Windows 10: Best method to get Windows up and running again

This is a hypothetical question but say I had a problem with Windows store not working or edge not launching on my PC etc etc what is the best method to try and fix without draconian measures?

unfortunately sometimes Windows 10 feels like it's a ticking time bomb and given some of the horror stories I've seen regarding power shell and it's unpredictable results i am curious. The mentions of reset, repair, in place upgrade are a bit confusing.

if something went wrong I would want to try and restore functionality with as little requirement to go back and re install stuff as possible. I'd look to a measure that leaves user accounts intact and things like iTunes, steam, all my games, game clients, office 2016 all still installed and not removed. To lose all of that just to try and get the store or edge back and running seems too severe. It would take many, many hours perhaps days to get back to where I was. Especially would be nervous about iTunes which with its connection to iCloud music library would be disastrous to unsettle. I have my boot SSD drive and a larger secondary mechanical hard drive. All my software is installed across both locations although the steam library resides on the secondary given the colossal game install sizes we have nowadays.

of course I take an image now and then for full backup but I'm still curious of the fastest and main painless way to try a repair which leaves installed stuff alone.

cheers, Wayne

:)

 

what's the best method to upgrade 60 win-7 to win-10 company devices?

hello.

I have a lot of company computers that are part of our domain, all are purchased and licensed (individually by purchase) computers and want to upgrade them from windows 7 pro - to windows 10 over the next couple of weeks. ideally, i'd like to be able to
download the appropriate windows 10 image, and share it out on my network somewhere and point the machines to them or possible use multiple USB drives, or DVD's with the data files on them. although all the machines are licensed directly via purchase, and
they are 'asking' for windows 10 upgrades - I don't necessarily have all the ms workstation license keys (some aren't on the computers) - and don't want to have to worry about fumbling around looking for the keys - after/during the upgrade process.

anybody else have this predicament going on?

thanks,

 

what's the best method to upgrade 60 win-7 to win-10 company devices?

You can download a single Windows 10 image and use that to upgrade all the PCs. You do not need to download for each computer.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209 use the option to upgrade another computer.

Provided the computers are fully activated you do not need a key. At the point where it askes for one use the I do not have a key option to continue the install and it will activate automatically after setup completes as long as they are connected to the
internet.

Normally this would be a IT Pro issue but upgrading one is the same process and doing a hundred if you are not using the deployment tools which would be the "preferred" option

Deploy and update Windows 10

 

It depends a lot on what goes wrong that you are trying to fix. If it is stuff in Windows not working right, I recommend this:
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums

So for that you need a current Windows 10 installation USB/DVD.

I highly recommend Macrium Reflect Free for imaging and backups for two reasons. First it does an excellent job of making partition/disk images so you can restore just the Windows partition if you want or onto a clean hard drive/SSD if you have a complete failure. You need to make sure and make the rescue USB/DVD.

The second reason I recommend Macrium Reflect Free is because there is a utility on the rescue USB/DVD for fixing Windows startup problems that consistently works when all others fail. If you end up with an undamaged Windows partition but the boot files end up messed up, the Macrium Reflect Free rescue USB/DVD will more than likely fix it.

So -

1. Windows 10 installation USB/DVD
2. Macrium Reflect Free installed and rescue USB/DVD created
3. Full image backup created with Macrium Reflect Free - I recommend weekly.

 

Thank you, very useful info