diff --git a/common/changes/@microsoft/rush/patch-1_2025-08-05-13-22.json b/common/changes/@microsoft/rush/patch-1_2025-08-05-13-22.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7cb06e55e35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/changes/@microsoft/rush/patch-1_2025-08-05-13-22.json
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+{
+  "changes": [
+    {
+      "packageName": "@microsoft/rush",
+      "comment": "Remove the public NPM registry from the `.npmrc` generated during `rush init`. The public registry is the default, and including it in the repo's default `.npmrc` will override the user's default registry.",
+      "type": "none"
+    }
+  ],
+  "packageName": "@microsoft/rush"
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/libraries/rush-lib/assets/rush-init/common/config/rush/[dot]npmrc b/libraries/rush-lib/assets/rush-init/common/config/rush/[dot]npmrc
index 43f783886e9..1534451b8c0 100644
--- a/libraries/rush-lib/assets/rush-init/common/config/rush/[dot]npmrc
+++ b/libraries/rush-lib/assets/rush-init/common/config/rush/[dot]npmrc
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 #
 
 # Explicitly specify the NPM registry that "rush install" and "rush update" will use by default:
-registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/
+# registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/
 
 # Optionally provide an authentication token for the above registry URL (if it is a private registry):
 # //registry.npmjs.org/:_authToken=${NPM_AUTH_TOKEN}