Should i recover my laptop

Fresh start will let you keep some of your personal settings but will remove most of your apps. Subscribe to get the best Verge-approved tech deals of the week. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from.

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With those preparations out of the way, you're ready to reset your laptop and enjoy all of the benefits that it brings. Click Get started under Reset this PC to begin the reset process. Windows itself recommends that going through a reset might be a good way of improving the performance of a computer that isn't running well.

On the next screen, Windows gives you the option of removing everything or keeping your personal files—essentially what you've got saved on the desktop and in the designated user folders Documents, Pictures, Music and so on.

Don't assume that Windows will know where all your personal files are kept. In other words, make sure they're still backed up, just in case. Pick Keep my files to reset Windows core settings and files without interfering with your personal stuff; pick Remove everything for a more comprehensive wipe, which means you'll need to add your files again later from your backup.

Before the reset starts, click Change settings to choose whether the Data erasure feature is enabled; this essentially overwrites data on disk and makes sure it can't be recovered. Otherwise you can leave it be. Click Reset to confirm and the process gets underway; it might take a while, so be patient.

When Windows reappears, if you've chosen the Remove everything option, you'll need to log in again from scratch using your Microsoft account credentials, and put all your programs and files back in place. If you need to factory reset your laptop or PC and get it back to its original default settings, this article guides you through the reset process, and it works on any Windows 10 laptop, PC, or tablet.

You can also jump straight to the reset process if desired but do so at your own risk. Yes, it is a good idea to reset Windows 10 if you can, preferably every six months, when possible. Most users only resort to a Windows reset if they are having problems with their PC. However, tons of data get stored over time, some with your intervention but most without it.

The most commonly collected data includes your OS activities and your personal information. Actions like browsing history, social likes, social shares, news views, search history, seen videos, document auto-saves, temporary backup files, PDF view history, and more get stored on the system and used for specific purposes.

Click Next if Windows warns you that you won't be able to roll back to a prior version of the OS. Click Reset when prompted. Windows will then restart and take several minutes to reset itself. If your laptop is acting up, and you can't access the settings menu, you can try resetting your PC from the sign-in screen. You should hopefully have fewer hiccups now that you know how to reset your Windows 10 PC. And if you're planning on selling or giving your laptop away, you can do it with peace in mind that the next owner won't have access to your files.

Laptop Mag.