How to Stop Word from Creating Backup Files? Here Are 2 Ways!

If you enable the automatic backup in Microsoft Word, it will create a copy of the most recently saved version in the same folder as the original document. This can prevent Word file loss or corruption if you accidentally delete a Word document or lose files while transferring them to other devices. However, some Windows 11/10 users want to stop Word from creating backup files for the following reasons:

• It’s hard to find the target files since everything you work on is backed up in the original folder.
• Too many backups in the original folder may cause Microsoft Word to freeze or stop.
• Too many backup files accumulated in the original folder will cause your word to close abnormally.

2 Ways to Stop Word From Creating Backup Files

Way 1: Via the Microsoft Word App

How to stop Word from creating backup files? First, you can use the Microsoft Word app. Here is how to do that:

1. Open your Microsoft Word. Go to File > Options > Advanced.

2. Scroll down to find the Save part and uncheck the Always create backup copy option.

Way 2: Via Registry Editor

You can also prevent Word from creating backup files via Registry Editor. Here are the detailed steps:

1. Press the Windows + R keys together to open the Run dialogue box. Type regedit in it to open Registry Editor.

2. Go to the following path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Options

3. Then, find the BackupDuringSave value and double-click it to change its value from 1 to 0.

Create an Incremental Backup for Your Word

Although disabling Microsoft Word to create backup files ensures that Word works smoothly, the risk of losing important documents will increase. So, there are better ways to protect important Word files. You can choose to create an incremental and automatic backup for your Microsoft Word files, that is to say, you can only back up the changed files that can save your space.

To do this task, there is a piece of free backup software for you – MiniTool ShadowMaker. It is designed to back up the operating system, disks, partitions, files, and folders and clone SSD to larger SSD.

1. Download, install, and launch MiniTool ShadowMaker. Then click Keep Trial.

MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

2. After entering its main interface, go to the Backup page. Click SOURCE and choose Folders and Files to select your Word files.

3. Then click DESTINATION to choose a target disk to save the backup image. It’s recommended to choose the external hard drive as the destination.

4. To set the incremental backup, you need to go to Options and click Backup Scheme.  By default, the Backup Scheme button is disabled and you need to turn it on.

5. Then, click Back Up Now to start the backup task

Final Words

To sum up, as for how to stop Word from creating backup files, this post has shown 2 reliable solutions. In addition, after reading this post, you may already know how to create the incremental backup for your Microsoft Word files.