I would like to get the computer back to the state when I first bought it, but this may not be the most ideal choice.

Another way to think about it is to perform a clean install of the operating system, so that you are working with a bare bones version of the OS. The difference between a clean install and restoring to factory settings is the fact that the former does not include any junk third party software.

If you’re having trouble getting your computer to start up, or if it’s been acting up for a while, it may be because something went wrong with your OS. To fix things, you can restore your computer to a previous state—a clean install—or try a system restore.

-Windows 10 offers three repair options: a full system restore, a repair install, or a rollback to the previous version of Windows. -A full system restore restores your computer to the state it was in when you last turned it off. This is the most comprehensive option and can be used if you’ve lost data or if your computer has been infected with malware. -A repair install replaces all of the Windows system files but keeps your data intact. This is a good option if your system has become infected with a virus or malware you can’t remove, but your data is clean. -A rollback to the previous version of Windows restores your computer to the state it was in before you installed Windows 10. This is an option if you want to go back to an earlier version of Windows or if something goes wrong during installation and you need to revert to an earlier version of Windows. ..

Clean install: If you’re at this stage, your computer must be really in bad shape. My recommendation is to perform a clean install, which is better than restoring the factory image that you either get on DVD or that is located on a hidden partition in the hard drive. If you’re scared to lose some data with a clean install, go for a repair install. System Restore is the safest, but usually can’t fix major malware infections.

Restore Factory Settings – System Restore

Windows system restore is a built-in tool in Windows that allows you to roll back the system to a previous state. It only restores previous settings in the registry and Windows system files. It will also uninstall any applications that you might have installed after the restore point was created.

System restore can help you remove spyware, but if it does not fix your problem, you’ll have to resort to either a clean install of the OS or to the recovery DVD/partition.

If you are having trouble restoring your computer, or if you want to restore it using the System Restore feature, be sure to read my previous post on how to enable system restore again.

Restore Factory Settings – Recovery CD/DVDs

If you have a computer that came with a recovery partition, you can use it to restore your computer to its original state.

If you have a Windows 8 or 10 computer, you can access the recovery partition by following these instructions:

  1. On your computer, go to Start > Settings > System and click on the Recovery option.
  2. If you don’t see the Recovery option, click on the Advanced startup options link (in Windows 8) or the Recovery tab (in Windows 10).
  3. Click on the Choose a recovery drive option and select a drive from your computer that has at least 8GB of free space.
  4. Click on the Start button to start the recovery process. ..

The only reason I don’t recommend this option is because the PC vendor recovery images include additional software that can slow down your computer significantly.

Restore Factory Settings – Clean/Repair Install Windows

Clean install: You will need to remove all of the current Windows installations and create a new one from scratch. This will take some time, so be patient. Repair install: You can also use this option if you have a previous Windows installation that is not up to date. To do this, you will need to uninstall all of the current Windows installations and then reinstall them from scratch.

Windows XP

For Windows XP, you can only do a clean install by using a CD/DVD. A clean install basically consists of booting from the original XP CD, deleting all partitions, recreating new partitions, and then installing Windows XP from CD. ..

To back up your iPhone or iPad:

  1. Connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer using the included USB cable.
  2. Open iTunes on your computer.
  3. Click on the “ Devices ” tab and select your device from the list.
  4. Click on the “ Backup Now ” button next to the “ Summary ” field and follow the instructions on screen. You can backup your device using iTunes by following these steps:
  5. Connect your device to your computer using the included USB cable
  6. Open iTunes
  7. Click on the “ Devices” tab
  8. Select your device from the list
  9. Click on the “ Backup Now” button next to the “Summary” field
  10. Follow the instructions on screen ..

If you need to fix corrupted or missing Windows system files without losing any data, it is recommended that you try a repair install of XP.

Windows 7

If you are running Windows 7, you will need to have the DVD for the operating system or create a bootable USB device to perform a clean install. If you have the original DVD, then we can start the process from within Windows.

If you don’t see icons, click on the little drop-down at the top right and choose from small or large icons instead of Category.

Advanced Recovery Methods

Windows installation disc: Click on the Reinstall Windows (require Windows installation disc) option.

If you choose to reinstall Windows, you’ll be asked to backup your data and then restart the computer. After restarting, a Recovery Options dialog will pop up and you’ll be able to choose whether or not to reinstall Windows.

Once it detects the DVD, you can begin the installation process by clicking on the “Install” button. The installation will move the old version of Windows into the Windows.old directory, which can take up a lot of space. Just run Disk Cleanup and make sure to click the “Clean up system files” button.

If you want to perform a repair install of Windows 7, it’s a fairly complicated process. I suggest just copying your data off and performing a clean install, but if you really want to try to do a repair install, be sure to check out this step-by-step guide. As mentioned before, a repair install won’t delete your personal files. ..

If you don’t have the DVD, you’ll need to create a bootable USB drive with Windows 7 installed on it. Then you’ll boot from the USB drive and clean install Windows 7.

Windows 8.1

Starting with Windows 8, you can repair or clean install your PC without a DVD or bootable USB device.

There is one little exception to this rule: if you’re using a PC that was originally bought from a PC vendor, chances are good that their image will be installed on the machine. If you’re trying to create your own USB drive with Windows 8 or 10, it might still be worth the effort because a lot of PC vendors add their own images to the OS so that when you perform a Reset or Refresh, it actually loads their customized image with extra software rather than a clean version of Windows. ..

  1. Open the Start screen and type “cmd” (without the quotes) and hit enter.
  2. Type “netstat -an” and hit enter.
  3. If you see a message like this, your computer is not connected to the internet: Netstat -an: No such file or directory

The Start screen is where you can change your PC settings and the charms bar will appear at the far right.

Option One: Click on Update and Recovery to start the update process. Option Two: Click on Recovery to start the recovery process.

PC Repair Install: A way to refresh your PC without affecting your files is by having a repair install. This will keep your personal files and replace all the system files. ..

Windows 10 restore will restore the system to factory settings, which means that a customized image might be restored that includes anything the PC vendor originally installed on the system.

Advanced Startup is a new startup program that will allow you to start up your computer from a USB drive, which will be a clean version of Windows from Microsoft. This will help to avoid any problems with your computer and keep it running smoothly. ..

If you want to restore your computer without creating a USB drive, there are a few options. First, you can use the Windows 10 installation media to restore your computer. Second, you can use a third-party software restoration tool to restore your computer. Finally, if creating a USB drive is too complicated or you just don’t care, you can simply uninstall any third-party software that might already be included after the restore. ..

Windows 10

In Windows 8.1, you had to click on the Start button and then click on Settings. In Windows 10, you can just click on the Settings button.

Click on Update & Security and then click on Recovery.

If you want to reset your PC, you can choose to do so while keeping your files or by deleting everything.

In Windows 10, if you choose to remove everything, you’ll also see a new option asking if you want to clean the drive, which means it will not only delete everything, but will try to securely erase everything so that data cannot be recovered.

You can also reinstall Windows 10 using a USB flash drive. This will ensure that you are installing the latest version of Windows and that it is a clean version.

Restoring your system to a clean state is important, as it will help you avoid future problems. Additionally, creating a bootable recovery drive can be helpful in restoring your system quickly and easily. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy! ..