If you've been thinking about reinstalling Windows 10 because of stability issues, driver errors, malware infections, software bloat or any issues with your system, it may come as great news that Microsoft has built in a simple method of reinstalling the operating system without deleting your user settings or data.
https://www.techspot.com/article/1671-windows-reset-keep-your-files/
Yes, but it may require a password. And in the very worst case you can do this from the recovery console. It's easier to make a recovery flash drive, or recovery dvd and stick it on a shelf somewhere.
No it did not. To reset Windows 7 back to factory setting, you had to use the installation media. And even if it did, it never had the option to keep the current user settings. Finally, it isn't as user friendly as the one now included in Windows 10 where you can just go into the settings and hit "Reset this PC."
no one knew about it in win7... and it was not even the same thing...
I've always been able to delete the "windows.old" folder. Disk cleanup has an option to add old system files to be cleaned. That takes care of it every time. Or at least it has for me anyway.
Yes...
Win 10 doesn't really let you change many settings, MS gives you all the VR, xBox, Cortana and stuff you never really wanted compulsorily. So you get to keep all that stuff. Yay!
Many people know about it, it's hardly a secret. Don't paint the world with your own ignorance.
Irrelevant. Win 10 offers you to reset it through the interface itself unlike Win 7 where you had to use restore disks. So that's a huge step for usability without the need to dig up restore disks that people either lost (they should have been more organized but hey, that's how some people are) or threw away (stupidly). Besides, restore disk were very easy to use until quite a few major companies decided to not include them anymore and sometimes even charge you for them (I'm looking at you, HP) to send them through snail mail. Of course, you can easily make your own but then you have to also download the drivers from the computer manufacturer's site and more. This ability to restore Windows 10 with a click of a button is easy for everyone.
With many (if not most) modern Win 7 machines with restore partitions (HP did this) you could just press f10 or whatever and do it from boot.
Copied from source, here you go:
Well, with Windows 7, you had to push that very stiff button to open the DVD drive,lift that incredibly heavy DVD, push that damned button again, then make the incredibly difficult decision whether to repair or reinstall. Oddly, after that strenuous ordeal of a process, Windows, somehow miraculously, worked just fine.
Theoretically a "repair install", will do just that, repair Windows, leaving everything else intact and working.
