Reset Windows 8

How to Reset Windows 8 and Windows 8.1​

This will show you how to use a new feature in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 to reset your PC to completely start over back to default to remove all personal data, apps, and settings from the PC, and reinstall Windows. This is like doing a factory restore/recovery on a purchased computer or clean install, but a little faster.

Resetting your Windows 8 PC works like this:

• The PC boots into the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE).
• Windows RE erases and formats only the hard drive partition on which Windows 8 and your personal data (user folders) reside.
• Windows RE installs a fresh copy of Windows 8.
• The PC restarts into the newly installed copy of Windows 8.

You must have an administrator account on the computer to be able to reset Windows 8.

   Note

Which files will be affected?

When you reset your PC, the drive will be completely reset, and all your apps and files will be removed from it. Windows 8 will be reinstalled, and you'll need to change any settings and reinstall any apps that you want to get back after resetting. If you know if any files that you don't want to lose, then you should back those files up before starting the reset.

What if I have multiple drives?

You can choose whether to reset all hard drives or just the one with Windows 8 installed on it. Any drive that Windows 8 doesn't recognize, such as those with non-Windows operating systems, will not be affected.

   Warning

If you set UAC to Always notify me, then you will not be able to use the refresh and reset Windows 8 features. These features require UAC to be set to the default or lower level to work.

OPTION ONE

How to Reset Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 at Boot

1. Boot to the System Recovery Options using the same type of Windows 8 installation DVD or USB thumb drive, or ISO file if in a virtual machine that you currently have installed, and click/tap on the Reset your PC option. (see screenshot below)



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



3. If prompted, select and click/tap on a listed administrator account to sign in to it. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Standard user accounts and domain accounts on the computer will not be listed.



A) Type in the password for the selected administrator account, and click/tap on Continue. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If you need to change the keyboard layout (language), then do so before entering your password so it will be the same language that the password was set in and match.



4. If prompted, select the OS (ex: Windows 8) you want to reset. (see screenshot below)



5. If prompted, select if you would like to remove all files from all drives or only the Windows 8 drive. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You will only see this if you have more than one HDD or partition with a drive letter.



6. If prompted, select if you would like to repartition the drives (remove all files) or keep the existing partitions. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You will only see this if you have more than one partition on your Surface.




7. Select how you want to have your personal files deleted in this current installation of Windows 8. (see screenshot below)

   Note

Just remove my files = Quick, but your files might be recoverable by someone else since they are only marked as deleted.

Fully clean the drive = Thorough, but this can take several hours since it does a secure erase to overwrite your files so that they can't be easily recovered.

8. Click/tap on Reset. (see screenshot below)




9. Windows 8 will now start resetting. (see screenshot below)




10. Enter your Windows 8 or 8.1 product key number below, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)




11. Check the I accept the license terms for using Windows box, and click/tap on the Accept button. (see screenshot below)




12. From this point on, the steps are the same as doing a clean install. Go to and start at step 10 in the tutorial link below to finish resetting Windows 8.

Clean Install - Windows 8

OPTION TWO

Reset Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 from within Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

1. While logged in to an administrator account in Windows 8, insert or connect the same type of Windows 8 installation DVD or USB thumb drive, or ISO file if in a virtual machine that you currently have installed.

2. Do step 3 or 4 below depending on which option you would prefer to use.

3. Open the Control Panel (icons view), click/tap on the Recovery icon, click/tap on the If you're experiencing problems with your PC, you can refresh it in PC settings link, and go to step 5 or 6 below. (see screenshot below)



4. Open PC settings, and do step 5 or 6 below for the Windows 8 you have installed.

5. If you have Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1

A) On the left side in PC settings, click/tap on Update & Recovery. (see screenshot below)



B) On the left side in Update & Recovery, click/tap on Recovery, click/tap on the Get started button under the Remove everything and reinstall Windowssection on the right side, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)



6. If you have Windows 8 or Windows RT

A) Click/tap on General on the left side, click/tap on the Get started button under the Remove everything and reinstall Windows section on the right side, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)




7. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.


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



9. If prompted, select if you would like to remove all files from all drives or only the Windows 8 drive. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You will only see this if you have more than one HDD or partition with a drive letter. If you like, click/tap on the Show me the list of drives that will be affected link to see them.



10. Select how you want to have your personal files deleted in this current installation of Windows 8. (see screenshot below)

   Note

Just remove my files = Quick, but your files might be recoverable by someone else since they are only marked as deleted.

Fully clean the drive = Thorough, but this can take several hours since it does a secure erase to overwrite your files so that they can't be easily recovered.

11. Click/tap on Reset. (see screenshot below)



12. Windows 8 or 8.1 will now start resetting. (see screenshot below)



13. Enter your Windows 8 or 8.1 product key number below, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)



14. Check the I accept the license terms for using Windows box, and click/tap on the Accept button. (see screenshot below)




15. From this point on, the steps are the same as doing a clean install. Go to and start at step 10 in the tutorial link below to finish resetting Windows 8 or 8.1.

Clean Install - Windows 8


That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Create a Recovery Image used to Reset Windows 8 or 8.1
• How to Show Location of Recovery Image used to Reset Windows 8 or 8.1
• How to Boot to the "System Recovery Options" in Windows 8
• How to Create a Recovery PC settings Shortcut in Windows 8.1
• How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1
• How to Do a Repair Install of Windows 8 without Losing Anything
• How to Refresh Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
• How to Create a Refresh Windows Shortcut in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Refresh Windows 8 Using a Custom Recovery Image
• How to Refresh or Reset Windows 8 without Installation Disk
• How to Install Windows 8 on VMware Player
• How to Install Windows 8 on VirtualBox
• How to Run the "SFC /SCANNOW" Command at Boot or in Windows 8
• How to Do a System Image Recovery in Windows 8
• How to Use DISM to Fix Component Store Corruption in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

 

[SIW2]

However if you have one of those Dell computers that have no Windows 7 drivers then you could give your computer away to a friend you don't like much

LOL.

 

[IsaacFL]

Could you use this to "decrap" a new computer? Or will all the crapware get reinstalled or left in place?

 

[Brink]

Hello Isaac,

I'm afraid not. All the OEM bloatware will still be there.

About all you can do for now is manually uninstall any of it that you do not want.

Afterwards, you could create a system image using something like Macrium Reflect or ANOMEI Backupper. This way you could just restore the image of "decrapped" installation as needed instead of starting from scratch with a factory restore.

 

[Zeyn]

Hello! Im new to this forum and would just like to know if a System Reset is a good way of getting rid of viruses/malware since it erases the HDD?

 

[Brink]

Hello Zeyn, and welcome to Eight Forums.

It depends on the virus, but a clean install from installation media at boot would be the safer way to help make sure it's gone.

 

[TBolt]

I always wished this forum had "thank you" buttons installed, like other forums. Thanks for this tut.

I may use this after the initial 8.1 RTM upgrade from 8.1 beta.

 

[mrje1]

Hi Brink,

What would be the best method you would choose to do a complete clean and wipe to rid of everything on your hard disk to nothing is recoverable, option 1 or 2? How many passes does each method do? If somebody did a recovery on your pc would they be able to by using any one of these methods? Also, would a wipe program like dban do a better job?

Thank you for your help.

 

[Brink]

Hello mrje1,

The best method would be to burn the hard drive until it melts and nothing intact is left.

You could run a "Clean All" command on the drive to do a secure erase of it to wipe everything on the drive including the OS.

Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[mrje1]

Hello mrje1,

The best method would be to burn the hard drive until it melts and nothing intact is left.

You could run a "Clean All" command on the drive to do a secure erase of it to wipe everything on the drive including the OS.

Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command - Windows 7 Help Forums

Thank you Brink. I really am not comfortable at this point to try that at this time, but if I assume you are indifferent about choosing option 1 or option 2? I was thinking just doing it via windows.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Brink]

Option One or Option Two in the tutorial here on the first page both do the same thing, but just different ways to do it.

What were you wanting to do? Based on that, I may be able to give a better option.

Refresh and sell the computer, wipe the drive and use it for something else, etc....

 

[mrje1]

Option One or Option Two in the tutorial here on the first page both do the same thing, but just different ways to do it.

What were you wanting to do? Based on that, I may be able to give a better option.

Refresh and sell the computer, wipe the drive and use it for something else, etc....

Hi Brink,

Sorry for the late reply here. My main method I always use is the, turn off computer and restart from a DVD that wipes my computer and that one is Drive Scrubber by iolo and then reinstall everything. That method always worked for me, but I wanted to try something different because I didn't want to install three operating systems anymore plus all of my software. So, I wanted to give the Windows 8.1 method a try.

Unfortunately both methods did not work. When I tried it, it said that I had media files missing. So, I put in my pre made installation disk of Windows 8 that I bought via download from Microsoft and it said I didn't have the correct DVD. I tried both methods. So, I went back to my old method.

If there is any other methods you can give to make my time easier or how to get a Windows 8.1 installation disk for the future so I can use the options Windows give I would appreciate that.

Thank you again for your great assistance. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

 

[Brink]

mrje1,

Once you have everything setup how you like it, you could create a custom recovery image to refresh Windows with instead. Plus, you could keep the recovery image updated as needed.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/3610-refresh-windows-8-create-use-custom-recovery-image.html​

Another option would be to use Macrium Reflect Free to keep saved system images as well.

Imaging with free Macrium - Windows 7 Help Forums

MACRIUM REFLECT - Create Bootable Rescue USB Drive - Windows 7 Help Forums​

Hope this helps.

 

[mrje1]

mrje1,

Once you have everything setup how you like it, you could create a custom recovery image to refresh Windows with instead. Plus, you could keep the recovery image updated as needed.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/3610-refresh-windows-8-create-use-custom-recovery-image.html​

Another option would be to use Macrium Reflect Free to keep saved system images as well.

Imaging with free Macrium - Windows 7 Help Forums

MACRIUM REFLECT - Create Bootable Rescue USB Drive - Windows 7 Help Forums​

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the info Brink. Will check them out.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome.

 

[mrje1]

How big is usually the image size generally? Thank you.

 

[Brink]

It varies, but it's usually slightly smaller than the space Windows take.

 

[mrje1]

Thank you.

 

[mrje1]

Where also do you recommend to place this disk image on?

I have two external drives. One is my main hard drive where I have all my original files and then I use good sync to backup that drive to my backup drive. Should I place that image on a new drive or the same main drive that is backup by good sync?

 

[Brink]

It would be best to keep it on any internal hard drive separate than what Windows is on.

 

[mrje1]

So the bottom line is to make a disk image on any Drive other than a drive with the windows operating system on it? Just to make sure.