What happened to the Backup feature in my Windows 10?

Backup and Restore (Windows 7) was deprecated starting with Windows 8 in favor of File History, though it's still present behind Control Panel in Windows 10 and often in Windows 11. Microsoft encourages using File History or cloud/backups instead of maintaining the old interface

To get it back:

1. Press Win + R, type services.msc, and hit Enter.
2. Find Volume Shadow Copy.
3. Set its Startup Type to Automatic, then click Start if it's not already running. Click Apply and OK

For File History:

1. In the same Services window, locate File History Service.
2. Repeat the steps—set to Automatic and start it if needed.

You also can restore via Control Panel or Optional Features

To use Control Panel:

• Open Control Panel → System and Security → Backup and Restore (Windows 7) — or File History, depending on your backup tool of choice.

To use Windows Features:

1. Press Win + S, search for “Turn Windows features on or off”, and open it.
2. Look for entries like “Windows Backup”, “File History”, or other related tools—sometimes under Legacy Components or Optional Features.
3. Check the box(es), click OK, and allow Windows to install the feature(s). Then restart your PC.

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hth

Marcin

Hello, thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

The classic 'Windows Backup and Restore (Windows 7)' feature is being deprecated by Microsoft and is being replaced with the File History Feature in the Control Panel.

Reference:

Windows 7 Backup and Restore deprecated

However, based on my own experience, I recommend using cloud storage platforms like OneDrive or external hard drives to manually back up all of your important files and then restore them on your PC in case of a system crash and having trouble restoring your computer.

Let me know if you still need more help.