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.

Reset Windows Security settings to default values in Windows 10

There may come a time when you may want to or need to reset your Windows Security settings to default values. Maybe you messed them while configuring them manually or maybe your PC just recovered from malware infection. If for some reason you’d like to reset all your Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 or Windows Vista security settings to their default values, you may do so as follows.

Reset Windows Security settings

Open an elevated command prompt and type the following command:

After you run this, the standard user accounts may no longer appear on the login screen when you restart your computer or try to switch users.

This occurs because standard user accounts are removed from the Users group when you reset Windows security settings.

To add the affected user’s accounts back to the Users group, follow these steps.

Open an elevated command prompt. In the Command Prompt window, type net users and hit Enter. A list of user accounts will be displayed.

For each account name listed in the Command Prompt that is missing from the log on or switch user screen, type the following command and hit Enter.

In Windows10/8/7/Vista, the Defltbase.inf file is a Security configuration template for the default security. You can view the settings for this file in the following location:

You will see all changes made, in a newly created log file situated at the following location:

If you don’t want to do it manually, you can simply use this Microsoft Fix it 50198 to let do all this, automatically.

Windows 10 indexing — reset to default options

How do I reset the Windows 10 indexing locations to the default values?

I would like to set it back to the «out of the box» state.

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By default, Windows will use the index when searching to give you faster search results. The search index only includes your selected locations . These locations can be filtered for what file types , file properties, and file contents you want yo be indexed. Here are the steps that you can follow to rebuild search index in Windows 10:

1. Open the Control Panel (icons view) , click/tap on the Indexing Options icon, and close the Control Panel.
2. Click/tap on the Advanced button.
3. In the Index Settings tab, click/tap on the Rebuild button under Troubleshooting .
4. Click/tap on OK to confirm.
5. Indexing will now be in progress.
6. When indexing has completed, click/tap on Close .

Let us know if you need further help.

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How to reset all Local Group Policy settings to default in Windows 10

The Group Policy Editor is an important tool for Windows OS using which System Administrators can fine-tune system settings. It has several infrastructural configuration options that allow you to make adjustments to the specific performance and security settings for users and computers. Sometimes you might end up tweaking your Group Policy Editor a bit further down the line where your computer starts behaving in an unwanted way. This is when you know that it’s time to reset all Group Policy settings to default and save yourself the pain of reinstalling Windows again. In this guide, we’ll be showing you how to reset all Group Policy settings to default in Windows 10.

Reset Group Policy to default

Group Policy settings can vary between several configurations like Personalization, Firewall settings, Printers, Security policies, etc. We’ll take a look at several methods using which you can reset the respective policies to their default state.

1] Reset GPO settings using Local Group Policy Editor

Now, this is a very basic one. Follow the below steps in order to reset the modified GPO settings.

1. Press Windows Key + R on your keyboard to launch Run prompt. Enter gpedit.msc and hit Enter to open Local Group Policy Editor.

2. Navigate to the following path on the left side pane of Group Policy Editor window:

Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > All Settings

3. Now, on the right side window, sort the policy settings by State column so that all those policies which are Enabled/Disabled currently can be accessed on the top.

4. Up next, change their state from Enabled/Disabled to Not Configured and apply the settings.

5. Repeat the same for the below path as well.

Local Computer Policy > User Configuration > Administrative Templates > All Settings

6. This will restore all Group Policy settings to the default state. However, if you are facing some serious issues like the loss of administrator privileges or debarred from logging in, then you can try the below method.

2] Restore Local Security Policies to default

Security policies about your administrative account on Windows are maintained in a different management console – secpol.msc (Local Security Policy). This security setting snap-in extends the Group Policy snap-in and helps you define security policies for computers in your domain.

Now, under certain circumstances, you might end up with some messed up Security settings which you can set right if you have retained administrative privileges to your computer.

Follow the below steps to reset the Security policies on your machine:

1. Press Windows Key + X on your keyboard to launch Quick Link menu. Select Command Prompt (Admin) to open an elevated Command Prompt window.

2. Enter the below command in the prompt window and hit Enter:

3. After the task completion, restart your machine to make the changes effective and start afresh with Security policies.

4. If some of the components are still appearing strange, you can go for the next method to hard reset the Group Policy Objects.

Read: How to Import or Export Group Policy settings in Windows 10.

3] Reset Group Policy Objects using Command Prompt

This particular method involves the deletion of the Group Policy settings folder from the drive where Windows is installed. Follow the below steps to get it done using an elevated Command Prompt window.

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt window the same way mentioned in Method 2.

2. Enter these commands in CMD and execute them one by one.

3. Once done, restart your computer.

Make sure you have created a system restore point before making any changes to your registry or policy settings.

Related read: How to repair a corrupt Group Policy in Windows 10.

Date: September 28, 2019 Tags: Group Policy

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Driven by my immense passion for Windows & other Microsoft technologies, I love to keep myself abreast of the latest strides and swings in the world of technology. I am fond of traveling to mountains & love to help others with their technical or non-technical setbacks.

How to Factory Reset Windows 10 to Its Default Settings

Is your Windows 10 laptop or PC giving you trouble? Whether it takes more time for booting or is having frequent error messages, you may want to factory reset Windows 10 to its default settings. This means wiping all the information on your hard drive and starting again with a clean slate.

A Windows 10 reset is definitely a good way to fix many drive update issues and registry errors. However, you have to be patient, as the process can consume a lot of time, so allocate at least a few hours for this activity. This article discusses the various steps of factory reset on a Windows 10 laptop.

Always Make a Backup First

Since a clean reset will wipe all the information you have on your PC, it is necessary to make a backup elsewhere. You can either create a backup to a network drive or copy the files individually to an external hard disk.

I personally like to store the backup on the cloud. For this, I prefer Microsoft OneDrive since it’s tightly integrated with Windows. Also, the files and folders in OneDrive can be uploaded and downloaded exactly in the manner of your Windows PC appearance.

Whatever methods you find to be easy, don’t forget the backup stage, as on rare occasions things do go wrong while doing a factory reset. Screen freezes and infinite restart loops aren’t unheard of. If you encounter such issues during the factory reset, do a cold restart by hard-pressing the power button.

Turn on the “Reset this PC” Option

The Windows 10 reset option can be turned on simply from the Start menu. You can also access it from “Settings.”

Click “Get started” to reset the PC. You can also access this option from an “Advanced startup” menu discussed below.

You will be given two choices for resetting Windows 10. You can either keep your personal file and remove the apps and settings or go nuclear and delete everything.

Before you remove your data, you will be asked one last time whether you want to just remove the files. It also consumes less time than a complete reset. Click “Next” to ignore the advice.

It will take just a few minutes for the reset option to be enabled on your Windows PC.

In the next step your Windows 10 PC will prepare itself to reset everything. The process can take a little time, so be patient.

Once successful, the PC will prepare the restart and proceed further.

The PC will reset now in the background. It is a slow, time-consuming process. Windows will be reinstalled in the background itself. All apps that you installed will be removed. Only the apps that came pre-installed with Windows will be inserted. Wait for the process to complete itself, and you will have a similar desktop and an update back to the factory version of your Windows purchase.

Advanced Startup “Reset” Method

Another option is to reset the Windows PC in Safe mode. This is preferred if you are stuck infinitely in the “Prepare to reset” option in the above section. It is mostly a GUI error. The same procedure is used in safe mode option, but the steps are slightly different as shown below.

To reset Windows 10 in Safe mode, go to “Advanced Startup” in the Start menu. Once the blue screen starts, go to “Troubleshooting” followed by “Reset this PC.” Here, you get a choice to reset only the driver where Windows is installed or all drives. Choose the latter for a complete reset.

In the next step you get a choice to “fully clean the drive” or just “remove the files.”

The reset stage is ready. Once you click the “Reset” button, the PC will restart. and a Windows 10 reset will occur in the background.

Factory resetting the Windows 10 PC should be treated as a last option, as it is not uncommon to encounter problems while doing it. It is best to troubleshoot the issues first, be it a Windows Store error, a Critical Structure Corruption error, or a Bad System Config error. Only reset the PC if none of the solutions work.

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Sayak Boral is a technology writer with over ten years of experience working in different industries including semiconductors, IoT, enterprise IT, telecommunications OSS/BSS, and network security. He has been writing for MakeTechEasier on a wide range of technical topics including Windows, Android, Internet, Hardware Guides, Browsers, Software Tools, and Product Reviews.