- Windows 11 has a new pop-up for testing but this one could actually be useful
- It reminds them with a Microsoft account that has not created their recovery access as they need it to help defend against hackers
- If you have not sorted the recovery process you can run into thorny problems if you forget your password
Microsoft has another new piece of nagging in the test for Windows 11, although this particular reminder is useful (as opposed to the ads that many of its ‘recommendations’ really are).
This is a change to push people to make sure the recovery mechanism of their Microsoft account is in place and it appears in a fresh Windows 11 advance view of the DEV and Beta channels (Build 26120.3380 of 24h2).
The pop-up or the toast message, which is officially known, reminds the Windows 11 user to add a secondary email or phone number to their account for recovery purposes.
This will only be presented to people who are signed in their Microsoft account on the PC and has not said that the recovery feature is activated (which you might guess).
Analysis: One step to defend your account against being hacked
Why is this a good kind of pushing, as opposed to the more annoying effort (which borders ads, or are actually ads, like the one for PC Game Pass)? Mainly because it is really important that you perform the recovery setup to your Microsoft account.
For those uninitiated, the recovery procedure comes into play when you have forgotten your password and therefore cannot enter your account to allow you to restore access. Of course, Microsoft must be sure that it is you – and not a dishonest hacker – trying to access the account and therefore needs a method to verify what a hacker would not be able to use. Namely, the secondary E -email address, or better yet, your smartphone that can provide a verifying factor, and then allow you to reset the forgotten password to something else.
I would then argue that Microsoft is not out of line with getting the Windows 11 user to sort this as it is important to do so (you can say the same about the recent prod to back up your PC, even if it is a little different in my book).
Still, in this case, Microsoft’s nag gets a care from me, but apparently it is still possible to turn it off if you wish. As Windows latest observes (without confirming that is the case), pop -up must be disabled by turning off all ‘additional settings’ slides under System> Notifications In the Settings app.
In any case, it is worth remembering that this is only rolled out in the early stages of testing at the moment, and it may not reach the release version of Windows 11. I imagine it is likely to make the clip and get to all Windows 11 users in the end.
