Unable to restore Win 10 after program delete

weybrew · 11 Jan 2021

I am a senior and a non-techie. As such, I think I've really put my foot in it this time! After reading a LifeHacker article, I wanted to try the Everything Toolbar on my PC. It installed without problems. I then decided to delete the program zip file which I did. Then I attempted to delete the unzipped folder and could not as it was flagged as open in another program. I tried to find the conflicting folder in vain, so I did a "force delete" with Unlock It. The folder was deleted and I did a reboot as instructed. Now I cannot create a restore point, not can I restore from an earlier restore point. I get the Windows error msg. referencing error code # 0x81000203. I have no idea how to proceed. Can someone please help.

Windows 10 v 10.0.19041

Ghot · 11 Jan 2021

weybrew said:

I am a senior and a non-techie. As such, I think I've really put my foot in it this time! After reading a LifeHacker article, I wanted to try the Everything Toolbar on my PC. It installed without problems. I then decided to delete the program zip file which I did. Then I attempted to delete the unzipped folder and could not as it was flagged as open in another program. I tried to find the conflicting folder in vain, so I did a "force delete" with Unlock It. The folder was deleted and I did a reboot as instructed. Now I cannot create a restore point, not can I restore from an earlier restore point. I get the Windows error msg. referencing error code # 0x81000203. I have no idea how to proceed. Can someone please help.

Windows 10 v 10.0.19041

I would just do an In-Place Upgrade to 20H2. An In-Place Upgrade will repair Windows as well.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

Here is the short version of the In-place upgrade tutorial...

DISABLE non-Microsoft:
a) antivirus software
b) firewall software
c) drive encryption software

Make a full OS backup with a program like Macrium Reflect (free)
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

Go here and get the Media Creation Tool and save it to your desktop.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10

RUN the Media Creation Tool and use it to: Create an ISO image... save IT to your desktop.
This will be the latest version of the ISO image.

For older ISO image versions, go here instead...
Download Windows 10 ISO File

Right click the ISO image and choose: MOUNT
Open File Explorer and you will see a new drive letter. It will look like a DVD optical drive.
Double click the new drive letter to open it.
Find setup.exe and double click it to start the in-place upgrade.

Choose the Keep personal files and apps option.

After it's all done... to UNmount the ISO image, right click the new drive letter and choose: EJECT.

The ONLY thing you will lose is some of your personalizations. Your programs and data will be intact.

weybrew · 12 Jan 2021

Thanks so much, Ghot, for your super clear reply. I want to start on this right away but, how exactly do I do an "OS" only backup? I don't remember ever isolating the OS specifically to do a backup on it alone.

weybrew · 15 Jan 2021

Hello again, Ghot. I finally got my OS backup made. I downloaded the Media Creation Tool. This file looked like a zip file, so I extracted it (there was no MOUNT option). The extracted file had no MOUNT option either. What am I doing wrong?