When you click the Get Started button under Reset your PC and start over, a full-screen Metro-style notification like the one in Figure 11-22 will appear.
Figure 11-22: The Reset your PC screen explains what’s about to happen.
Again, PC Reset is about reinstalling Windows from scratch and starting over. Nothing else will be retained. So be sure to back up first.
This notification alerts you that the PC Reset process will delete all of your personal settings, files, and apps.
Click Next to continue.
The thorough option will dramatically slow the reset process. Microsoft tells us that this PC Reset version uses a Department of Defense-style, three-pass disk wipe to do its thing.
If you have more than one drive, PC Reset will ask whether you’d like to remove all files from all drives, or just from the drive on which Windows is installed. Make a choice, and then PC Reset will ask you to choose between quick and thorough file removal types, as shown in Figure 11-23. The second, more thorough option is useful if you wish to sell or give away the PC to others, but the first, quicker version is what you’ll want when you’re simply resetting the PC for your own uses.
Next, PC Reset declares that it is ready to reset the PC. Click the Reset button to continue.
Figure 11-23: Do it quick… or do it right.
PC Reset will reboot the computer and quickly reinstall Windows. Your customized settings, data, and apps will all be deleted. After a few minutes and a few reboots, you will be presented with a shortened version of the Windows Setup procedure, during which you will agree to the Windows license terms and then complete the out- of-box experience (OOBE), where you configure some features and sign in for the first time. (Chapter 2 describes this procedure.) This makes sense, as you are essentially configuring this PC as if it were brand new.
Once this process is complete, you will sign in and arrive at the Start screen.
When you click the Get Started button under Refresh your PC without affecting your files, a full-screen Metro-style notification will appear, alerting you that the PC Refresh process will retain all of your personal settings, files, and apps. However, traditional Windows desktop applications will be removed.
Click Next to continue.
Obviously, you should still ensure that your data has been backed up before using Refresh your PC. Better safe than sorry.
PC Refresh is now ready to reset the PC while saving your personal settings, data, and Metro-style apps. Click the Refresh button to continue.
Your PC will restart and undergo the process of setting aside your personal settings, data, and apps, reinstalling Windows, and reapplying those items back to the new install. This will occur over your device’s firmware screen or, on a traditional PC, on a screen that resembles the Windows boot animation.
After a few reboots, Windows 8 will simply return to your familiar lock screen. Sign in as before and Windows will indicate that it is preparing for a few moments. Then you’ll be returned to the Start screen, just as you left it.
You should then navigate to the Windows desktop, where you’ll find a web document listing the (classic) applications that PC Refresh removed. This list will help you get started reinstalling, as many web-based apps will be helpfully hyperlinked.
Accessing System Image Backup and Recovery Functionality with Windows Backup
In Windows 7, the backup and recovery story centered on a very useful tool called Windows Backup, which offered two basic features: It could be used to back up certain locations and their contained data to another hard disk, optical disc, or network share, and it could make system image backups of the entire PC, which could be used to recover Windows, its data and customizations, and applications and application states.
Windows Backup seems like the full-meal deal, so you may be surprised to discover that it’s been relegated to also-ran status in Windows 8. Yes, it’s still there. But Microsoft went to great pains to hide it. So naturally, we’re going to tell you how to find it.
First, though, a short discussion about why this happened. If you’ve been reading this chapter, you know that Windows 8 includes amazing new tools related to storage, backup, and recovery. And that these tools separately allow you to fully recover a PC, and, optionally, all of your data, settings, and Metro-style apps in just minutes (Push Button Reset). Further, they let you recover not just backups of your most important documents and other data, but also an extensive collection of data file revisions (File History). Both of these tools separately answer different needs. But collectively, they accomplish almost all of what most people used Windows Backup for, and more important, they do so far more quickly.
This reasoning won’t matter very much to you if you have a collection of Windows Backup-based backups from Windows 7 that you still want to access. Or perhaps you’re simply just familiar with Windows Backup, like how it works, and wish to continue using this solution.
You can. But, boy, does Microsoft make it difficult.
Try to find Windows Backup from Start Screen Search, or by searching the classic Control Panel, and you’ll come up blank. The term
But fear not, it’s there. Just search for
But seriously, you should be using the new tools in Windows 8, and not Windows Backup. The only real exception is that you have to access a previously created backup for some reason. That’s really why this tool is still in Windows 8.
Say the magic words correctly and you’ll see the Windows 7 File Recovery control panel shown in Figure 11- 24. From this window, you can do everything you used to do in Windows Backup.
Just don’t tell Microsoft we told you about this one.
Figure 11-24: Windows Backup lives in Windows 8 as the Windows 7 File Recovery control panel.
What’s Missing: Cloud Backup
While Windows 8 offers a fairly complete selection of backup and recovery tools, many of which are
