Resetting Your PC
You don't really know or care about restore points, and you don't want to dig in to Windows to make it work right. Mostly, you just want a one-tap (or click) solution that reams out the old, replaces it with known good stuff, and might or might not destroy your files in the process - at your option. You get the manufacturer's drivers, but you also get the manufacturer's crapware. That's what Microsoft has tried to offer with Reset.
Reset runs in two different ways:
- The Keep My Files option tries to work its magic without disturbing any of your personal data files.
- The Remove Everything option blasts everything away, including your data. It's the scorched-earth approach, to be used when nothing else works, but you still want the hand-holding implicit in a factory refresh.
That's the view from 30,000 feet. Here are the details that you really need to know.
Running a Keep My Files reset keeps all these:
- Many of your Windows settings:
These include accounts and passwords, backgrounds, wireless network connections and their settings, BitLocker settings and passwords, drive letter assignments, and your Windows installation key. - Files in the User folder:
That includes files in every user's Documents folder, the desktop, Downloads, and so on. Refresh also keeps folders manually added to the root of the C: drive, such as C:\MyData. Reset with Keep My Files keeps File History versions, and it keeps folders stored on drives and in partitions that don't contain Windows (typically, that means Refresh doesn't touch anything outside of the C: drive).
Files that aren't kept can be retrieved for several weeks from the C:\Windows. old folder. Yes, Microsoft keeps a secret stash of the files that it really wants to delete - and it's up to you to find them, if something disappears unexpectedly. - Windows Apps from the Windows Store:
Their settings are saved too. So if you're up to the 927th level of Cut the Rope before you run a Reset with Keep My Files, afterward, you're still at the 927th level. Confusingly, if you bought a Windows Desktop app in the Windows Store, its settings get obliterated. Only your Windows/Universal/Metro apps come through unscathed.
Running Reset with the Keep My Files option destroys all of these:
- Many of your Windows settings:
Display settings, firewall customizations, and file type associations are wiped out. Windows has to zap most of your Windows settings because they could be causing problems. - Files - including data files - not in the User folder:
If you have files tucked away in some unusual location, don't expect them to survive the Reset. - Windows Desktop apps:
Their settings disappear too, including the keys you need to install them, passwords in such programs as Outlook - everything. You need to re-install them all.
The Reset routine, helpfully, makes a list of the programs that it identifies on the kill list and puts it on your desktop.
Here's how to run a Reset with the Keep My Files option:
- Make very, very sure you understand what will come through and what won't.
See the preceding bullet lists. - Click or tap the Start icon, the Settings icon, and Update & Security.
- On the left, choose Recovery.
- Under the heading Reset This PC, tap or click Get Started.
Windows asks if you want to keep your files, or obliterate everything. - Unless you're going to recycle your computer - give it to charity or the
kids - first try the less-destructive approach. Click or tap Keep My Files.
If you have apps that won't make it through a Reset with Keep My Files option, a list appears on your screen. - Tap or click Next, and then tap or click Reset.
The entire process takes about ten minutes on a reasonably well-seasoned PC, but it can take longer, particularly on a slow tablet. When Refresh is finished, you end up on the Windows login screen. - Log in to Windows. Tap or click the Desktop tile, and then tap or doubleclick the new Removed Apps file on the desktop.
Your default browser appears and shows you a list of all the programs it identified that didn't make it through the Refresh.
If Windows 10 can't boot normally, you're tossed into the Windows Recovery Environment. See the preceding section in this tutorial for a description of how to start Refresh from the Windows Recovery Environment.
