best way to clean disk and reinstall windows 10

BEST WAY TO CLEAN DISK AND REINSTALL WINDOWS 10 HOW TO
BEST WAY TO CLEAN DISK AND REINSTALL WINDOWS 10 INSTALL
BEST WAY TO CLEAN DISK AND REINSTALL WINDOWS 10 UPGRADE
BEST WAY TO CLEAN DISK AND REINSTALL WINDOWS 10 WINDOWS 10

If they’re setup as POP3, however, the emails are downloaded to your computer and may not be stored on the server. If they’re set up as IMAP, your messages are likely stored on the email server. If you use a desktop email client program such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla’s Thunderbird, take a look at the server settings of your email accounts.

BEST WAY TO CLEAN DISK AND REINSTALL WINDOWS 10 INSTALL

Signing into Windows after the clean install with that same Microsoft account should restore these settings, making restoration a breeze. Microsoft accounts let you sync your Windows apps (moderns apps, not traditional applications) and their settings, your Windows theme, your Internet Explorer settings, your saved passwords, and other miscellaneous Windows settings across multiple computers.

If you have Windows 8, 8.1, or 10, consider signing into a Microsoft account if you haven’t already. WebBrowserPassView can list and save all the passwords stored by most web browsers. WebBrowserPassView is a quick and easy way to round up passwords stored by all the popular browsers. Also consider exporting your saved passwords if you’re not utilizing a browser sync option.

BEST WAY TO CLEAN DISK AND REINSTALL WINDOWS 10 HOW TO

Internet Explorer’s bookmarks are saved in the Favorites folder of your user directory, which we already discussed how to back up. If you don’t use your web browser’s syncing option, you may want to manually save your bookmarks before wiping your system. The syncing stores your bookmarks, saved passwords, and settings online. For instance, Chrome and Firefox each allow you to sync your data to an online profile. Some programs also store data in the cloud, which typically allows you to simply log in to restore your data after reinstalling the software on your clean Windows build.

Here are the usual folders you should see for each Windows user account.Īlso browse through your main hard drive (typically the C drive) to see if you’ve saved any personal files or documents in unusual places.įor each program, check to see if you need to save or export additional data for restoration after you reinstall Windows. You may see multiple user folders even though you have one Windows user check each folder. Here you’ll see a folder for each Windows user as well as a Public folder. Go to the Users directory of Windows-typically C:Users. So if you’re unsure what you have, use an external hard drive or flash drive.įirst, back up the usual user folders, which is where you likely have stored all or most of your personal files and documents. If you save your data to a partitioned space, you could lose the data when doing the clean Windows install. Drives can be partitioned so they appear as different drives in Windows but are actually the same physical drive. If you’re backing up to a secondary internal drive, be sure it’s physically a different drive than your main drive. To save your files and data, you need some type of backup drive, which could be an external USB hard drive, a USB flash drive if it’s big enough, or even a secondary internal hard drive if your PC has one.įurther reading: If we show you how to back up your PC for free, will you finally do it?

BEST WAY TO CLEAN DISK AND REINSTALL WINDOWS 10 WINDOWS 10

A clean install of Windows 10 requires more effort, but eradicates all those potential headaches as well as any lingering bloatware on your PC.

BEST WAY TO CLEAN DISK AND REINSTALL WINDOWS 10 UPGRADE

This sounds convenient since it’s supposed to keep all your files and programs intact, but as an IT professional I’ve seen many issues arise from this upgrade method, such as system slowness, errors, and other strange behaviors. If you take advantage of Microsoft’s free offer to upgrade Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 to Windows 10, the default method is an in-place upgrade.

A clean install using a stock Windows disc or flash drive also gets rid of programs and bloatware installed from the factory. Microsoft has tried to make this process easier with the Refresh and Reset features starting with Windows 8, but power users still might consider a good ol’ format and clean install. Sometimes, the best way to fix deep-seated Windows issues is to burn everything to the ground and start from scratch. Reinstalling Windows refreshes the operating system, which gets rid of most corruption, errors, and viruses.

Best way to clean disk and reinstall windows 10