16 |^ |^ November 2019
REFRESH, RESTART,
RECYCLE, REINSTALL
Conf used by whether to ref resh, reset or reins tall? Windows 10
has multiple options, and they’re changing all the time
If you’ve gone to the trouble of
creating new installation media for
any version of Windows 10 past the
Creators Update, you’ll probably feel
a bit silly when you discover that
Microsoft tucked a ‘fresh start’
option into its later Win 10 editions.
Using it takes any Windows 10
installation back to the basics of a
Windows install, even removing
any preinstalled software your
manufacturer might have included,
and stripping away all your drivers- and it doesn’t require any special
media. It’s basically a clean install
without you having to directly
perform the actions of reinstallation.
You’ll find it in a corner of Windows
Defender Security Centre, aka
Windows Security – select Device
performance and & health, then
Additional info, before clicking Get
started to begin. Again, make sure
you’re backed up, as this is only
slightly less destructive than
formatting your hard drive. Handily,
the fresh start procedure leaves a
little note of all the things you’ve
destroyed on your desktop, just so
you can kick yourself later.Press reset
A better option might be to take
advantage of Windows 10’s ‘reset’feature, which strips out all of your
installed applications and drivers
while giving you the option of
leaving personal files unmolested.
This doesn’t mean you can get away
with not using proper backup
procedures, but if there’s a particular
software component causing you
problems, this will very likely get rid
of it. Put simply, it rolls your machine
back to the state in which it came to
you: preinstalled software, drivers,
and all. You might remember that
earlier editions included two options,“Windows 10’s ‘reset’ feature strips out
all installed applications and drivers
while leaving personal files intact”
Aaah, a fresh start. What could be better?
Not losing all the software you’ve
installed over the years, that’s what.IMAGES © Microsoft