to me it looks like $Windows.~WS , besides the win10Image, also contains personalized xml files; i will double check it, and post my last impression about true/false: pc-personalized $Windows.~WS.

i'v managed to reinstall , firstly by re-downloading the media from windows, but it seemed to be slower than the first time, so i aborted it; then i discovered that by launching the appropiate exe, ...

i'v deleted it, and all hell broke loose; now i'm trying to reinstall ...

so did I...