Forgot password, starting over, what gets kept?


  1. Marscaleb
    Posts : 36
    Windows 10
       New #1

    Forgot password, starting over, what gets kept?


    I've got an old laptop that a friend gave me when he got a new one. Unfortunately he can't remember his password so I can't get past the login screen when the laptop boots up.

    I understand that I do have an option to wipe the account and everything on the laptop so that I can use it. However, in my past experience with laptops I've found that it can be hard to get the proper drivers; I once made that mistake with a much older laptop, I thought I would be able to get the graphics drivers straight form nVidia but for some reason they didn't have them available online.
    So I'm concerned about having Windows wipe everything so I can put on a new user account. How deep does this go? Will it delete drivers? Is this the same as if I formatted the hard drive and re-installed Windows, or will windows preserve the system functions and the like? How deep does this data purge go?
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  3. Samuria
    Posts : 8,111
    windows 10
       New #2

    Your best bet is to get the latest iso free from Download Windows 10 boot from it and wipe everything as its had 10 on it you know there will be drivers for it you can skip the serial if it asks as iy will activate from MS server
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  4. Brink
    Posts : 68,968
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       New #3

    Hello Marscaleb,

    If you like, you could reset Windows 10 at boot to start fresh without having to do a clean install.

    Reset Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

    A reset will:

    • Reinstalls Windows 10 and removes all your accounts and personal files.
    • Removes apps and drivers you installed.
    • Removes changes you made to settings.
    • Removes any apps your PC manufacturer installed. (If your PC came with Windows 10, apps from your PC manufacturer will be reinstalled.)
    • If you're planning to donate, recycle, or sell your PC, use this option and choose to fully clean the drive. This might take an hour or two, but it makes it harder for other people to recover files you've removed.
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  6. Marscaleb
    Posts : 36
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       New #4

    Brink said:
    A reset will:

    • Reinstalls Windows 10 and removes all your accounts and personal files.
    • Removes apps and drivers you installed.
    Okay, so does this mean that it's removing all the drivers, or just drivers for additional hardware the end user installed?
    Because I'll be honest here, I'm not really sure how the computer can know for sure what it needs to keep or not.

    And as I think about, given the age of the laptop, I'm pretty sure it didn't come factory-installed with Windows 10; it probably had windows 7 or 8 and got the free upgrade when Microsoft was pushing that the other year.
    If that's the case, how is that going to effect this process?
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  7. Brink
    Posts : 68,968
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       New #5

    It'll remove any installed drivers by the user, but Windows will at least use included generic drivers.
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