Refresh Windows 10  

Bedlamite said:

Just a silly question. Wondows.old contains all old program files as well. When moving them back tomtheir position in e.g. /program files does that mean that those will work as before?
I habe my doubts, as these are no longer registered in the registry. Or am I wrong?

Hello Harry,

I'm afraid that apps/programs will need to be reinstalled for them to work properly.

Bedlamite said:

So, in fact it is simply NO OPTION to use when one has a fully working pc, with all programs.
In this case one could better create a backup. Be it with DISM to a .wim file.
Pity no one mentions this fact.

It is mentioned in the notes at the top of the tutorial that all apps will be removed.

If you like, you could do a repair install instead without losing anything.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

Tutorial updated for new Cloud download option that can be used to refresh Windows 10.

Hi brink! I did the "clean drives" and a full system reset a couple of days ago on a friend PC, and all the drivers that's manually installed/updated was still there. Is this normal? I thought this would completely remove everything, including custom driver installations? What's weird is that only the device manager can see them, so any entries in the add/remove apps tab under 'settings' is not there (like Realtek audio or Intel ethernet etc). I don't understand this... The whole point of that system reset was to nullify them to Microsoft's default ones.

Faith said:

Hi brink! I did the "clean drives" and a full system reset a couple of days ago on a friend PC, and all the drivers that's manually installed/updated was still there. Is this normal? I thought this would completely remove everything, including custom driver installations? What's weird is that only the device manager can see them, so any entries in the add/remove apps tab under 'settings' is not there (like Realtek audio or Intel ethernet etc). I don't understand this... The whole point of that system reset was to nullify them to Microsoft's default ones.

Hello Faith,

Usually any drivers that were manually installed will get removed when doing reset or refresh of Windows 10.

Is it possible they were automatically installed via Windows Update?

Hmmm, no we didn't find any Windows update entries for "drivers", unless it's hidden somewhere? What's strange is that all drivers had the exact date and numbers like they were before doing the reset. Is it possible that a user account can contribute to what drivers are installed? She have a MS account.

Faith said:

Hmmm, no we didn't find any Windows update entries for "drivers", unless it's hidden somewhere? What's strange is that all drivers had the exact date and numbers like they were before doing the reset. Is it possible that a user account can contribute to what drivers are installed? She have a MS account.

Drivers wouldn't sync with a Microsoft account.

I must admit that I'm not sure why the 3rd party drivers were still there after a reset.

Me neither.

But I dig-dug a little bit in the driver list, and there's two entries of "signatures" for each driver; One for the manufacturer (Intel), and one is Microsoft standard. I guess my alternative is to go to each driver and change it manually... *gasp*... If it's even possible? Maybe it's just a bug? Are they stored anywhere? I didn't click.

I remember I specifically chose all the "clean" options. The whole process took over 2 hours. Thank you for helping us though.

Faith said:

Me neither.

But I dig-dug a little bit in the driver list, and there's two entries of "signatures" for each driver; One for the manufacturer (Intel), and one is Microsoft standard. I guess my alternative is to go to each driver and change it manually... *gasp*... If it's even possible? Maybe it's just a bug? Are they stored anywhere? I didn't click.

I remember I specifically chose all the "clean" options. The whole process took over 2 hours. Thank you for helping us though.

This is one reason I like to do a full blown clean install when I want to start fresh. Nothing will survive.

If your not having any issues with the drivers, I wouldn't worry about it. Otherwise, you could check to see if a new version may be available from the manufacturer to install and update it.