Windows 10: Fresh Start Windows 10

How to: Fresh Start Windows 10

How to Start Fresh with Clean up-to-date Installation of Windows 10


Using Fresh start lets you perform a clean reinstallation and update of Windows while keeping your personal data and most Windows settings intact. Fresh start will remove most of your apps from your device. In some cases, a clean installation may improve your device's startup and shutdown experience, memory usage, Store apps performance, browsing experience, and battery life.

This tutorial will show you how to use Fresh start to get a clean up-to-date reinstallation of Windows 10.

You must be signed in as an administrator to use Fresh start or run the Refresh Windows Tool.



Warning Before you use Fresh start

Keep these important points in mind before you begin a Fresh start:

• Microsoft recommends that you back up your files before making changes like a clean installation of Windows to your device.
• Fresh start will remove all apps that don't come standard with Windows, including other Microsoft apps such as Office, third-party antivirus software, and desktop apps that came pre-installed on your device. It will also remove all other Windows Desktop apps installed by your device’s manufacturer, such as your manufacturer's apps, support apps, and drivers. It will keep only the Store apps installed by your manufacturer.
• You will not be able to recover removed apps and you will need to manually reinstall these apps later if you want to keep using them.
• Make sure that you have access to all reinstallation media (such as CDs), product keys, license or login information, or other materials needed to manually reinstall and reactivate the apps or app-related content you want to keep using.
• You may lose your digital licenses, digital content associated with apps, or other digital entitlements for apps, which may impact your ability to use apps or app-related content you paid for.
• Make sure you meet the system requirements. Learn more at Windows 10 Specifications.
• If you just purchased a new device that includes Office 365, please see Download and install Office 365 Home, Personal, or University on your PC for information about reinstalling Microsoft Office after the clean installation of Windows. If you have Office 2010 or earlier, you will need to locate your Office product key. For tips on locating your product key, check Find your Office 2010 product key or enter the product key for your Office 2007 program.

*tip You can reinstall your Windows Apps that are available in the Store using your Microsoft Account.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: To Fresh Start Windows 10 using Windows Defender Security Center
• Option Two: To Fresh Start Windows 10 using Refresh Windows Tool

OPTION ONE [/i] To Get a Fresh Start of Windows 10 using Windows Defender Security Center
1. Open the Windows Defender Security Center, and click/tap on the Device performance & health icon. (see screenshot below)

*note If you like, you can run the command below instead, and go to step 4 below.

*Arrow systemreset -cleanpc



2. Click/tap on the Additional info link under Fresh start at the bottom. (see screenshot below)



3. Click/tap on Get started. (see screenshot below)



4. Click/tap on Yes when prompted by UAC. (see screenshot below)



5. Click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)



6. Click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)



7. Click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)



8. Click/tap on Start when ready to do a Fresh start. (see screenshot below)



9. It will now start refreshing your PC. This will take a while to finish, and your PC will restart a few times during the process. (see screenshots below)








10. When Fresh start has finished, you will be able to sign in to Windows 10. You will see Removed Apps.html file on your desktop to make it easier to know what apps to reinstall if wanted. (see screenshot below)










OPTION TWO [/i] To Fresh Start Windows 10 using Refresh Windows Tool

*note Before you begin

If youre on an Enterprise or Education edition, the tool wont work for a clean installation. Please see the Volume Licensing Service Center for more information.

Review the following important notes:

• Using this tool will remove all apps that do not come standard with Windows, including other Microsoft apps such as Office. It will also remove most apps installed by your PC’s manufacturer such as your manufacturer’s apps, support apps, and drivers. You will not be able to recover removed apps and will need to manually reinstall them later if you want to keep them.
• You may lose your digital licenses, digital content associated with applications, or other digital entitlements for applications as a result of using the tool, which may impact your ability to use apps you paid for or app-related content you paid for. For this reason, we don’t recommend using this tool on any PC where you wish to ensure all of your applications and application-related content (including Microsoft applications such as Office) remain properly installed and licensed.

Please make sure you have the following:

• An internet connection to download the tool and the Windows 10 image. Internet service provider fees may apply.
• Sufficient data storage available on the computer you are clean installing. Note that the download and image is over 3GB.

1. Click/tap on the Download tool now button at the Start fresh with a clean installation of Windows 10 Microsoft webpage, and save the RefreshWindowsTool.exe file to your desktop.

2. Run the RefreshWindowsTool.exe file, and click/tap on Yes in the UAC prompt. (see screenshot below)



3. Click/tap on Accept to agree to the license terms. (see screenshot below)



4. Select (dot) what you want to keep, and click/tap on Install when ready to start. (see screenshot below)

*note Keep personal files only - Your setting and apps will be deleted, but your files in will be kept. This would be the files in your "C:\Users\<username>" profile folder.

Nothing - Everything will be deleted, including your files, settings, and apps.

*Warning Regardless of your selection at this step, this tool will perform a clean installation of Windows. All applications that came with or were manually installed on your PC will be removed, including paid applications. Apps that come standard with Windows 10 (Mail and Edge for example) will be preserved.

This tool will only affect the partition that Windows 10 is installed on, and will not affect any other drive or partition.



5. The tool will now download Windows 10 and check to make sure your PC is ready. (see screenshots below)



6. The tool will now start installing Windows 10. This will take a while to finish, and your PC will restart a few times during the process. (see screenshots below)



7. When installation has finished, select your country/region, language, keyboard layout, and time zone, then click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)



8. Perform the action below you want to do: (see screenshot below)
A) Click/tap on the Customize button, and go to step 9 below.

OR

B) Click/tap on the Use Express settings button, and go to step 12 below.




9. Turn on or off the Personalization and Location settings you want, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)



10. Turn on or off the Connectivity and error reporting settings you want, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)



11. Turn on or off the Browser, protection, and update settings you want, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)



12. You can now pick up at step 19 here to finish setting up Windows 10. (see screenshot below)




That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Clean Install Windows 10
• How to Custom Install Windows 10
• How to Clean Install Windows 10 without any External Installation Media
• How to Refresh Windows 10
• How to Reset Windows 10
• How to Reinstall Windows 10 with this media
• How to 'Recover from a drive' to Reset Windows 10
• Hide or Show Device Performance and Health in Windows Defender Security Center in Windows 10

:)

 

Windows 10 "Start Fresh" (Fresh Start) Partition Question?

Hi Jim, whether a Fresh Start (Reset) will result in a clean system depends on whether Dell has overridden that with its own version of Reset . . .

I, like you, always do this when I purchase a new system so I start off with a clean Windows OS and full set of drivers - nothing else . . .

Your best option to ensure a clean system is:

Start up your new system

Put it on the Internet so that Windows gets Activated - this is very Important !!

Open the Settings App, go to Update and Security - Activation and make sure that reports that Windows is activated using a digital licence

Then you can try the System Reset to see if that results in a clean, bloatware free system:

Press the Shift Key and click Restart

Your PC will boot into the Windows Recovery Environment

Go to Troubleshoot - Advanced Options - Reset this PC

Choose to keep nothing

Then start the Reset

If that does not result in a clean System, then clean install Windows 10 and load a set of drivers from the Dell Support page:

Since you previously had Windows 10 installed and activated on that PC during the installation process skip the steps which ask for a product key and select the option 'I am Reinstalling Windows 10 on this PC', and activation will not be an issue, your PC will
have a digital entitlement stored on the Microsoft Activation Servers

Make sure you install the same Edition of Windows 10 (Home, Pro . . . etc.) you previously had installed to avoid Activation issues

Click this link:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-downlo...

to download the Media Creation Tool (Click on Download Tool Now), with that you can download the latest Windows 10 ISO (Select Create Installation Media for Another PC), you can create a bootable USB flash drive (min 8GB) using that tool

Then, Boot your PC from the Installation Media you just created (change Boot Order in your BIOS) to begin installing Windows 10

If you have problems booting from a boot disc, you may have UEFI BIOS:

Insert the Bootable Installation Media, then go into your BIOS and make the following changes:

1. Disable Secure Boot

2. Enable Legacy Boot

3. If Available enable CSM

4. If Required enable USB Boot

5. Move the device with the bootable disc to the top of the boot order

6. Save BIOS changes, restart your System and it should boot from the Installation Media

 

Windows 10 "Start Fresh" (Fresh Start) Partition Question?

The way I understand it is that the new clean install of Windows 10 Home will replace the OEM bloatware filled one when installing on the same partition.

Thank you for your help sir!

 

Tutorial updated. *Wink

 

Hi to anyone that can help. I've been having major problems with Windows 10 on this laptop (Acer Predator G9-591), gaming laptop, supposedly high quality; from BSOD to not being able to boot without power plugged in (even though battery is good), 'not responding' in file explorer, start button, notification button, etc... not working and other things.

Have decided to try and do a clean, fresh install of Windows 10 again. I'm running this refresh windows tool (RefreshWindowsTool.exe) from the website. It was doing its work but for over half an hour now it is stuck on the "Getting Updates", "Checking for updates" blue screen. It is just constantly spinning with no hard drive activity, not progressing anywhere. What can i do? Should i exit and quit?

 

Hello ttrance7, *Smile

If you haven't had any progress by now, then yeah close and cancel the process.

You are also able to refresh Windows 10 natively from within Windows 10 or in advanced startup options at boot.

Refresh Windows 10

If needed, you could create a Windows 10 installation USB to boot from and use to refresh as well.

USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

Thanks very much for your help and reply Brink. I ended up using the Media creation tool to create a bootable usb to re-install a clean windows 10. It has installed now but was having a few problems also, after the first reboot it would go back to the 'setup windows' screen and make me do it all over again, it kept booting from the usb drive i think and trying to start the whole install process from the start again, was driving me crazy. I went back into BIOS to change boot order and i think it helpled.

Thanks alot again, appreciate it alot.

 

It sounds like you set your UEFI/BIOS boot priority settings to always boot from the USB first instead of the Windows hard drive.

Other than changing the above, you could also unplug the USB during the first reboot as a workaround, and connect it back when you see Windows Setup continuing.

Are you not able to refresh Windows from within Windows? This way you don't have to worry about the USB.

 

It seems like it's installed correctly now but i haven't really tried much yet, i've had constant problems since i got the laptop, especially since the anniversary update. I'm hoping all my drivers are up to date and compatible/stable with this version of windows.

I noticed in my BIOS/UEFI, i have both options of uefi and bios i think it was called, but the interface still looks very simple and like the old school bios UI. I saw there was an option for 'secure boot' i think which was ENABLED. For the system to run more stable, is it better to have secure boot disabled or enabled? Any other bios settings or windows that would make the laptop run more smoothly?

Just worried about having more BSOD and 'not responding' down the track. Want to try and get the system as stable and trouble-free as possible.

Thanks for all your help again, really appreciate the quick replies. All the best.

 

It sounds good so far then.

You'll be using UEFI since you have the secure boot option available.

 

Here's an interesting thing.

I had a PC (actually a VM) on which I'd loaded some software into a Provisioning Package, which is one recommended method for OEMs to install their software onto Windows 10 devices.

Then I ran this Refresh Windows tool, using the option to keep files.
As expected there was no software remaining when the process finished.

But then I ran a Reset.

And because I'd opted to keep the files earlier, the provisioning package containing the software hadn't been deleted, and it was used to reinstall the software, which came back again following the Reset.

So if I had an OEM PC, and used this tool hoping to wipe out OEM-provided software, I might get a surprise if I subsequently ran a Reset and the OEM software came back, but this could easily happen.

The cure (if I didn't want the software to come back) would be to delete provisioning packages from C:\Recovery\Customizations (although with the risk of also deleting some important drivers).

 

That is interesting David. It sounds similar to a custom reset image.

 

Yes I think the provisioning packages are as near an approximation as you can get to a custom reset. It's not quite the same but has a similar effect.
And you can create provisioning packages yourself, although it's apparently best to run in Audit Mode while the machine is still new. (Which reminds me I could tweak my Tutorial with a couple of new features in the '1607' version of the ADK tools.)
The provisioning packages also get copied onto a Recovery Drive (when it works) so a reinstall from a recovery drive will install the software as well as Windows.