Is data lost when installing windows 10. How to reinstall Windows while keeping settings and installed programs

Windows 10 Creators Update introduced another system update feature. Now you can reinstall Windows 10 with personal data saved - everything happens automatically, and as a result we get a clean version of the system.

The Creators Update introduces a new Start Again feature that allows you to automatically reinstall Windows 10 while keeping your personal data (documents, photos, videos, etc.). The operating system will not only be completely cleaned of unnecessary programs and reinstalled, but in addition we will also get a completely updated version of Windows 10. How can I reinstall Windows 10 without losing my license and personal data using the built-in Start Again tool?

What is the Start Again feature?

The Start Over feature was introduced in the Windows 10 Creators Update and is an optional upgrade option. It's more powerful than the Reset PC feature. It does the following:

• allows you to completely reinstall the Windows 10 operating system from scratch;
• installs all available updates during reinstallation;
• saves personal data of user directories Documents, Music, Images, Videos;
• removes all third-party programs (as a result, you will get a clean OS without unnecessary add-ons);
• automatically configures the user account to the state that it was before the reinstallation;
• automatically activates the license for Windows 10.

Before you reinstall Windows 10 on your computer using this tool, pay attention to the following again.

The only thing that is saved is your personal data from the libraries of documents, images, videos and downloaded files. Everything else is removed, as you can freely call this installation option "from scratch" with saving only the most important data for the user.

The advantage of the Start Again application is that during the reinstallation, the latest up-to-date version of Windows 10 is installed. Thanks to this, the problem with downloading and installing a large number of updates completely disappears.

Which is very convenient, especially for users who use laptops - before that, there were several useful solutions to reinstall the system on a PC from the Recovery section. From this partition, you can restore the OS using the recovery disk. But, as you know, the recorded installation on the disk becomes outdated after time and you had to install a lot of updates. Now this need disappears, since the Start Again application not only allows you to reinstall the OS from scratch, but also automatically updates it.

In addition, the function removes from the laptop all unnecessary add-ons that were added by the manufacturer for promotional purposes, that is, the so-called bloatware (for example, ineffective pre-installed antivirus software, etc.).

Reinstalling Windows 10 with saving data through the "Start over" function

Will go directly to how to reinstall windows 10 using this tool. To do this, open the Start menu and go to the Settings section (gear icon on the left side of the panel). Then go to the tab "Update and Security" - "Recovery".

The tab will display the already familiar options for restoring and returning the computer to its original state through a reset. But we are interested in the option to start over. Find "Advanced Recovery Options".

Directly below it is the "Learn how to start over with a clean install of Windows" link. Click on this link and you will be asked if you want to launch the Windows Defender Security Center app. Confirm login to the app.

A window will appear with the "Start over" option. Clicking on the "Get Started" button will start the reinstallation process. Everything will be done automatically, for this you do not need a disk or a Windows 10 installer - it is built into the system.

Reinstalling (updating) Windows is performed over the installed operating system without formatting the system partition. This saves your files and settings, as well as installed programs and their settings.

As a rule, this method is advised in cases where all other options for solving the problem have been exhausted, although in modern Windows this is a completely acceptable solution from a technical point of view. Often, it leads to the goal much faster than dancing with a tambourine.

Windows 10 owners automatically and silently go through this process every time a new build is released, ie. once every six months (insiders - much more often).

Comparison table of recovery tools in Windows

Due to the variety of Windows recovery tools, I have prepared a comparison table. In it you will find a brief description of the recovery methods and how they work, as well as links to detailed articles about each of the tools.

Reinstall process

The process is identical for Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. You will need an installation disc (download) and a product key (Windows 7 and 8.1 only, as you can skip entering the key on Windows 10).

To reinstall the operating system in this way, you must log in to it. Upgrading from 32-bit Windows to 64-bit is basically impossible.

Step 1 - Start Reinstallation

Insert the installation disk and run setup.exe, and then in the window that opens, click the button Install.

Step 2 - Install updates

Windows will prompt you to download the latest updates - it is logical to install an updated system. Of course, an Internet connection is required.

If you choose to download updates, the download progress will be displayed in the next window.

Step 3 - Selecting the type of installation

After the updates are downloaded, the system will reboot and the installation process will begin. After accepting the license agreement, you can choose its type.

• Update is an installation on top of an existing system. Wherein persist your settings and data, as well as installed programs. All system settings (for example, the configuration of services) are reset - they are brought to the default ones, as with a new installation of Windows.
• Full installation- this is a clean installation with formatting the system partition, or installation on another hard disk partition. Wherein are lost all your data and programs.

The update uses the data transfer tool.

It saves:

• all your files and folders
• programs and their settings
• user accounts and settings
• Internet settings
• email options
• contacts and messages

All files are saved on the same partition where the operating system is installed. During reinstallation, a number of folders are created, one of which is where Easy Transfer places these files. The figure below shows how user profiles are migrated.

Then all this data is restored to the installed system, and the temporary folders are deleted. But before you can see the desktop, you'll have to go through the standard customization process called OOBE (Out of Box Experience) - create an account, set language preferences, and so on.

At the end of the update, you will have a clean Windows, which, however, retains your files, user preferences, programs and their settings. Once you have verified that it is working properly, you can

When moving from one desktop to another, even from one version of Windows to a more recent one, there are always a lot of questions that need to be put a bullet under. We've rounded up the top five questions you're most likely to be asking yourself about upgrading to Windows 10, and we're ready to give you concrete answers.

Earlier this week, Microsoft revealed that Windows 10 will officially launch on July 29 in more than 190 countries. Starting today, PC users running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 who "reserved" a free upgrade for themselves will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. Such a free upgrade until July 29, 2016, as promised by the company.

But a few questions remained still in the shadows.

Can I upgrade to Windows 10 without losing data?

If you're planning to upgrade your existing Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10, you're in luck—you can now keep your data during the upgrade. In other words, you can upgrade to Windows 10 without losing your data, and without even losing most of your installed programs.

When you upgrade from Windows 7 and 8/8.1 to Windows 10, you will of course have the option to keep Windows settings, personal files such as documents, photos, music, and most installed programs. However, we recommend that you back up your important data.

But before you upgrade to Windows 10, there are a few important things you need to know. First, Windows Media Center is not available on Windows 10, and the upgrade will remove all functionality within Media Center.

As with Windows 8/8.1, desktop gadgets are no longer part of Windows 10 and will be removed with the Windows 7 update, although the functionality can be enabled later.

Which version of Windows 10 will I get after the upgrade?

While Windows 10 will be available in a total of seven editions, there will actually be only two desktop editions available to end users: Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Professional. As with previous versions of Windows, the Enterprise Edition is only suitable for medium and large businesses.

If you upgrade from Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, or Home Premium, you'll get Windows 10 Home Edition as part of a free upgrade. Similarly, users of Windows 7 Professional and Enterprise editions will be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro.

Windows 8 users are detailed in the table below. It is worth noting that users who want to upgrade from a home build of Windows 10 to a professional build can buy a gp upgrade license.

Note that Windows 7 users need to download and install Service Pack 1 using Update Center before upgrading. Similarly, you need to install all available updates to prepare your PC for Windows 8.1.

Recall that it supports all the functions of the Home edition, but also additional options that are in demand in small businesses. It will allow you to effectively manage devices and applications, improve the protection of important information, speed up remote and mobile work, and use cloud technologies. Among other things, Windows 10 Pro will offer Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) and Windows Update for Business.

Can I upgrade to 64-bit Windows 10 from 32-bit Windows 7/8.1?

The answer is simple: no. You can’t just upgrade from a 32-bit to a 64-bit OS, even if we are talking about Windows 10. In simple terms, if you want to upgrade to 64-bit Windows 10 by upgrading Windows 7 / 8.1 32-bit, then you won't get anything.

However, if you don't mind a clean install of Windows 10 after the upgrade is complete, you can upgrade to Windows 10 64-bit as well. Before doing so, make sure your computer's processor supports a 64-bit operating system.

When performing a clean install of Windows 10, all you need to do is download the Windows 10 64-bit ISO and then use your product key to activate Windows 10 64-bit. The only catch here is that you have to install all the device drivers again and programs after a clean install.

There are other options for upgrading to the 64-bit version, but I think they are too complicated and will not save your time in any way.

Can I upgrade to Windows 10 from pirated Windows 7/8.1?

While most users are running genuine versions of Windows 7/8.1, there are still quite a few users around the world using non-genuine or pirated versions of Windows 7 and 8.1 for a variety of reasons. As the company writes on the official Windows blog, users of such (pirated) copies of Windows 7 and 8.1 will not be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free.

Perhaps many PC users do not know that you can reinstall Windows 10 without losing documents, photos, music and other personal data. In this guide, we will look at how to properly reinstall Windows 10 without losing data.

Using Windows 10 since pre-release versions, I won’t say that often, but periodically I received various troubles with the operating system, some could be solved easily, others simply left no options and had to reinstall the system. As a result, the most reliable tool for dealing with system errors has been developed, no matter how ridiculous it may sound - reinstalling Windows 10.

Reinstalling is guaranteed to help if your Windows 10 system keeps crashing or you get one or more errors when opening programs or apps. In short, you will have to reinstall the OS if you have problems that are unrecoverable. For example, if Windows 10 is very slow even after trying possible solutions from the internet, you might consider reinstalling Windows 10.

The presented method of reinstalling Windows 10 does not require you to enter a product key, that is, you can reinstall Windows 10 without a key.

Guide to reinstall Windows 10 without data loss.

This method is only applicable if Windows 10 is booting. If your PC won't boot, you need to perform a clean install of Windows 10.

Step 1: Connect your bootable Windows 10 flash drive to your computer. If you have a Windows 10 bootable DVD, insert it into your optical drive.

And if you have an image file, navigate to the folder containing the ISO file, right click on it, and then click To plug to open the contents of the ISO image in Windows Explorer.

Those of you who don't have a Windows 10 USB, DVD or ISO file should download the Windows 10 ISO image from Microsoft using the official tool. The tool, with default settings, will download the same version of Windows 10 as the one installed on your computer (32-bit or 64-bit).

Step 2: open This computer(My Computer), right-click on the USB or DVD drive, click .

Similarly, if you have mounted a Windows 10 ISO image, right-click on the mounted drive, and click .

Step 3: Double click on the file setup.exe. Click Yes on the User Account Control dialog box.

Step 4: After a few seconds, and you will see a window - Getting Important Updates with two options:

• # Download and install updates (recommended)
• # Not now

If your computer is connected to the Internet, we recommend that you choose the first one - Download and install updates (recommended).

You can uncheck I want to help improve Windows, to avoid sending anonymous data to Microsoft about the installation process.

Step 5: After pressing the button Further, the installation will check for updates. If the option is selected Not now in the previous step, you won't see this screen.

It may take several minutes to check for updates.

You may see the following screen for a few minutes - Let's see if you're ready to install. At the moment, it is checking that the computer can work with Windows 10, and also checking the space required to complete the operation.

Step 7: And finally, you will see a window - .

By selecting - , we will reinstall Windows 10 without deleting files, check before clicking on the Next button.

Advice: You can also select the first option Keep personal files and apps if you don't want to lose your installed apps from the store. But! if you have problems with one or more modern apps such as Edge , or Store, Photos, Mail, please select the option - Keep only my personal files.

Step 8: You will see the window again - this time feel free to click on the button Install.

Click on the Install button to start installing / Reinstalling Windows 10. During the Windows 10 installation, your computer may restart several times.

Step 9: The next step is setting the parameters. You can choose either Use Default Settings or Customize Settings, which allows you to change the default privacy settings in Windows 10. Of course, you can change these settings later on the system itself.

Upon completion, you will be prompted to sign in with your Microsoft account, or you can create a new local user account.

As mentioned above, the system will not require a Windows 10 product key after reinstallation if it already had one.

All your files will be in the same place where you left them. You will only need to install your favorite programs and applications again.

Let us know in the comments below if you experience any issues while reinstalling Windows 10.

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Downloaded, frozen, and installed updates are stored in the computer's memory. Over time, they take up a large amount of memory and crash the system. One part of Windows updates is removed automatically, and the other half will have to be cleaned manually.

We clean the computer: ways and means

Remove installed updates

Already installed updates can be removed, thereby rolling back the version of the operating system to the moment when these updates have not yet been received. To completely remove a particular update, as well as to install it, the computer must be restarted at the end of the process. Removing some updates will cause the system to install the previous version of the update, the one that was in use before the update being removed was installed.

There are several built-in ways to get rid of installed versions. Deletion options through additional programs will be discussed in a separate paragraph, so if the standard methods do not suit you, you can use a third-party application. So, we consider internal means of removal.

Using the update center

1. Open your computer settings. Opening computer settings
2. Select the Update & Security tab.
   Go to the "Update and Security" section
3. Go to the update log, which contains all the information about the installed updates.
   Opening the update log
4. Click the Uninstall Updates button.
   Click the "Uninstall Updates" button
5. The control panel will open. A list of installed updates will appear on the screen, it can be sorted by one of the columns. To delete an update, select it and use the Delete button.
   Select the update and click on the "Delete" button
6. You will be asked to confirm the action, do so by clicking the "Yes" button. After removing all unnecessary updates, restart your computer. Press the "Yes" button

Video: Remove updates using Update Center

Using the control panel

In the previous paragraph, we got to the desired section of the control panel through the computer settings, now let's look at how to do it directly:

Video: Remove updates using Control Panel

Using the command line

1. Find and open the row using admin rights. Open command prompt as administrator
2. Please note that in order to remove updates through a command, you must first find out the unique number of this update. It always starts with KB, you can find it in the update log, when viewing the list of installed updates, on the official Microsoft website, or using the wmic qfe list brief / format:table command, which calls up a table with dates and update numbers.
   We execute the command wmic qfe list brief / format: table
3. Once you know the numbers you need, use the wusa /uninstall /kb:unique_code command to start uninstalling a particular update.
   We execute the command wusa / uninstall / kb:unique_code
4. You may be asked to confirm the deletion, do so by clicking the "Yes" button. Select the "Yes" option
5. To complete the procedure, you must restart your computer. This can be done immediately or later. Choose whether to restart the computer now or later

Cleaning up the folder with old updates and copies

Restore points and versions of previous updates are stored in the computer's memory so that in the event that a new update causes an error or any other problem, the system can be rolled back. In no case should you delete the WinSxS folder, as this may cause Windows to stop starting, and it will not be possible to roll back or restore it without this folder. It is recommended to clear the folder only when its weight exceeds 8 GB.

Clear downloaded updates and cache

Downloaded, but for some reason not yet installed or recently installed updates are also stored in the computer's memory. Some downloaded updates hang, because of this they cannot be installed. All such updates are located in the PrimaryDrive:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder. By going to this folder, you will find subfolders with long names, you can delete them all or only certain ones, focusing on the code in the name and the date of creation. Deletion is carried out by the usual movement to the trash, that is, right-click on them and apply the "Delete" function.

Delete the contents of the folder in Primary_disk:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download

It is worth clearing the DeliveryOptimization subfolder, located in the same SoftwareDistribution folder, it stores the update cache. You cannot delete the folder itself, only its contents.

We clear the folder in the Main_disk:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DeliveryOptimization

Purging from a previous build

After installing the Anniversary Update, the build version of the system changes. In order for the user to be able to cancel the transition to a new global version of the operating system, the Windows.old folder is created, containing all the necessary files for 30 days. After this period expires, the folder will self-destruct, but if you do not want to wait, follow these steps:

1. Run Disk Cleanup.
   Open Disk Cleanup
2. Select drive C and wait for it to be scanned. Choosing a disk to clean
3. Proceed to clean up system files, this will require administrator rights. Windows will ask you again to select the drive that needs to be scanned. Click the "Clean up system files" button
4. Check the boxes for "Previous Windows installations" and "Temporary installation files". Check the boxes "Previous Windows installations" and "Temporary installation files"
5. Start the uninstall process and agree to all the warnings that appear on the screen.
   We indicate that we still want to delete files

Cancel automatic update

By default, all available updates are downloaded and installed automatically, notifying you only that the system is up to date. The negative side of this action is that at any time there may be a load on the Internet. The traffic spent on downloading updates is not controlled. There are several ways to deactivate automatic system updates, the easiest and fastest way is to close the update center:

Third party software to manage updates

There are several third party software to help you manage updates, one of them is Windows Update MiniTool. In it, you can select updates to download and install, remove installed and downloaded versions, block certain updates. The application is set to Russian, almost all actions are performed in the main menu using the list and action icons on the left side of the window. It is recommended to download the program distributed for free from the official website of the developer.

Manage updates through Windows Update MiniTool

Another program, IObit Uninstaller, is designed to remove various Windows components, including updates. The application has built-in support for the Russian language. The trial version can be downloaded for free from the official website of the developer. In the "Windows Updates" section, you can remove each update individually or erase them several at once. The application allows you to create restore points that will help you set up the system if failures occur after uninstalling the next update.

Uninstall updates with IObit Uninstaller

Error uninstalling updates

Updates may not be removed for the following reasons:

• they are currently being downloaded or installed;
• the update being removed is involved by some process or application;
• update stuck.

First of all, disable all unnecessary processes, programs and disconnect from the Internet. If this does not help, then boot into safe mode and try to uninstall the update through it. Try to uninstall updates using the different methods described above in the article: through the control panel, command line, third-party applications, and clearing folders.

To enter Safe Mode, follow these steps:

If all else fails, then there are two ways out: roll back the system to the point where the update has not yet been installed, or reinstall the system using the image of the desired version. When you manage to remove the update, do not forget to deactivate its automatic installation, otherwise the update will get up again the first time you connect to the Internet.

If Windows updates or lack of memory lead to uncomfortable work, then it is worth uninstalling harmful updates. To do this, in Windows 10, there are many system methods, such as uninstalling using the update center, uninstalling using the control panel, and using the command line. Third-party programs are also suitable, the functions of which are not limited to this. Remember, if auto-updates are not disabled, the data will again fall on your computer.