Just in case you don't know, starting from Windows 10 version 1803, Microsoft will no longer backup your Registry. And don't feel bad if you weren't aware of it, as neither was I (thanks, gHacks, for letting me know).

The story could be bad enough for the fact that so far, Microsoft hadn't warned about this change. But it can get worse because apart from this fact, the schedulled task to create backup would still be running and, at the end, it would tell the user that the operation was completed successfully. However, as you may already have guessed, it wasn't creating any backup at all.

What used to happen?

Previous versions of Windows would create these backups and place them in the  C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack folder. The backup then would be used to restore Windows to an earlier state, should something go wrong with any change made.

What's happening now?

As stated previously, starting from Windows 10 version 1803 this registry backup isn't being created anymore.

Why it has changed?

We hadn't a clue about the reason behind this change.

A few days ago, yet quietly, Microsoft published a new support page which sheds some light on the matter. Many of us would think it was some sort of bug but with this document, Microsoft made it clear that it's not the case. Rather it was done purposely, starting from Windows 10 version 1803 and all newer versions will be affected by this change.

According to Microsoft they made it to reduce the size of the Windows on the system.

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. 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.

Now what? Is the registry back up option gone forever?

Not at all. While this option is disabled by default, Microsoft hasn't removed it completely, which means that users that see fit will still be able to re-enable it just by changing a registry key.

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.

It's worth noticing that Windows Registry should only be modified if you really know what you are doing and, for that reason, I won't give step by step about modifying keys. The last thing I want is that you make your system unusable by an undue change, specially now that you don't have any backup to count on =)

References:

• gHacks
• Microsoft