Policy
Turn off SwitchBack Compatibility Engine
Microsoft Windows
Policy overview
Key metadata and intent for this policy.
Supported OS tags: Windows10, Windows10RT, Windows11, Windows7, Windows8, Windows81, WindowsRT, WindowsRT81, WindowsServer2008, WindowsServer2012, WindowsServer2012R2, WindowsServer2016
The policy controls the state of the Switchback compatibility engine in the system. Switchback is a mechanism that provides generic compatibility mitigations to older applications by providing older behavior to old applications and new behavior to new applications. Switchback is on by default. If you enable this policy setting, Switchback will be turned off. Turning Switchback off may degrade the compatibility of older applications. This option is useful for server administrators who require performance and are aware of compatibility of the applications they are using. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, the Switchback will be turned on. Please reboot the system after changing the setting to ensure that your system accurately reflects those changes.
Registry values
How enabled and disabled states update the registry.
| Scope | Registry location | Type | Enabled value | Disabled value | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computer | Path Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\AppCompat Value name SbEnable | REG_DWORD | HKLM 0 | HKLM 1 |
Policy elements
Inputs and configuration options exposed by this policy.
This policy has no additional user input fields.