Microsoft Retires Windows 11’s Direct PC-to-PC Transfer Feature

Microsoft has retired the PC-to-PC transfer experience it built into Windows Backup for moving files and settings directly from an old Windows PC to a new Windows 11 machine. Microsoft’s main support page for the feature now opens with an explicit notice that the feature is no longer available and tells users to use Windows Backup and Restore instead.

That changes the migration path for people who wanted to move a large local library without first uploading it to cloud storage. The retired workflow paired two PCs on the same Wi-Fi or LAN during setup, let the user select local folders, and copied files and personalization settings directly to the new machine.

Microsoft’s documentation shows that the feature transferred ordinary files plus settings and preferences such as wallpaper and themes. It deliberately excluded installed applications, saved passwords and sign-in credentials, system folders such as Program Files, OneDrive files already available through cloud sync, and data on BitLocker-encrypted drives unless those drives were decrypted first.

The new PC had to run Windows 11 version 2024 or later, while the source PC could run Windows 10 or Windows 11. Microsoft also limited the experience to Microsoft accounts without an existing Windows backup. Those restrictions meant the feature was a migration assistant rather than disk imaging or a complete machine-to-machine clone.

Microsoft’s supported Windows Backup flow restores settings and app pins when a user signs into a new PC with the same Microsoft account. Files backed up through OneDrive become available after signing in, while Microsoft Store apps can be restored from their pins and non-Store apps may direct the user to download an installer again.

For users who do not want to put their files in OneDrive, Microsoft continues to document external USB storage as a supported manual migration route. That path is less integrated than the retired same-network transfer, but it keeps the actual file copy local and does not require cloud storage capacity for the migration.

A direct LAN transfer has a practical advantage when a PC contains hundreds of gigabytes or several terabytes of local photos, projects, downloads or other files that are not already synchronized to a cloud service. The amount of data that can move is then constrained mainly by the two machines, their network connection and available destination storage rather than by cloud quota and internet upload speed.

The retired Windows feature was not uniquely capable of doing that job—users can still copy data over a network share, an external SSD or third-party migration software—but it offered a first-party path during initial Windows setup. Its removal therefore narrows Microsoft’s built-in migration choices at exactly the point where a new-PC buyer is deciding how to bring an existing local library across.