By default, Windows® Backup notifies end-users to configure Windows Backup. Notifications can appear in the Action Center after seven days without having configured Windows Backup, or when an end-user attaches an external hard drive.

If you do not intend to enable Windows Backup, and instead provide a third-party backup solution to end users, you should disable the Windows Backup notifications.

Disable Windows Backup End-User Notifications

Windows Backup notifications are controlled by a registry key. This registry key is not present in default Windows installations. To disable Windows Backup notifications, you must manually add this registry key, or work with your third-party backup-application vendor to populate this registry key.

  • Key location: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsBackup

  • Key name: DisableMonitoring

  • Type: REG_DWORD

  • Value:

    • If this key is set to 0, or if this key does not exist, then Windows Backup will display notifications to the end user to configure Windows Backup.

    • If this key is set to 1, and an end-user has not already configured Windows Backup, then notifications to configure Windows Backup will not be displayed to the end user in the Action Center, or when a user attaches an external hard disk.

Windows Backup Features, by Edition

The following table describes the different features of Windows Backup and in which Windows editions the features are available.

Windows Backup feature Windows 7 Starter Edition, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 7 Ultimate

Backup and Restore Control Panel

Available

Available

Backup space management

Available

Available

Scheduled file backup

Supports hard disk, CD, and DVD

Available

Available

Scheduled system backup (critical volumes only)

Supports hard disk only

Available

Available

Scheduled file backup to network

Not available

Available

Scheduled system backup to network

Not available

Available

Advanced system backup, which allows backup of manually defined volumes, in addition to critical volumes

Supports hard disk, DVD, and network share

Not available

Available

Group Policy support

Not available

Available

See Also