and Windows Backup kicks in and starts syncing your files to OneDrive (as well as backing up system settings, apps, and your entire PC, basically).
Windows Backup is designed for consumers and works for those who sign in to a personal Microsoft account on Windows.
Since Microsoft made Windows Backup a system app, it's on all Windows PCs by default, which has been controversial for business computers that don't use the app (they still can't remove it, even though it's consumer-only, as mentioned).
There are a couple of issues here. First, more persistence from Microsoft. Seriously? We're getting a little tired of this, and while each little pop-up may seem like a small move in itself, they all add up to a draining experience in the broader Windows experience.
Here’s an idea: a “promotions center” in Windows 11, a part of the interface you can visit that highlights all the features and capabilities you might be missing that aren’t enabled yet (like the Windows Backup app). You can visit it if you’re really curious to see how you can improve your Windows installation through other Microsoft services, and all these kinds of messages are limited here and don’t seem unwanted in the day-to-day use of the operating system, when they officially become “annoying,” so to speak.
Sadly, this will never happen, but hey, we can only hope.
The other problem is that many people with a OneDrive account will have a basic free allotment of 5GB of storage space. That's not going to be enough to back up the contents of an entire PC. So you'll have to shell out money to get more space through a OneDrive subscription, which is clearly what Microsoft is aiming for with this new initiative.
At the same time, it’s a great idea to have your PC backed up this way (or, in some way, to make sure you have some sort of backup system in place) and there’s nothing wrong with OneDrive either. It’s just the way Microsoft has approached things here that’s off-putting and, as we noted at the start, is perhaps more likely to convince people not to use OneDrive on principle and look for another cloud backup service instead.
