{"id":354,"date":"2021-04-20T16:12:12","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T15:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/?p=354"},"modified":"2021-06-27T13:08:07","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T12:08:07","slug":"reset-your-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/?p=354","title":{"rendered":"Reset your PC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why would you want to reset your PC?<\/p>\n<p>It may be because you want to fix a software issue, get back to how it was when it was new or recycle the PC.<\/p>\n<p>Good news, Windows 10 has a built in RESET function.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ocpebw\">\n<div class=\"ocpExpandoBody x-hidden-focus\">\n<div class=\"ocpAlert\">\n<p class=\"ocpAlertSection\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><b class=\"ocpNote\">Important:\u00a0<\/b>If you\u2019ve encrypted your device, you\u2019ll need your BitLocker key to reset your PC If you don\u2019t know your BitLocker key, see\u00a0<a class=\"ocpArticleLink\" href=\"https:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/find-my-bitlocker-recovery-key-fd2b3501-a4b9-61e9-f5e6-2a545ad77b3e\">Find my BitLocker recovery key<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Resetting reinstalls Windows 10, but lets you choose whether to keep your files or remove them, and then reinstalls Windows.\u00a0You can reset your PC\u00a0from Settings, the sign-in screen, or by using a recovery drive or installation media.<\/p>\n<p>Reset your PC from Settings<\/p>\n<ol type=\"1\">\n<li>Select the\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Start\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0button,\u00a0then select\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Settings\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0&gt;\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Update &amp; Security\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0&gt;\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Recovery\u00a0<\/b>.<br \/>\n<a class=\"ocpExternalLink supLinkButton\" role=\"button\" href=\"recovery?activationSource=SMC-Article-12415\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Open Recovery settings<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Under\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Reset this PC<\/b>,<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">\u00a0<\/b>select\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Get started<\/b>\u00a0and then choose from the options and\/or settings in the table below.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<table class=\"banded flipColors\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Option<\/th>\n<th>What it does<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Keep my files &gt; Change settings &gt; Preinstalled apps\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">On<\/b><\/td>\n<td>\n<ul>\n<li>Reinstalls Windows 10 and keeps your personal files.<\/li>\n<li>Removes apps and drivers you installed.<\/li>\n<li>Removes changes you made to settings.<\/li>\n<li>Restores any apps your PC manufacturer installed if your PC came with Windows 10.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Keep my files &gt; Change settings &gt; Preinstalled apps\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Off<\/b><\/td>\n<td>\n<ul>\n<li>Reinstalls Windows 10 and keeps your personal files.<\/li>\n<li>Removes apps and drivers you installed.<\/li>\n<li>Removes changes you made to settings.<\/li>\n<li>Removes any apps your PC manufacturer installed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Remove everything<\/td>\n<td>\n<ul>\n<li>Reinstalls Windows 10 and removes your personal files.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Removes apps and drivers you installed.<\/li>\n<li>Removes changes you made to settings.<\/li>\n<li>Removes any apps your PC manufacturer installed. (If your PC came with\u00a0Windows\u00a010, apps from your PC manufacturer will be reinstalled.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Note:<\/b>\u00a0Remove everything &gt; Change settings gives you two options.<\/p>\n<p>Data erasure\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">On<\/b>\u00a0removes files and cleans the drive. If you&#8217;re planning to donate, recycle, or sell your PC, use this option. This might take an hour or two, but it makes it harder for other people to recover files you&#8217;ve removed.<\/p>\n<p>Data erasure\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Off\u00a0<\/b>just removes files. It takes less time, but is less secure.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Reset your PC from the sign-in screen<\/p>\n<p>If you can&#8217;t open Settings, you can reset\u00a0your PC from the sign-in screen. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n<ol type=\"1\">\n<li>Press\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Windows logo key\u00a0<\/b>+\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">L<\/b>\u00a0to get to the sign-in screen, and then restart your PC by pressing the\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Shift<\/b>\u00a0key while you select the\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Power\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0button\u00a0&gt;\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Restart<\/b>\u00a0in the lower-right corner of the screen.<\/li>\n<li>Your PC will restart in the\u00a0Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) environment.<\/li>\n<li>On the\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Choose an option<\/b>\u00a0screen, select\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Troubleshoot<\/b>\u00a0&gt;\u00a0<b class=\"ocpLegacyBold\">Reset this PC<\/b>, and then\u00a0choose one of the options in the previous table.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/support.content.office.net\/en-us\/media\/85d63652-68b6-9a70-60e4-c63825eaca59.png\" alt=\"Choose an option screen in the Windows Recovery Environment.\" \/><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why would you want to reset your PC? It may be because you want to fix a software issue, get back to how it was when it was new or recycle the PC. Good news, Windows 10 has a built in RESET function. Important:\u00a0If you\u2019ve encrypted your device, you\u2019ll need your BitLocker key to reset&hellip; <br \/> <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/?p=354\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fixes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":404,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions\/404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}