How to Reset and Refresh Your PC Instead of Doing a Complete Reinstall with Windows 8

How to Reset and Refresh Your PC Instead of Doing a Complete Reinstall with Windows 8



Have so many issues with Windows 8 that you need to reinstall it? There’s
a simpler way: Use Windows 8’s Reset or Refresh options instead.


You know the moment, that moment when you realize that your operating system has
such problems that there’s only one solution: wipe it out and start from scratch by
reinstalling it.

A full reinstall is a tremendous, time-consuming headache, because you have to copy
all your data somewhere, wipe your hard disk, reinstall Windows, and then restore your
data. It’s rare that you’ll get it exactly right. And that assumes that you even remember
where your Windows installation disc is.

Windows 8, for the first time in Windows history, gives you a much better way. It introduces
two related new features that let you essentially reset Windows 8 to the state
it was in when you first installed it. The two new features are called Reset and Refresh.
Here’s what they do, and the differences between them:


Reset

This option puts your PC in the condition it was in to either when you first started
it —if it came with Windows 8 on it—or when you first installed Windows 8. It wipes
out your data and any apps you installed and puts your PC back into its original,
pure Windows 8 state. It’s a much simpler option than doing all that yourself
manually. You won’t even need your Windows install disc. (More on that later in
this hack.) It’s the PC equivalent of the “Restore to Factory Default” feature you’ll
find on many smartphones. Think of Reset as the nuclear option. Windows 8 erases
and formats your hard drives, installs a fresh copy of Windows, and then starts
into that new copy of Windows. There’s even an option when you do a Reset for
not just reformatting your hard disk before reinstalling Windows, but writing random
patterns to every sector on the hard drive so that data, such as personal
data, can’t be recovered. You might use this alternative if you’re giving away, selling,
or recycling your PC.


Refresh

This feature reinstalls Windows, but doesn’t wipe out your data, settings, or any
Windows 8 native apps you’ve installed. (It does wipe out your Desktop apps, but
there’s a way to tell Refresh not to wipe them out, as you’ll see later in this hack.)
Your hard disks aren’t erased or formatted. When you sign into the reinstalled
Windows, your data will be there waiting for you, as will your settings and Windows
8 native apps.


To Reset or Refresh your PC, press Windows key+C and select

Settings→Change PC Settings→General

Scroll toward the bottom of the screen (Figure 1) and on the right
side, you’ll see separate sections for Refresh and Reset. The Refresh section reads
“Refresh your PC without affecting your files,” and the Reset section reads “Remove
everything and reinstall Windows.” Click “Get started” in the appropriate section. Then
just follow the simple prompts.


Note: When you perform a Refresh, you won’t have to go through the normal initial
Windows 8 Welcome and setup screens that walk you through to configure your
settings and user account. That information is included already as part of the Refresh.
With a Reset, however, you’ll go through all those screens.


Figure 1.
Refresh or Reset your PC from this screen

Create a Custom Refresh Point

Mostly, you’ll use the Refresh option, because you want to continue to use your files
and apps. But there’s a problem with Refresh: although it keeps all your data and your
Windows 8 native apps, it wipes out your Desktop apps. If, like most people, you mainly
use Desktop apps, this is not a good thing.

You can, however, create a custom refresh point that takes a snapshot of your system,
and then uses that snapshot to refresh your PC. Part of that snapshot includes your
Desktop apps, so when you refresh your system after creating one of these custom
refresh points, your Desktop apps will be back waiting for you.

How does it do that? First, a little bit of background. When Windows 8 is first installed,
the system creates and stores a refresh point. When you refresh your system, it uses
that refresh point as the baseline for the refresh. But because that refresh point was
created before you installed Desktop apps, it doesn’t include information about them.
When you create a custom refresh point, information about those apps is included,
so they’ll be on your system.

To create a custom refresh point, first create a new directory where you want to store
it. The refresh point will be named CustomRefresh.wim. After that, run an elevated
command prompt—that is, a command prompt with Administrator rights. To do it,
right-click the lower-left edge of the screen and select Command Prompt (Admin).
Then type the following in the command prompt:

recimg /createimage directory

where directory is the name of the directory you’ve just created. When you do that,
Refresh will use the image in that directory instead of the one created during Windows
8’s initial installation to perform a Refresh.

The recimg command gives you quite a bit of flexibility in creating and using Refresh
points. What if you decide you want to create a new custom Refresh point because
you’ve installed new apps, and want them as part of the Refresh? Simply create a new
directory, and run the recimg command using it as the place to store the Refresh point.

But recimg can do more as well. If you have multiple directories with Refresh points,
you can tell Windows 8 which is the current one that it should use for doing a Refresh.
To do all that, and more, you’ll need to know all of recimg command line options.
Table 1 shows them all:

Table 1. The recimg commands and what they do

See Also
• For more details about Reset and Refresh, see the Microsoft blog “Refresh and
Reset Your PC”.