Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune

Let’s learn how to Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune. File history is a powerful backup feature, helps us protect our files and folders from accidental loss or damage. Here we are going to disable this facility.

File History is an automatic backup feature that backs up our user folder libraries to a selected external USB storage device. It also keeps a history of file versions for users. With File History enabled, you will have backup versions of your files available.

We can then select and restore previous versions of files preserved by the File History feature. If we enable the “Turn off File History” policy setting, we will not be able to create regular, automatic backups. If we disable or do not configure this policy setting, File history can be activated to create regular, automatic backups.

Now, we know what happens when we disable or enable the policy. Let’s learn how to deploy the policy “Turn off File History” by setting the catalog in Intune. Here are the step-by-step guidelines of how to deploy the policy.

What Is Intune Compliance Policies?

Microsoft Intune compliance policies are sets of rules and conditions that we use to evaluate the configuration of our managed devices. These policies help secure organizational data and resources from devices that do not meet configuration requirements. To be compliant with Intune, managed devices must meet the conditions set in your policies.

Microsoft recommends configuring catalog profiles to create and manage security policies for all Windows devices managed by Intune. The Intune Settings Catalog is the most comprehensive resource for all policy settings within Intune.

Steps For Turn Off File History
Go to the Intune Admin Center portal
Go to Devices > Windows >Configuration > Create > New Policy

Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune – Table.1

Creation of Policy

To create a policy on the Intune Settings Catalog, begin by selecting the appropriate Platform and Profile type for our configuration. In this instance, we will select “Windows 10 and later” as the Platform. Next, select “Settings Catalog” as the Profile type. This process ensures that the policy is customized to meet the specific needs of our organization’s Windows devices.

Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune - Fig.1 — Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune – Fig.1

Next, we will navigate to the Basic Tab. This is the first tab in the Intune Settings catalog where you can create a profile. In this window, you’ll need to enter a Name and a Description for your policy. This information will help you identify the policy later on. After entering the details, click the Next button to proceed.

Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune - Fig.2 — Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune – Fig.2

Next, we will move on to the Configuration section, where we will select the settings for +Add to initiate the profile creation process. This section is used to choose the settings you want to configure.

Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune - Fig.3 — Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune – Fig.3

Setting Picker

Then, the Settings Picker window will open, and you can search for the keyword of the search item. Here, the keyword is Turn off File History. Then click on the Search button. After, you can browse by category and click on system. There we can see more information about our policy. Click the ‘Learn more’ Button.

Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune - Fig.4 — Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune – Fig.4

Policy Features

This policy setting allows you to turn off File History. If you enable this policy setting, File History cannot be activated to create regular, automatic backups. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, File History can be activated to create regular, automatic backups.

/Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/System/TurnOffFileHistory

Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune - Fig.5 — Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune – Fig.5

The window below helps you show the Configuration settings page. The list below helps you show how to Enable and Disable the Turn off File History.

Enable Turn Off File History – Toggle the pane to the Right side
Disable Turn Off File History– Toggle the pane to the Left side

Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune - Fig.6 — Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune – Fig.6

Scope Tags

Scope Tag is the next stage in our Profile Creation. We can easily skip this section or add Scope tags for your profile. However, a scope tag is not mandatory for this profile creation. If we want to skip this section, we need to click on the Next button to continue.

Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune - Fig.7 — Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune – Fig.7

Next is the Assignment section. In this section, we can Add groups to turn off File History. For this, we need to add groups to the included groups. After that, a new window will appear, and we can select a group from there. Then click on the Select button and click on the Next button.

Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune - Fig.8 — Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune – Fig.8

The Final section is Review + Create. In this window, we can see all the details of our profile. It gives us a summary of the profile and shows the previous sections of profile creation. We can quickly go to the earlier sections if any changes are needed. After confirming all the steps, we can complete the Profile creation.

Click on the Review + Create button from this window

Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune - Fig.9 — Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune – Fig.9

Policy Creation

After clicking the Create button, you will get a notification on the Intune Portal as “Policy Turn Off File History created successful”. We can easily check the newly added policy in the Intune Portal.

Devices > Configuration> Policy Name

Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune - Fig.10 — Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune – Fig.10

Device and User Check-in Status

When clicking on the Policy, another window will appear, and we can see an elaborate view of the policy details. Clicking the View Report option will display the Device’s name, logged-in user’s name, check-in status, Filter, and the last report modification time.

Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune - Fig.11 — Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune – Fig.11

MSM Policy Manager–Event Log

The Intune event ID 813 assure that a string policy is applied on the Windows 11 or 10 devices. We can also see the exact value of the policy being applied on the devices.

We can check the Event log path to confirm this – Applications and Services Logs – Microsoft – Windows – Device management-Enterprise-Diagnostics-Provider – Admin.

Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune - Fig.12 — Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune – Fig.12

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Author

Anoop C Nair has been Microsoft MVP for 10 consecutive years from 2015 onwards. He is a Workplace Solution Architect with more than 22+ years of experience in Workplace technologies. He is a Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group Community leader. His primary focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM and Intune. He writes about technologies like Intune, SCCM, Windows, Cloud PC, Windows, Entra, Microsoft Security, Career, etc.

Written by

Anoop C Nair

Anoop C Nair is Workplace Technology solution architect with 25+ years of experience in global enterprise organizations such as JP Morgan, Capgemini, etc. Microsoft Certified Trainer. Microsoft MVP from 2015 onwards for consecutive 11+ years! He also conducts Intune and modern workplace tech training for enterprise organizations. He is Blogger, Speaker, and Founder of HTMD Community and HTMD Conference. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like Intune, Windows, Cloud PC. He writes about technologies like Intune, SCCM, Windows, Cloud PC, Windows, Entra, Microsoft Security.

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Setting Up Turn Off File History with Settings Catalog in Intune

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Table of Contents

What Is Intune Compliance Policies?