Windows 10: Windows Reset and keeping my installed software

Hello, new to these forums but been reading for troubleshooting from a long time ago since I installed windows 10. A week ago, the Photos Background Task Host was giving me some high CPU usage and decided to uninstall the Windows App to save me the trouble. Unfortunately, I think I uninstalled all of the WindowsApps because of a copy/paste mistake or something. My list of programs looks like this now:





Seems like I uninstalled (or broke) most of Windows 10 built in apps. I also ran a few tests and encountered some corrupted files and now I just wanna reset Windows. But that means losing all my software, according to Windows Reset. Is there a way to save all my programs and games (almost 400GB), like a backup or something? I'm not very good at recovery things in windows.

Also, I have most of my software in another separated drive from Windows (Windows in C:\, games in D:\). Thanks for reading.

:)

 

OEM Pre-installed Software after Reset PC and OEM Partition after Upgrade

Hi Lee,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community. I understand your concern and I am glad to assist you.

The answer would be Yes to your first question.

The OEM Partition ( usually labelled D ) on your old drive would have contained the files necessary to reinstall the operating system on the main C Partition without having to use your Recovery Discs ( which are a bootable copy of this ).

An OEM partition can be a "diagnostic" partition which holds a program or other information used to run diagnostics without booting into Windows. It is usually formatted with some weird file system. It can also be a "system partition" set up by Vista or
7 which holds files needed for the boot process. That type of partition is usually just about 100 mb in size. You can delete the diagnostic partition but if you delete a system partition the drive may no longer boot.

For the third question you may refer to this article:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-10/windows-10-recovery-options

Hope this helps. Get back to us for further queries. We are happy to help!

 

OEM Pre-installed Software after Reset PC and OEM Partition after Upgrade

Hi,

I got some question about Windows 10.

The first question:

Inside the Disk Management, I saw Recovery Partition, OEM Partition
and EFI System Partition.

I heard there was the OEM pre-installed softwares inside the
OEM Partition.

Is that true??

The second question:

I know that Windows 10 will create its own Recovery Partition and the Windows 7/8.1 Recovery Partition will be inoperable.

How about OEM Partition??

The third question:

I know there's two ways to do a clean install.

Using Reset PC or recovery media that we downloaded/created.

If I use Reset PC option, the time when it reinstall Windows 10 will
same as Windows 7/8.1 (reinstall OEM pre-installed software together) or
not (just the system softwares/windows softwares)??

I searched Microsoft Community but all the topic is about Recovery Partition.

Sorry about my English XD

Thank all for helping.

 

In place upgrade would be a good option. You can keep all your files / programs and it will repair all your corrupted apps.

See Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums

 

Same thing happened to me. I bet you ran this command line from on of these quick fix links. I did it when Groove Player keep crashing on startup. Not only did it not fix Groove Player but it broke the Store and a dozen other apps. NEVER DO THAT FIX AGAIN!!!!! Yes I a shouting.

I also had to do a refresh after but I just told it not to keep files. It was too confusing. Was it going to keep program settings and some programs or was it not? Also would the apps still be corrupted and will I have other problems? Not much help so I did a full refresh.

 

Thanks for that In-Place upgrade link. Fixed my apps. Solvedddddddd

 

I did it this morning also - it fixed mine (yet again) *Smile

 

Darn I should have done that. At least if it happens again I know how to fix it without having to reinstall everything.