Win10 Reet this PC or fresh start question

What does 'keep personal file, settings and apps' mean?

To be more specific - I'd like to reset my pc. Fully. But would like the previous installation to be moved to the windows.old folder, so that I can hand-pick files to move to the new installation. Does either Fresh Start or Reset this PC offer that functionality?

Sorry for asking, would test myself in a virtual machine but am very short on time currently what with college and travelling :/

WolfCRO said:

What does 'keep personal file, settings and apps' mean?

To be more specific - I'd like to reset my pc. Fully. But would like the previous installation to be moved to the windows.old folder, so that I can hand-pick files to move to the new installation. Does either Fresh Start or Reset this PC offer that functionality?

Sorry for asking, would test myself in a virtual machine but am very short on time currently what with college and travelling :/

Keep personal files, settings and apps means that after the reset your user account and data files should remain exactly intact the way they were before the reset.

Given what you describe you want to do, I would create an image backup of your current installation using a program such as Macrium Reflect Free:
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

Then do the reset (or a clean install) keeping nothing from the old install. Then restore the specific files you want by mounting the image backup file and copying files from it.

An additional option is a custom install:
Custom Install Windows 10 | Tutorials


Reset Windows 10 | Tutorials

Clean Install Windows 10 | Tutorials

Beware - I believe a reset only keeps apps from the Windows Store not all your separately installed programs. You will require significant work to reinstall these if you do a reset.

Do a repair install if you are trying to fix a serious problem which will preserve all of your apps & programs Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade