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I have an older laptop (a Lenovo T430s) that was made redundant when I bought a newer Lenovo laptop. Originally I was considering getting rid of Windows and using Linux on it but have gone off that idea.
After a bit of procrastinating decided to get rid of all my data on it and use it as an anonymous computer still running Win 10
The first job was to reset Windows 10 back to its factory default and scrub all my details from it. It was remarkably simple.
Settings > Update & Recovery > Recovery
The top item is "Reset this PC" I had backed up any data I wanted off the Laptop so I clicked "Get Started". It was easy I just followed the prompts and got Windows to remove all my programs and scrub all my data - the latter takes longer but is safer and none of your previous account or data is recoverable. It took a couple of hours but you don't have to watch it.
Finally I ended up with a brand new factory version of Windows 10 with no user or record of previous users.
Now came the interesting bit I turned off the Wifi so there was no internet available to the computer and logged in as a new user without registering a Microsoft account. This explains how and why:
This all went well but I discovered that Windows was not activated but by just clicking "Troubleshoot" and it was activated and back to normal.
Very happy with it.
I hope you found that useful especially if your compyter is playing up and you are fed up with Microsoft knowing all about you.
I've never done a reset of Windows 10. I'll have to give it a go sometime. If I want clean start with W.10, I'll usually:
Download the current version of Microsoft's Media Creation Tool to a USB stick.
Boot up with it.
Go into the advanced settings.
Delete all partitions on the C: drive.
Follow instruction to install from there on.
The OS activates automatically.
It is possible to use Windows 10 without activating it. You can't customise it but it will basically work. The Intel NUCs I bought came with un-activated copies of W.10 Pro installed.
I read of people using W.10 this way indefinitely, although I'm sure it would annoy me to have some options disabled ..and there'd always be the nags to activate.
I have nearly completed manually restoring an old Windows 10 PC after a Reset. The Reset completed with no problems and so far, I have encountered no significant issues reinstalling required apps.
No data was lost due to the Reset but checking and changing system and app settings is very time-consuming, which I expected.
Was it worth the effort .....
Well, the PC was "tidier" but any improvement in performance was negligible and there were still some "loose ends" from the previous installation .....
If you want to stop Microsoft knowing all your business you need to run something like OOSU10 to turn off the hidden telemetry back to MS. Not sure if I've been here long enough to post a link - if not Google is your friend.
I wouldn't bother doing a reset as you can just download the latest install media from microsoft which will give a completely clean install.
I have a TS430S. The screen on mine isn't anything to shout about but with an SSD installed it is plenty fast enough for me. I got it cheap as a refurb on eBay. They are popular corporate machines so there is always a ready supply as they get replaced.
I've never done a reset of Windows 10. I'll have to give it a go sometime. If I want clean start with W.10, I'll usually:
I think it is really worth the lack of effort letting Windows do the deed.
There are two choices - retain all your programs and data or not. If you are deleting your programs and data then you have a choice of scrubbing the data so it is unrecoverable or not, obviously the latter is much quicker and there are open source programs you could let loose on the unused parts of of your hard drive at a later and perhaps run over night.
No matter what you end up with a shiny new uncluttered version of Windows (so they claim)
One deletion program I have used previously is Eraser - it is not fast but you can schedule it to write to every unused sector of you drive.
You are right about the unactivated version of windows being usable, in fact I didn't realise it was unactivated until I tried to change the background. As I say it took a few seconds to activate but if you have problem entering a key for a version of WIN 7 (get it off an old computer) will activate it anyway.
You are right about the unactivated version of windows being usable, in fact I didn't realise it was unactivated until I tried to change the background. As I say it took a few seconds to activate but if you have problem entering a key for a version of WIN 7 (get it off an old computer) will activate it anyway.
With one of the computers that came with unactivated Windows 10 Pro installed, I tried using a Windows 7 Home key (retail copy). I thought it might work but it was too much to hope for and it didn't.
I took W.10 Pro off and installed the Home version using the latest ISO from MS. The W.7 Home key then worked.
With one of the computers that came with unactivated Windows 10 Pro installed, I tried using a Windows 7 Home key (retail copy). I thought it might work but it was too much to hope for and it didn't.
I took W.10 Pro off and installed the Home version using the latest ISO from MS. The W.7 Home key then worked.
Yes, that is right, there is no free lunch, the key has to match the version..
I am very pleased with my minimalist, anonymous version of Windows 10 running on my old laptop and have slightly speeded it up by turning off a lot of the unnecessary parts of the operating system.
I found this quite useful
I haven't edited the registry at all yet though but I might disable Cortana there.