Which is better ? Refresh PC or Clean Reinstall ?

Clean Reinstall will do a better job but it will do what it says. It will Clean whatever you put on your system since you installed the operating system. Refresh will remove that apps that you installed but will not delete the files you made with MS Word, Excel, etc.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion g7-120us Notebook
    Memory
    8 GIG
I have don a clean install of win 8, I run into a problem with windows not being
Activated, I still had to do a Refresh of win 8 in order to activate it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 & Win 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
    CPU
    AMD Athlon II X2 245
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H
    Memory
    4096 MB DDR2-SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    On bord
Is there difference in performance on those two options ?

If there is which has better performance after I do the option ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 x86
    Cooling
    Electric Fan
Which is better ? Refresh PC or Clean Reinstall ?​
Refresh your PC—Attempts to solve system problems by replacing system files without affecting user files (similar to what a repair install does WRT to system files at least under earlier Win versions). User files still should be backed up. Installed programs will have to be reinstalled except those from the Windows Store. A list of uninstalled programs is provided. Settings will be changed back to defaults. To do a refresh, you will need to have install media.” ”Install media” include an install disc, or course, an ISO, and perhaps a flash drive set up to install. Advantages--Leaves your user files on disk; they still should be backed up. Leaves programs from Windows Store installed. Let's you know which apps might cause you problems; uninstalls them.

Clean Reinstall--System reinstalled fresh; settings back to defaults. Allows partitioning and formatting before install (some lesser things too). Requires install media as above. Advantages--Allows partitioning and formatting before install (some other less frequently needed things too). Might do a better job of providing a clean system, but I doubt it

Which is better? Your choice. Might as well try a refresh first unless the need/desire to partition or format is present.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win7 Ult on DIY; Win8 Pro on MBP/Parallels; Win7 Ult on MBP/Boot Camp; Win7 Ult/Win8 Pro on HP
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    DIY Rig; MacBook Pro (MBP)/Parallels/Boot Camp; HP Pavilion dv6500t Laptop
    CPU
    Intel i7-2600K (sometimes OC'd to 4.8 GHz)
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8P67 Deluxe Rev B3
    Memory
    16 GB Corsair Vengeance
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA 570 SC
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Gateway
    Hard Drives
    Dual Boot:
    Win7 Ult RAID 0 on OCZ Revo x2 and
    Win7 Ult RAID 0 on Caviar Black SATA 3's
    PSU
    Cooler Master Silent Pro 1000W
    Case
    Cooler Master 932 HAF
    Cooling
    Zalman CNPS9900MAX-B CPU Fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500
    Mouse
    Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500
    Internet Speed
    20 Mbps Download/2+ Mbps Upload
    Other Info
    Pioneer Blu-ray Burner/DVD Burner
Neither of those is better than simply creating a system image on a separate drive using Windows file recovery, when things go bad use that.

If you create the image after you have installed all of your favorite programs it can save you hours of time.

Of course this mostly applies to a desktop PC's where you have room for extra drives.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro WMC
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built
    CPU
    Q9650 @ 4.05 GHz
    Motherboard
    Gforce 780i SLI FTW
    Memory
    8GB Gskill DDR2 1200Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    GTX-480
    Sound Card
    Asus D2 Xonar
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HannsG
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    Gskill 120GB SSD
    PSU
    Thermal Take 1000watts
    Case
    Thermal Take Xtreme
    Cooling
    9 fans air cooled
    Keyboard
    G15 logitech
    Mouse
    G9 logitech
    Internet Speed
    50mbps
That's my plan too . After I refresh or reinstall my Windows 8, I'll update it and install my fav programs then I'll create a system image because they tell me it costs about 20 minutes :)
thanks for all suggestions .
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 x86
    Cooling
    Electric Fan
I always clean-installed previous versions of Windows. However, after making a system image of my win 7 64-bit desktop PC setup in case of disasters(!), I did a "dirty" install of windows 8 (64-bit) over the win 7 installation to see what happened. It has worked without any hassles and had the advantage of leaving me with a desktop that looked exactly as it did under win 7. (Saved a great deal of time, too!!)
 
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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 8.1 Pro (64-bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Mecer Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 CPU 860 @2.80GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel WG55D
    Memory
    8Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce GTX 560
    Hard Drives
    OCZ VERTEX 4 SSD (250GB)
    Browser
    IE
    Antivirus
    Norotn Internet Security 2014
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