If you have ever bought a laptop or Windows tablet, you will know that manufacturers like to load them with ‘helpful’ software. Bloatware to you and I. Aside from getting hold of a Windows ISO and performing a clean install, there was no real way to wipe it all from your device. Until now. Now we can use 'refresh Windows' to do a clean install of Windows 10 Anniversary Update.
This saves us installing an upgrade over and upgrade and gives us the opportunity to run a completely clean install of Windows 10 complete with the Anniversary Update. Here’s how to do it.
Use 'refresh Windows' to do a clean install of Windows 10 Anniversary Update
The new refresh tool works much like Reset This PC does but it works within a window on your desktop.
1. Save all the files and data you don’t want to lose, just in case.
2. Navigate to Settings, Update & security.
3. Click the link below ‘More recovery options’. At the time of writing, the web page was down, so here is a direct link to the tool.
4. Download and run RefreshWindowsTool.exe.
5. Accept the conditions and then choose between ‘Keep personal files only’ and ‘Nothing’.
6. Allow the process to complete and input where necessary.
The Refresh Windows tool will automatically download the installation files, (around 3GB) and install them. The process is pretty seamless and will result in a clean, new Windows 10 install without the bloat.
Windows 10 configuration tutorials you might find useful:
How to enable support for legacy file shares
How to change owner of file, folder, drive, or registry key in Windows 10
How to run the SFC Command at boot in Windows 10
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