Quote:One of the features that Microsoft's Windows operating system was lacking up until now was an option to restore installed apps on devices during setup.

Google's Android operating system, for instance, supports the functionality, so that all apps from Google Play may be installed on a new device automatically.

Microsoft revealed that Windows 11 will be getting such functionality this year. It works for Microsoft accounts and will save information about apps in the cloud. A user who has used the feature on a PC in the past may use it to restore apps and some settings on another device. This may speed up setup of a new Windows PC, but there is a caveat.

The backup and restore feature is powered by Microsoft Store, which may also mean that it is limited to apps offered on the Store. Microsoft has not specified this and we will have to wait until the company reveals more details about the feature or releases it to the public. Windows users who do not use the Microsoft Store much or at all won't really benefit from the feature if it is limited to the Microsoft Store catalog.

The feature works as expected. Windows users who sign-in with a Microsoft account receive a prompt during the initial setup of the device. Microsoft asks them whether they want to restore apps and settings from a backup.



Users who accept this will have the apps downloaded from the Microsoft Store when they select the application icons on their taskbar and Start Menu. It is not as automated as it could be, as apps appear to be downloaded only when a user activates an icon for the first time.

 Functionality may change before the official release or improved at a later stage. Microsoft could, for instance, use the Windows Package Manager winget to download non-Store programs to the user's device, if they were part of a cloud backup. This is speculation however.

Closing Words

Microsoft customers who use the Store to download apps will benefit from this feature the most, there is no doubt about that. It still sounds a bit unpractical, if it is true that apps are only downloaded when users click on the pinned icons after setup.

Now You: useful feature or not, what do you think?
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