Refresh Windows 10  

Source

We are also redesigning Windows’ Refresh and Reset functionalities to no longer use a separate recovery image (often preinstalled by manufacturers today) in order to bring Windows devices back to a pristine state. This reduces Windows’ storage footprint further as the recovery image on typical devices can range in size from 4GB to 12GB, depending on the make and model.

We all know what OEM's call a pristine state: Bundleware!

Same source

Even though Windows no longer requires a separate recovery image, Windows can still recover a device from severe corruption. With Windows 10, you can create your own recovery media and back up the pristine state of the operating system and preinstalled software. If things go wrong and you are unable to refresh or reset your device successfully, you can boot the device using recovery media and reset to the prior pristine state.

So now my question(hopefully the answer will help someone):

Does this mean that the RESET will reinstall the Bundleware that will come with a new Win10 PC and/or before the upgrade from old OS? Or will it nuke it? I refer to the HTG artilcle Bloatware Banished: Windows 10 Eliminates the Need to Ever Reinstall Windows on New PCs. Not every one knows how to manually purge the stuff, and I was thinking of people with slow/unreliable internet connection having to download a copy of the ISO, that this "could be" an option, and then they just would have to download/reinstall their PC specific drivers then.

Or is it to early to tell yet?

Hey Cliff,

I'm hoping that article will be true, but I just can't imagine that the OEM wouldn't at least have some of their software installed. It's pretty much a wait and see when the first Window 10 OEM PC is released at this point to know for sure.

However, one can always create a custom reset image to use though.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4...dows-10-a.html

Shawn,

It's just I was thinking this could be a double edge sword, if it was true.

On the one side, for advanced users, it be great to only reset, and everything is nuked, then create a custom image later.

On the other side, for non-tech users, it would be not so good, because many would loose some hardware function, Keyboard hotkeys for example, and not know they need to get drivers(for the unlucky ones who didn't get a driver disk like I did).

Let's see what happens. I always tell people to download their drivers to an external device BEFORE the clean install anyhow.

Agreed. I keep the latest driver and program setup files on another drive to make reinstalling them easy after a clean install.

I would think drivers and such would still be part of the OEM setup, but just the bloatware would hopefully finally be gone.

Brink said:

I would think drivers and such would still be part of the OEM setup, but just the bloatware would hopefully finally be gone.

Hello Yinqin, and welcome to Ten Forums.

Drivers will not be affected by a refresh. If you did a reset, then they would be wiped. :)

Hello Noel, and welcome to Ten Forums. :)

"Your files" = The "C:\Users\(user-name)" folders.

3rd party apps = Basically any desktop program installed. This doesn't include Store apps.

I would tell them to backup and create images to be able to restore as needed.