I Initially had a Windows 7 PC. Then I got the free update to Windows 10 Home a while ago like a lot of people did. My PC has been running really slow for a while now, and so I've been considering just wiping it clean through a factory reset. But I was wondering if doing that would return my PC back to Windows 7.
If you still have the manufacturer's recovery partition on your disk (or available) then using that would return your PC to 'as bought' condition.
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Reset Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials
- which keeps Win 10.
You should also do some elementary checks:
If you look at the task manager when your PC is nominally idle, is CPU use less than e.g. 3%?
Is there zero disk and internet activity?
Do you have plenty of spare space on C: (else possible page file problems) and plenty of spare RAM when your PC is idle?
Compare your PC's performance when booted normally to that after a clean boot. Any noticeable difference? If so, could be 3rd party programs.
Do you have only 1 AV program installed?
From an admin command prompt run
chkdsk c: /scan
- check the result is ok.
Welcome to TenForums @The Desert Wolf
Yes, do all dalchina's checks.
Be aware that a Reset will remove all installed apps and reinstall Windows. If you need to keep your installed apps then you could use this tutorial.
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade
-however an in-place upgrade repair install, while very valuable, would not be expected to be beneficial here if the cause of your slow performance was related to disk corruption, third party programs, resource issues or settings that are not reset to default by that procedure.
It replaces your system files with those from the base build of your current build, resets services to default and overwrites some settings, which can help in some cases.
It cannot fix user profile problems or corruption.
On a Windows 7 PC, not just HP but other OEMs too, if a reset image was included it was stored in separate partition (often hidden, sometime with a drive letter). The OEM reset function is usually added as an extra option for the recovery partition software, often accessed by a function key at boot.
Now Windows 10 installs its own recovery partition, so while the restore image may exist it may no longer be possible to boot to a recovery environment that can restore it.
I'm curious: what process did you use to get the free update?
--- Were there problems with your Windows 7?
--- Do you know if your Windows 7 was upgradeable to Windows 10 by checking with the manufacturer's website?
There isn't enough information on the best course of action at this time.
If you have data you don't want to lose, save it now. Then create a system image backup onto an external HDD.
Go to control panel and check for any issues in Security and Maintenance.
Go to control panel > Troubleshooting > Begin with the System and Security section and let us know the result.
Run winver and let us know the version you are running.
I updated a windows 7 Home laptop yesterday by installing windows 10 on a separate partition
It activated for free and found all the hardware drivers...
After I was sure windows 10 was activated and found the required drivers, I did a clean (re)install of windows 10 thus completely removing windows 7 home
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