- Microsoft has set up a new promotional video
- It sells the benefits of transfer to a new PC via the backup application
- However, it also pushes a OneDrive subscription – but there are free alternatives
Microsoft has published a video clip explaining how easy it is to go to Windows 11 using the backup application to transfer the contents of your Windows 10 PC (or most of them anyway).
Windows has spotted Microsoft’s new promotional video, which shows how easy it is to jump to a Windows 11 PC (see the clip below).
As the video indicates, you can save your personal files, Windows settings and also some applications of your Windows 10 PC, and transfer them directly to a Windows 11 computer with a minimum of hassle (or that is certainly the idea).
To be fair to Microsoft, he also underlines the main sockets with the use of the Windows backup application to go to a Windows 11 PC.
Namely, that you cannot take third apps with you – they need manual resettlement, only Microsoft Store applications can be transferred (their pins will be where you left them, and you can click on the relevant pin to restore the application) – and that you are limited to 5 GB of default files.
The 5 GB restriction is in place because the backup that the Windows application creates is stored on OneDrive – so you need an account with the Microsoft cloud storage locker. The free basic account has only 5 GB of cloud storage, and if you want more space than that, you will have to pay a OneDrive subscription.
Analysis: other PC migration options that are free
Thus, the long and the short is, if your data and settings are more than 5 GB – which it will surely be in most cases – you will then need paid planning on OneDrive to guarantee that Windows Backup transfers all your things on a new Windows 11 PC.
In other words, it is Microsoft who does not push an OneDrive subscription so subtly (not for the first time, I could add). If you want to use the Microsoft Integrated Windows backup installation, there is no alternative to OneDrive. If you have paid cloud storage with another supplier, no choice is offered to use this cloud locker instead.
There are alternatives to the payment of a OneDrive subscription to make sure you have sufficient capacity to fully transfer all your files to a new PC. You can simply be very selective on what you choose for the Microsoft backup application to report, and maybe leave aside the big piece of multimedia files (photos, videos) that you can have on your computer.
To move these multimedia files, you can simply copy them to an external reader, then move them manually to the new PC – okay, it’s a bit of additional hassle, but it’s not really a big problem. (If you take this path, do not delete the original PC files until they are transferred safely – always be sure to keep several copies. Never trust a single copy of any data, as in this case, if the external reader will kaput, you have lost everything).
Another possible option will be the PC-TO-PC migration function in the Windows backup application, which transfers your files from one computer to another via the local network (without the need for OneDrive). However, you will still need a Microsoft account, and in this case, no application will be transferred at all (not even those of the Microsoft Store).
Even so, it will be a useful alternative in the future, but the functionality is not yet live. Indeed, it did not appear at all on Windows 10 – only the non -functional shell of the PC -PC migration function is currently available on Windows 11 – but I can only assume that Microsoft works to start this before October 2025, when the management of Windows 10 is dry.
However, Microsoft does not mention the PC-PC migration in the video clip above. Quite fair, as indicated, it does not yet work, and therefore the company has an excuse – but I bet that there will be no fully promotional video campaign and dancer for this functionality during its beginnings. Unlike the OneDrive push, this will not give Microsoft no immediate financial advantage (potential).
