How can i factory reset my laptop

If you need to factory reset your laptop or PC and get it back to its original default settings, this article guides you through the reset process, and it works on any Windows 10 laptop, PC, or tablet. You can also jump straight to the reset process if desired but do so at your own risk. Yes, it is a good idea to reset Windows 10 if you can, preferably every six months, when possible. Most users only resort to a Windows reset if they are having problems with their PC.

However, tons of data get stored over time, some with your intervention but most without it. The most commonly collected data includes your OS activities and your personal information. Actions like browsing history, social likes, social shares, news views, search history, seen videos, document auto-saves, temporary backup files, PDF view history, and more get stored on the system and used for specific purposes.

Data can accumulate rather quickly and continue to rotate and slow your system down the more you use your PC. If left unattended, the data can be obtained from malware, spyware, and other means. Follow the steps below, or consider taking things a step further by hiring a professional company to ensure your data has been destroyed.

A factory reset factory reset means deleting anything that wasn't on the device after it came out of production, so this will definitely make it impossible for you to practically access programs or files on your computer.

It's important to know what a factory reset actually does, though. It puts all applications back into their original state and removes anything that wasn't there when the computer left the factory. That means user data from the applications will also be deleted. However, that data will still live on the hard drive. Factory resets are simple because they're programs included on the computer when you first get your hands on it.

It's useful to reset errors with an operating system or helping restore the computer's functionality or speed. There are limitations, though. Factory resets leave data in the hard drive, so those pieces will live on until your hard drive is overwritten with new data. In short, the reset can give you a false sense of security. A complete erasure would actually look more like degaussing destroying the magnetic field around a hard drive to destroy its data , or actually smashing up the hard drive to bits.

Context is still key. If you only ever really played games or finished school work on your computer, there's probably little risk in using a factory reset as your primary form of data wiping.

But if you own a company and complete that work on a computer, you may have employees' social security numbers on the hard drive, for example. That means you should probably consider hiring an expert to finish the data wiping—especially because the government has certain standards for data sanitation, depending on the field you work in. Inside your hard drive are two rotating discs that sort of resemble a CD. These are called platters, and they're the pieces of hardware that actually store all of those cat videos and family photos.

The platter stores data onto its circular surface in chunks of 1s and 0s. Platters are usually ceramic, glass, or aluminum, and work like a record player. Centered on a spindle, the platter rotates and an electronic current reads and writes data onto the surface.

Electronic components power the whole operation. When you delete data from the computer through a factory reset, the information is hidden from the computer, but still stored on the hard drive. If a hacker uses data forensics tools , they can find bits and pieces of those deleted files in the hard drive storage, making it possible to recover pretty much everything. There's much online debate about the best ways to completely destroy the data inside, but most solutions come down to water, hydrochloric acid, magnets, or a blunt object you can smash them with easily.

All apps that you installed will be removed. Only apps that came with your PC will be reinstalled. Under Remove everything and reinstall Windows , tap or click Get started. Note: You'll be asked to choose whether you want to erase data quickly or thoroughly.

If you choose to erase data quickly, some data might be recoverable using special software. If you choose to erase data thoroughly, this will take longer but it makes recovering data less likely.

If you think an app or driver that you recently installed caused problems with your PC, you can restore Windows back to an earlier point in time, called a restore point. Windows automatically creates a restore point when you install desktop apps and new Windows updates, if the last restore point is older than 7 days. You can also create a restore point manually at any time.

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search. If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search. Enter Control Panel in the search box, and tap or click Control Panel. Enter Recovery in the Control Panel search box, and then tap or click Recovery. If you need additional help refreshing, resetting, or restoring your PC, check out the Repair and Recovery community pages in the Windows forum for solutions that other people have found for problems they've experienced.

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