How to refresh, reset, or restore your PC

Note: For information about this topic in Windows 10, see Recovery options in Windows 10.

If you’re having problems with your PC, you can:

Refresh your PC to reinstall Windows and keep your personal files and settings. Refresh also keeps the apps that came with your PC and the apps you installed from the Microsoft Store.

Reset your PC to reinstall Windows but delete your files, settings, and apps—except for the apps that came with your PC.

Restore your PC to undo recent system changes you’ve made.

If you’re having trouble starting (booting) your PC, see Windows Startup Settings (including safe mode), and go to the “Get to Windows Startup Settings in the Windows Recovery Environment” section. You can refresh, reset, or restore your PC from the Windows Recovery Environment.

If you want to back up and restore your personal files using File History, see Set up a drive for File History.

Before you start to refresh or reset your PC

In most cases, once you start to refresh or reset your PC, it’ll finish on its own. However, if Windows needs missing files, you’ll be asked to insert recovery media, which is typically on a DVD disc or thumb drive. If that happens, what you’ll need depends on your PC.

If your PC came with Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1, you’ll need the discs or thumb drive that came with your PC. Check the info that came with your PC to see if your PC manufacturer provided these discs or media. In some cases, you might have created them when you first set up your PC.

If you don’t have either of those, you can make them if you have a USB thumb drive of 16 GB or larger. Having a recovery drive can help you troubleshoot and fix problems with your PC, even if it won’t start. For more info, see Create a USB recovery drive.

If you upgraded your PC to Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1 with a DVD, use that disc. If you don’t have Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1 media, contact Microsoft Support.

Refresh, reset, or restore

Select any of the following for more detailed info.

If your PC isn’t performing as well as it once did, and you don’t know why, you can refresh your PC without deleting any of your personal files or changing your settings.

Note: If you upgraded your PC from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 and your PC has a Windows 8 recovery partition, refreshing your PC will restore Windows 8. You’ll need to upgrade to Windows 8.1 after the refresh has finished.

Warning: Apps you installed from websites and DVDs will be removed. Apps that came with your PC and apps you installed from Microsoft Store will be reinstalled. Windows puts a list of removed apps on your desktop after refreshing your PC.

To refresh your PC

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings.
(If you’re using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.)

Tap or click Update and recovery, and then tap or click Recovery.

Under Refresh your PC without affecting your files, tap or click Get started.

Follow the instructions on the screen.

If you want to recycle your PC, give it away, or start over with it, you can reset it completely. This removes everything and reinstalls Windows.

Note: If you upgraded your PC from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 and your PC has a Windows 8 recovery partition, resetting your PC will restore Windows 8. You’ll need to upgrade to Windows 8.1 after the reset has finished.

Warning: All of your personal files will be deleted and your settings will be reset. All apps that you installed will be removed. Only apps that came with your PC will be reinstalled.

To reset your PC

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings.
(If you’re using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.)

Tap or click Update and recovery, and then tap or click Recovery.

Under Remove everything and reinstall Windows, tap or click Get started.

Follow the instructions on the screen.

Note: You’ll be asked to choose whether you want to erase data quickly or thoroughly. If you choose to erase data quickly, some data might be recoverable using special software. If you choose to erase data thoroughly, this will take longer but it makes recovering data less likely.

If you think an app or driver that you recently installed caused problems with your PC, you can restore Windows back to an earlier point in time, called a restore point. System Restore doesn’t change your personal files, but it might remove recently installed apps and drivers.

System Restore isn’t available for Windows RT 8.1.

Windows automatically creates a restore point when you install desktop apps and new Windows updates, if the last restore point is older than 7 days. You can also create a restore point manually at any time.

To restore your PC to an earlier point in time

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
(If you’re using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.)

Enter Control Panel in the search box, and tap or click Control Panel.

Enter Recovery in the Control Panel search box, and then tap or click Recovery.

Tap or click Open System Restore, and then follow the instructions.

If you need additional help refreshing, resetting, or restoring your PC, check out the Repair and Recovery community pages in the Windows forum for solutions that other people have found for problems they’ve experienced.

Desktop Won`t Refresh On Windows 10

Replies (1) 

Thank you for posting the query on Microsoft Community. Sorry to hear that you are facing this issue with Windows 10. Not to worry, I am here to help you with this issue.

• Since when are you facing this issue?
• Have you made any changes to the system prior to this issue?

In order to troubleshoot the issue, I would suggest you to try the following steps and check if the issue persists.

Step 1:

To diagnose whether this issue occurs in “Safe Mode” , let’s reboot the computer in safe mode with networking and check if the issue appears there as well.

Safe mode is a diagnostic mode for Windows that starts your computer in a limited state. Only the basic files and drivers necessary to run Windows are started. This helps us in identifying whether the issue is due to some third party programs conflict. The word Safe mode appear in the concern of your monitor to identify which windows mode you are using.

Follow the steps given below and check if that helps.

1. Unplug external devices connected to the computer expect keyboard and mouse .

2. From login screen, press Shift key and click on the Power button and click restart to enter Advanced Boot Options.

3. In this page select troubleshoot option.

4. And click on Advance option .

5. Select Startup setting from advance option.

6. Here you will find Restart button, just click on it.

7. In new windows press F5 to login with safe mode with networking.

If the issue does not exist, try to clean boot the system.

Step 2: Perform Clean Boot.

Placing your system in Clean Boot state helps in identifying if any third party applications or startup items are causing the issue. Check this issue in clean boot state.

1. Press Windows key + X key. And select Run.
2. Type msconfig in the Run box and hit Enter.
3. On the Services tab of the System Configuration dialog box, tap or click to select the Hide all Microsoft services check box, and then tap or click Disable all .
4. On the Startup tab of the System Configuration dialog box, tap or click Open Task Manager .
5. On the Startup tab in Task Manager, for each startup item, select the item and then click Disable .
6. Close Task Manager.
7. On the Startup tab of the System Configuration dialog box, tap or click OK , and then restart the computer.

For more information refer the below link.

How to perform a clean boot in Windows

Note: After troubleshooting, refer to this section » How to reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshooting «.

Hope this information is helpful. Do let us know if you need any further assistance, we’ll be glad to assist you.

Desktop or Explorer does not refresh automatically in Windows 10

The Windows Desktop or Windows File Explorer window or folder will automatically refresh itself when you make a change to its contents. This could be creating a new shortcut, creating or saving a new file or folder in it, and so on.

But at times, you may find that the desktop or the window may not auto-refresh, and to see the changes; you have to manually Refresh it, either by pressing F5 or via the context menu.

Explorer does not refresh automatically

If Windows 10 desktop is not refreshing automatically or auto-refresh does not work, and you need to manually refresh it, then you can follow these steps to try and fix the problem.

Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following registry key:

64-Bit users may have to look in:

Here right-click on CLSID and select Find to search for dontrefresh . If you find it, and if it has a value set to 1, change its value to 0.

You will probably find it at one of these locations depending on whether your Windows is 32-bit or Windows 64-bit:

If you do not see it, you will have to create the path \Instance\dontrefresh by right-clicking and selecting New > DWORD at each level as follows:

• Right-click > New > Key > Name it
• Right-click > New > Key > Name it Instance
• Right-click Instance > New > DWORD for 32-bit systems -OR- QWORD for 64-bit systems.
• Then again right-click this WORD, rename it to dontrefresh and give it a value 0.

This is known to have helped fix the problem in most cases.

If it does not, here are a few other suggestions:

1] Use ShellExView from Nirsoft and disable third-party shell extensions which may be obstructing the smooth functioning of Windows Explorer. This may be a trial-and-error method.

2] From the Task Manager, kill the explorer.exe process and then restart it again. Also, restore the default Explorer Settings. To do so, open Folder Options and under the General tab, press Restore Defaults. Click Apply and Exit.

3] Some have found that deleting the thumbnail cache and rebuilding the icon cache has helped them resolve the issue.

4] Reboot in Clean Boot State and try to troubleshoot the issue.

This problem appears to be quite common – so much so that there is even an acronym made for it: WEDR – Windows Explorer Doesn’t Refresh!

Microsoft has released some hotfixes to resolve such issues at KB960954 and KB823291. Please check IF they apply to your operating system and situation before you decide to download and apply them.

See this post if your Desktop icons load slowly at startup in Windows 10.

UPDATE: Please also see the comment by tralala/Truth101/Guest below.

TIP: Check this post if you find that your Recycle Bin does not refresh correctly.

Date: December 28, 2019 Tags: Desktop, Tips

What does Refresh Desktop or Refresh explorer window actually do?

I am sure that you must have noticed that when you right-click on your Windows desktop or inside an open explorer window, you see an option called Refresh in the context menu. The Refresh option has been there since you can remember!

But have you really wondered what this option actually does? Does it refresh your Windows OS and keep it running smoothly? Does it make your Windows faster? Or maybe you think it will clear your computer’s memory or refresh the RAM…? Actually it is none of these!

What does Refresh Desktop or Folder do

The Desktop is nothing but a folder in the Windows operating system. It is programmed to auto-refresh when its contents change. When the contents of the folder changes, it will auto-refresh. But at times, you may find that the desktop or folder does not auto-refresh.

You may then need to refresh your desktop manually in the following circumstances:

• The desktop does not display the files or folders you just created, moved, deleted, renamed or saved on it
• You need to re-align your desktop icons
• You find that you cannot use the desktop icons.
• Files that were created to the desktop by some 3rd-party application do not appear
• And such similar situations where the contents of the desktop or the folder do not change when expected to.

In such a case, when you press F5 or right-click on your Windows desktop and select Refresh, the situation will be corrected. Manually refreshing the desktop or folder may re-order its contents as, folders first, then files, in alphabetical order.

But if you constantly need to use the Refresh option frequently, to refresh your desktop or explorer windows, you may want to see this fix – Desktop does not refresh automatically in Windows.

Why do some people Refresh desktop constantly?

You may have noticed that some people just refresh their desktops frequently for the sake of refreshing it. It has become almost like a compulsive disorder, to refresh the desktop constantly. You may have noticed this habit especially among some Computer Engineers and Technicians who are obsessed with using the Refresh option – almost in a state of frenzy.

What is the reason for this? There is no need or reason to do this. It is just a silly habit, they simply need to break.

Do you have any friends who are in habit of using the Refresh Desktop option frequently? Maybe you want to share this post with them.

Or maybe you too are one of them … if so do try and break this habit! 😉

NOTE: The Refresh option cannot be removed from the right-click context menu, or changed as it is not a shell extension, but is hardcoded in the operating system.

Date: December 28, 2017 Tags: Desktop, Tips