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.

How to Use System Restore from Boot in Windows 10/8/7?

System Restore from boot in Windows 10, 8, 7 can save you from serious system failures. If you find the process too complicated, an easier alternative is available.

By Delia / Last Updated March 3, 2021

System Restore Windows 10 from boot when error arises

As you know, Windows is a very sophisticated operation system, some unintentional mistakes may cause it to malfunction suddenly or even fail to start. Luckily you’ve still got the option to System Restore Windows 10 from boot, thus all the problems could be solved by making faulty OS go back to an earlier date.

To perform System Restore from boot in Windows 10/8/7, you need to access Windows recovery options with a recovery drive or an installation disc. If you don’t have any, or simply find the process cumbersome, there’s also an easier alternative in Part 4 to boot your computer and restore Windows to a normal state.

Quick Navigation:

1. What does Windows 10 System Restore actually do?

It should be written up front that Windows 10 System Restore is used to restore your computer to earlier restore points. That is, you should have toggle on the system protection to create restore point in advanced.

A restore point is a snapshot of your system files, configurations, registry settings, harware drivers, etc. It does not affect your personal files on the disk, and you can’t use it for data recovery purporse.

Therefore, if you want to restore not only the system state, but also the personal data of an earlier date, it’s better to restore Windows 10 from System Image Backup; if you mean to restore Windows 10 to factory settings, please refer to Windows 10 factory reset from boot.

2. How to System Restore Windows 10/8 from boot?

If you’ve got a Windows recovery tool like bootable USB or installation disc, you can follow the guide to access Windows 10 boot recovery.

This approach can also be applied to Windows 8.

Steps:

1. Insert the disc you prepared and boot the computer with it. You may need to change boot order in BIOS.

2. Select the language and region in Windows Setup, then click Next > Repair your computer.

3. Click Troubleshoot > Advanced and choose System Restore among all the options.

4. It will take some time to prepare for the restoring, then you’ll be required to log in the account.

5. When the System Restore wizard pops out, click Next, select the restore point and click Next again to continue.

6. Now you can confirm the operation and click Finish to start restoring.

7. Restart your PC when it completes.

Note it usually takes quite a long time to finish Windows 10 boot recovery. Sometimes it even fails because of Volume Shadow Copy Service error or other issues. For your convenience, method 3 is recommended.

3. How to System Restore from boot in Windows 7?

The process in Windows 7 is a little different from boot recovery in Windows 10/8, so I listed the steps separately.

Steps:

1. Insert the repair disc and boot the computer with it. Change boot order in BIOS if needed.

2. Choose Next > Repair your computer in Install Windows.

3. Then the System Recovery Options will pop out. Select System Restore here.

4. Click Next in the System Restore wizard, choose the restore point and hit Next to continue.

5. Confirm it and click Finish to get started.

6. When the restoring is over, Restart your computer.

Alternately, you can run System Restore using command prompt. Just press Shift + F10 at the Install Windows Screen to bring out the command prompt, then type: rstrui.exe and press Enter. This command will open System Restore wizard immediately.

4. Alternative to restore Windows 10/8/7 easily without CD

No matter you are trying to perform System Restore from boot in Windows 10 or Windows 7, an installation disc, recovery drive or repair disc is required. So if you don’t have any, or simply want an easier process, a backup & restore freeware like AOMEI Backupper Standard is a good choice.

It is designed for Windows 10/8/7/Visa/XP, and provides powerful system backup & restore feature not only for configurations but also for data stored on system drive. In addition, you can perform file backup, partition backup, disk backup, and corresponding data recovery as you like.

It supports a wide variety of storage devices. Besides internal or external hard drive, you can also choose USB flash drive, NAS, network share, cloud drive as destination.

There’s even a free tool Create Bootable Media to help you create recovery drive on your own and restore unbootable computer to normal state. Most of all, the process is really simple along with a delightful running speed.

Now I’ll introduce how it works.

★ Backup and restore Windows system easily

Compared with System Restore in Windows 10 from boot, the system backup & restore feature provide by AOMEI Backupper Standard is much more intuitive in operation, so as to be used as a daily protection measure for your computer.

With the schedule option, you can even make it to run automatically on a regular basis.

Steps:

1. Download and install the software. Navigate to Backup and click System Backup.

2. Your OS will be automatically selected as the source, so you just need to specify a destination path, and click Start Backup to begin.

In this step, you can edit Task Name to make it easy to distinguish, manage more settings in Options, set an automatic backup task in Schedule, or set a rule to auto delete older backups in Scheme (advanced editions only).

3. Wait till the process ends, click Finish to exit.

4. To restore the system image, you just need to click Restore, find the task or the image file you want, and click Start Restore.

Notes:

>> If you’re a cautious person who’d like to create more backup points on regular basis, be sure to set up a Schedule. There are 3 free options — Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and 2 paid options — Event triggers, USB plug in.

★ Create a bootable media in case your computer can’t boot

If you’ve encountered serious errors that caused PC failure in booting, you must know how frustrated it was. So why not create a bootable media just in case? It will be a big help when your computer suddenly goes down. And just like boot recovery in Windows 10, you can restore to earlier system image from boot under WinPE.

Steps:

1. Install and launch AOMEI Backupper Standard, click Tools at the left panel and choose Create Bootable Media.

2. Choose the second disc type Windows PE for its flexibility and convenient operations. Click Next to continue.

3. If your system is on a GPT disk, choose from following options and click Next.

4. Specify the storage media which you’ve connected and click Next to create the bootable media.

5. When it’s complete, pull out the disc or USB. Now you can use it to boot the crashed computer into Windows PE and perform system restore with the backup previously created by AOMEI Backupper.

Notes:

>> Some older computers may not support booting from USB. If so, create a bootable disc instead.

>> If you want to use the bootable media on multiple computers with different hardware configurations, you can choose the second option in Step 3 for better compatibility. Otherwise just keep the default selection.

★ Restore an unbootable PC without earlier backup nor recovery drive

The worst case scenario is that something has gone wrong with your computer and you can’t start it anymore, but neither do you own any bootable device, nor have you enabled system protection or created system backup with software like AOMEI before. Is there any hope in this situation?

Well, this actually happened to a lot of people. You can solve it using the software but with a little more effort.

Now that your PC has crashed and you can obviously not create a bootable media from it, so try following process:

Steps:

1. Finding a working PC with Windows system (better be the same OS as yours). Download and install AOMEI Backupper Professional on it since there’s a required feature only available in advanced editions.

2. Create bootable media and system backup image on the working PC with above methods. You can save the image to a NAS or USB for later use.

3. Start the crashed computer with the bootable device, you may need to change the boot priority in the BIOS/UEFI.

4. Choose Restore and manually select the image file you created in that working PC to get started.

5. Check the option of Universal Restore in Operation Summary page, which is specially designed to restore system to dissimilar hardware, so that your computer can start up after recovery. Then click Start Restore.

Notes:

>> After restoring Windows to dissimilar hardware, you might be required to enter license codes of Windows, Office, etc.

>> After restoration, the system of the recovered computer will be in accord with the system you backed up on that working PC.

>> If you’d like to take an even easier way to system restore Windows 10/8/7 from boot, you can create a recovery partition and perform boot recovery with this onekey backup solution.

Conclusion

When your computer crashes and fails to start up properly, you can use System Restore from boot in Windows 10/8/7 to bring it back to an earlier date. But the process is relatively complicated especially for users who don’t have a repair disc or installation disc.

As an easier alternative to system restore Windows 10 from boot or in Windows, AOMEI Backupper enables you to create create bootable media and system image with flexible options. You can even to start up unbootable computer, restore system to dissimilar hardware, or network boot multiple computers within LAN.