Recovery options in Windows 10

If you’re having problems with your PC, the following table can help you decide which recovery option to use.

See this section

Your PC isn’t working well and you recently installed an update.

Your PC isn’t working well and it’s been a while since you installed an app, driver, or update.

Your PC won’t start, you haven’t created a recovery drive, and resetting your PC didn’t work.

Your PC won’t start and you haven’t created a recovery drive.

Your PC won’t start and you’ve created a recovery drive.

You want to reinstall your previous operating system.

Your PC isn’t working well and you recently installed an app.

Click one of the recovery options below and follow the steps to try to get things working again.

If you’ve recently installed a Windows update, uninstall the update to try to resolve the issue.

Select the Start button, then select Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > View your update history > Uninstall updates.
View update history settings

Right-click the update you want to remove, and then select Uninstall.

Important: If you’ve encrypted your device, you’ll need your BitLocker key to reset your PC If you don’t know your BitLocker key, see Find my BitLocker recovery key.

Resetting reinstalls Windows 10, but lets you choose whether to keep your files or remove them, and then reinstalls Windows. You can reset your PC from Settings, the sign-in screen, or by using a recovery drive or installation media.

Reset your PC from Settings

Select the Start button, then select Settings > Update & Security > Recovery .
Open Recovery settings

Under Reset this PC, select Get started and then choose from the options and/or settings in the table below.

Keep my files > Change settings > Preinstalled apps On

Reinstalls Windows 10 and keeps your personal files.

Removes apps and drivers you installed.

Removes changes you made to settings.

Restores any apps your PC manufacturer installed if your PC came with Windows 10.

Keep my files > Change settings > Preinstalled apps Off

Reinstalls Windows 10 and keeps your personal files.

Removes apps and drivers you installed.

Removes changes you made to settings.

Removes any apps your PC manufacturer installed.

Reinstalls Windows 10 and removes your personal files.

Removes apps and drivers you installed.

Removes changes you made to settings.

Removes any apps your PC manufacturer installed. (If your PC came with Windows 10, apps from your PC manufacturer will be reinstalled.)

Note: Remove everything > Change settings gives you two options.

Data erasure On removes files and cleans the drive. If you’re planning to donate, recycle, or sell your PC, use this option. This might take an hour or two, but it makes it harder for other people to recover files you’ve removed.

Data erasure Off just removes files. It takes less time, but is less secure.

Reset your PC from the sign-in screen

If you can’t open Settings, you can reset your PC from the sign-in screen. Here’s how:

Press Windows logo key + L to get to the sign-in screen, and then restart your PC by pressing the Shift key while you select the Power button > Restart in the lower-right corner of the screen.

Your PC will restart in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) environment.

On the Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot > Reset this PC, and then choose one of the options in the previous table.

Connect the installation media you created to your PC and reinstall Windows 10.

Open File Explorer and select the drive with the installation media.

From the root directory of the drive, double-click setup.exe, and then select Yes when asked if you’d like to allow the app to make changes to your device.

Select Change what to keep.

Select one of the following options, and then select Next:

Keep personal files and apps – This will preserve your personal data, apps, and settings.

Keep personal files only – This will preserve your personal data and settings, but all your apps will be removed.

Keep nothing – This will remove all personal data, settings, and apps.

Warning: You cannot undo a reinstallation of Windows 10. Be sure to back up your files first if you choose the Keep nothing option.

To finish, select Install to start reinstalling Windows 10 on your PC.

Your PC will restart several times during the resinstallation.

Important: If you’ve encrypted your device, you’ll need your BitLocker key to use a recovery drive to restore or reset your PC If you don’t know your BitLocker key, see Find my BitLocker recovery key.

If your PC won’t start and you haven’t created a recovery drive, download installation media and use it to restore from a system restore point or reset your PC.

Download the Windows 10 media creation tool and then run it.

Select Create installation media for another PC.

Choose a language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit).

Follow the steps to create installation media, and then select Finish.

Connect the installation media you created to your nonfunctional PC, and then turn it on.

On the initial setup screen, enter your language and other preferences, and then select Next. If you don’t see the setup screen, your PC might not be set up to boot from a drive. Check your PC manufacturer’s website for info on how to change your PC’s boot order, and then try again.

Select Repair your computer.

On the Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot. From there, you can:

Restore from a system restore point by selecting Advanced options > System Restore. This will remove recently installed apps, drivers, and updates that might be causing your PC problems. Restoring from a restore point won’t affect your personal files.

Important: If you’ve encrypted your device, you’ll need your BitLocker key to use a recovery drive to restore or reset your PC If you don’t know your BitLocker key, see Find my BitLocker recovery key.

If your PC won’t start, you can use a recovery drive to restore from a system restore point or recover your PC. For info on how to create a recovery drive on a working PC, see Create a recovery drive.

Note: If you are using a Surface, see Creating and using a USB recovery drive for Surface to download and create a USB recovery image specifically for your Surface device.

To restore or recover using the recovery drive:

Connect the recovery drive and turn on your PC.

Press Windows logo key + L to get to the sign-in screen, and then restart your PC by pressing the Shift key while you select the Power button> Restart in the lower-right corner of the screen.

Your PC will restart in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) environment.

On the Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot, and then select one of the following two options. (If you don’t see the Choose your option screen, your PC might not be set up to boot from a drive. Check your PC manufacturer’s website for info on how to change your PC’s boot order.)

To restore from a system restore point, select Advanced Options > System Restore. This won’t affect your personal files, but it will remove recently installed apps, drivers, and updates that might be causing your PC problems.

To reinstall Windows 10, select Advanced Options > Recover from a drive. This will remove your personal files, apps and drivers you installed, and changes you made to settings.

For a limited time after upgrading to Windows 10, you’ll be able to go back to your previous version of Windows by selecting the Start button, then select Settings > Update & Security > Recovery and then selecting Get started under Go back to the previous version of Windows 10. This will keep your personal files, but it’ll remove apps and drivers installed after the upgrade, as well as any changes you made to settings. In most cases, you’ll have 10 days to go back.
Open Recovery settings

To go back, you’ll need to:

Keep everything in the windows.old and $windows.

bt folders after the upgrade.

Remove any user accounts you added after the upgrade.

Know the password you used to sign in to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 (if you used one).

Have the USB drive you used to upgrade to Windows 10 (if you used one).

Note: If you go back to Windows 8.1, some apps that came with Windows, like Mail and People, might not work anymore. To fix the apps, reinstall them from the Microsoft Store.

Note: The option in Settings to go back to your previous version of Windows is only available for a limited time after upgrading.

Info for Windows Insiders

If you’re an Insider and the current preview build isn’t working for you, select the Start button, then select Settings > Update & Security > Recovery . Under Go back to the previous version of Windows 10, select Get Started. This won’t remove your personal files, but it’ll remove recently installed apps and drivers, and change settings back to their defaults.

Going back to an earlier build won’t remove you from the Insider Program. When the next preview build is ready, it’ll be installed on your PC.

This option takes your PC back to an earlier point in time, called a system restore point. Restore points are generated when you install a new app or driver, and when you create a restore point manually. Restoring won’t affect your personal files, but it will remove apps, drivers, and updates installed after the restore point was made.

In the search box on the taskbar, type control panel,andthen choose it from the list of results

In the Control Panel search box, type recovery.

Select Recovery > Open System Restore.

In the Restore system files and setting box, select Next.

Select the restore point that you want to use in the list of results, and then select Scan for affected programs.

If you don’t see the restore point that you want to use, select the Show more restore points check box to see more restore points.

If you’re not seeing any restore points, it might be because system protection isn’t turned on. Here’s how to check:

In the search box on the taskbar, type control panel,andthen choose it from the list of results.

In the Control Panel search box, type recovery.

Select Recovery > Configure System Restore > Configure and see if the Turn on system protection option is selected.

If the Turn on system protection option is not selected, system protection isn’t turned on and there aren’t any restore points. In this scenario, you won’t be able to recovery your PC using a system restore point and will need to use one of the other recovery options listed on this page.

If the Turn on system protection option is selected, continue with step 6.

You’ll see a list of items that will be deleted if you remove this restore point. If you’re OK with the deletions, select Close> Next > Finish.

How to Repair Windows 10 Using Command Prompt (5 Ways)?

When your computer won’t work properly, you can learn how to repair Windows 10 using command prompt from this article.

By AOMEI / Last Updated March 9, 2021

How do I repair Windows 10 with command prompt?

When there is some problem happens to Windows, you can repair your windows with some basic repair like Windows directory repair, boot directory repair. When the error is too serious, you can run advanced repair like system restore. For Windows 10, you can also use DISM command line utility to repair Windows 10 image. Next, this article will introduce you how to repair Windows 10 using command prompt with five methods.

Method 1. How to repair Windows 10 using SFC?

SFC (System File Checker) is a command-line utility that can scan for corruption in Windows system files and replace any corrupted or missing protected system files with a known good version. When you feel buggy with your computer or notice problems during boot, you can use SFC to diagnose problems and repair it.В

To repair Windows 10 using SFC with detailed steps:

1. Open «Start», search for the Command Prompt, select it and run as administrator.

2. Then type the command: «sfc /scannow» and press «Enter».

If SFC is unable to fix the problem, probably the utility cannot get the necessary files from the Windows image, which might have become broken. In this situation, you can use DISM to repair the Windows image.

Method 2. How to repair Windows 10 using DISM?

Windows 10 includes a command-line utility known as DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management). DISM command Windows 10 can be used to repair and prepare Windows images, including, Windows Setup, Windows Recovery Environment, and Windows PE. Also, DISM can be used to fix the recovery image within an installation of the operating system.

To repair Windows 10 using DISM commands:

To check whether there is any corruption, Run command line as administrator, then type the following syntaxВ and press «Enter».

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

To scan the Windows image for any corruption, type below command and hit «Enter».

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

To fix Windows image, type the following command and hit «Enter».

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:repairSource\install.wim

Method 3. How to reset Windows 10 with command line?

To reset Windows 10 with «Reset this PC», follow the instructions below:

Type “systemreset -cleanpc” in an elevated command prompt and press «Enter».В (If your computer cannot boot, you can boot into recovery mode and select «Troubleshoot», and then choose «Reset this PC».)

Method 4. How to run system restore with command prompt?

If the problem is too severe, you can try to restore your Windows 10 to the previous state as long as you have enabled system restore. But, it willВ notВ restoreВ documents, music, emails, or personal files of any kind. If this is what you need, see below.

To run system restore in safe mode, follow the steps below:

1. Start your computer and press «F8» repeatedly until the Windows advanced options menu appears.

2. Click «Safe Mode with command prompt» and press «Enter». If your computer can boot normally, type «cmd» in the search box and click «Command Prompt» to continue.

3. Sign in using an administrator account if needed. Once the command prompt is showing, enterВ «rstrui.exe» at first in the Command Prompt Window andВ press «Enter» to continue.

4. This command will bring you to the interface of System Restore. You can either use the recommended restore point or click «Next» to choose an available restore point. Then, follow the instruction to complete system restore.

Method 5. How to repair Windows 10 with AOMEI.exe?

Besides system restore, you can also repair Windows 10 with AOMEI.exe. AOMEI Backupper is a reliable backup and restore software which is designed for Windows 10/8/7/XP/Visa. You can either backup and restore from graphic users interface or command line. It has some features that Windows built-in tool does not have. For example, you can use AOMEI Backupper to create incremental backup, and you can restore to a dissimilar hardware.

Suppose you have created system image backup with AOMEI Backupper. Before restoring system, you can use a utility named Check Image to check if system image backup is intact and without error.В

Then, use the following steps to restore windows 10 with AOMEI.exe:

1. Navigate to AOMEI Backupper installation directory by typing the following command in command line and press «Enter». For example: cd C:\Program Files (x86)\AOMEI Backupper.

Note: If you run this command under Windows PE environment, the drive letters might change.

2. Run the following command to start restore: AMBackup /r /t [backup type] /s «[backup location path]» /d [destination location]. For example: To restore the system backup saved in J:\systembackup1 to disk 1. You should type the command: AMBackup /r /t system /s “J:\system backup\systembackup1.adi” /d 1

Tip: If you need to restore to another computer, AOMEI Backupper «Universal Restore» feature can make this very easy. For example: Run system restore in the image named «systembackup1.adi» to the partition 0 on disk 0 and perform a universal restore. AMBackup /r /t system /s «D:\system backup\systembackup1.adi» /d 0:0 /x

Now you have learned how to repair Windows 10 using command line with five methods. You can choose one based on your preference. It is also suggested to keep backup software AOMEI Backupper installed on your computer to provide continuous protection (try 30-day free trial).В

Also, you can find «Recovery Environment» utility in «Tools» toВ enable the boot option of AOMEI Backupper recovery environment. When system crashes, it enables you to perform backup/restore from boot easily.

If you want to protect unlimited computers within your company, you can pick AOMEI Backupper Technician. With the inbuilt AOMEI Image Deploy tool, you are also allowed to deploy/restore system image file on server-side computer to multiple client-side computers over network.