Editor'due south note: In the video, Brandon Vigliarolo walks through the steps equally if you were booting from a USB; likewise, he's using a virtual machine, so there are slight differences from the post-obit tutorial past Greg Shultz.

In concluding week's post, Reset your Windows 10 system with the Keep My Files option, I showed you how to reset your Windows 10 system to a new installation country while keeping all your information files intact. This selection is a not bad mode to revive a Windows 10 system that has become unstable due to a virus infection or some other unfortunate circumstance. Withal, Windows x also provides you with the Reset This PC with the Remove Everything selection. Unlike its counterpart, this option removes all your data and settings and and then reinstalls a fresh copy of Windows 10. This arroyo comes in handy if you want to scrap everything and start over from scratch or you're getting ready to decommission your PC and want to pass it on.

Allow'due south see how the Reset This PC with the Remove Everything selection works.

Meet: Windows 10 power tips: Cloak-and-dagger shortcuts to your favorite settings (Tech Pro Enquiry)

What you lot need

To run Reset This PC with the Remove Everything option as I'll draw in this article, you lot'll demand to take created a Recovery Drive. (Run into Be prepared: Create a Windows x Recovery Drive for a description of that procedure.) If you're using an optical disc Recovery Drive–or for some reason you couldn't use the Back Upward System Files To The Recovery Drive option–you lot can however use Reset This PC with the Remove Everything option. Yous'll just need to have some form of Windows 10 installation media on either USB or DVD.

If you observe yourself in this situation, yous'll be glad to know that you can create your own Windows 10 installation media using the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from Microsoft.

Running Reset This PC with the Remove Everything option

Using Reset This PC with the Remove Everything option will take some time to complete, merely in the stop, yous'll find that information technology is a straightforward operation. To begin, boot your organisation using your Recovery Bulldoze. Next, select the Troubleshoot | Reset This PC option and choose Remove Everything, every bit shown in Figure A.

Figure A

After you select the Reset This PC tile, cull the Remove Everything option.

Now you lot'll exist prompted to choose the target operating system, as shown in Effigy B. Just select the Windows ten tile. The Reset This PC tool volition and then perform some preliminary piece of work and will momentarily display a message telling you that it is getting things ready.

Figure B

You'll select the Windows 10 tile to keep.

Choosing a cleaning method

Later you choose a target operating system, you'll see the screen shown in Figure C, which prompts you to choose how thoroughly yous want to clean your drive. You tin can remove but your files or fully make clean your drive. The option you lot choose volition depend on the reason y'all're resetting your PC. For example, if you are resetting it to give yourself a completely new start, you'll probably want to select Just Remove My Files. On the other hand, if yous're going to be passing your PC on to someone else, you may want to choose Fully Make clean The Drive. Let'southward take a closer look at these two options.

Figure C

You can choose how thoroughly yous desire to clean the drive.

If you cull the Merely Remove My Files selection, the Reset This PC tool will perform a Quick Format operation on the hard disk and so reinstall Windows ten. This procedure deletes the file table that contains pointers to the data files. It doesn't actually delete the data or modify the disk sectors containing the data in any mode. As such, yous could recover some or all of the information files using an appropriate data recovery tool if you were so inclined.

If you choose the Fully Clean The Bulldoze selection, the Reset This PC tool will perform a full format of the hd that will involve a much more methodical and secure erasure of your data. This includes several passes over the hard disk writing 0's and so other random numbers to every sector on the difficult disk. This almost ensures that you lot'll never be able to recover any of the data files. As you'd wait, this selection volition take a long time to complete.

Resetting

One time yous've made your option, you lot'll meet the screen shown in Effigy D.

Figure D

After you select an option, click Reset to begin.

When you're ready, click the Reset push button and the reset functioning will embark immediately. Regardless of which option you selected, you'll see a screen like the one shown in Figure East. Equally the format portion of the reset performance chugs forth, a counter indicates the pct of the operation that is consummate. The Just Remove My Files choice will take somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 hours, while the Fully Clean The Drive option tin take equally long as four hours. Of grade, your mileage may vary.

Figure Due east

The pct counter tells you how the reset operation is progressing.

When the percent counter hits 100%, the organisation volition reboot and display a serial of screens, similar the ane shown in Figure F, indicating that Setup is installing device drivers and configuring settings. The organisation will restart a couple of time during this phase of the reset functioning. Once this step runs its grade, the system will restart again.

Figure F

During the 2d stage of the process, the Reset option reinstalls Windows x.

When it boots support, you lot'll become through all the steps in the first-time prepare procedure. You'll need to accept the license, choose a network connection, check for updates, set upwardly a Microsoft account, and so on. Your system will restart a couple of times during this part of the installation.

When it is complete, you'll have a new installation of Windows 10.

See: Clean out junk files in Windows 7, eight.1, and 10 (Download.com)

What'due south your accept?

Now that you know how Reset This PC with the Remove Everything pick works, you'll be ready to use information technology should the need ascend. If you've already tried this process, did it work like yous expected? Share your comments and advice in the discussion thread beneath.

Likewise read…

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