Windows 10 Recovery Succumbs to the Tyranny of Choice (Premium)

It should have been straightforward: I was updating The Windows 10 Field Guide last weekend and wanted to choose a chapter that would be easy to update. The Backup and Recovery chapter seemed like an obvious choice: Surely these age-old tools haven’t changed in any meaningful way between the last two Windows versions. Right?

Wrong. Microsoft, in fact, made a subtle but dramatic change to the Windows 10 recovery tools between versions 1703 and 1709.

But it’s worse than that. Microsoft has also expanded the ways in which we can recover Windows 10 to the point where it illustrates, nicely, one of my key complaints about this operating system. There are just too many damned ways to do the same basic tasks in Windows 10.

Likewise, this confusing array of options, which are accessed via different parts of the OS, each offer their own subtly different features.

What makes this even more unbearable is that Microsoft has changed, over the course of Windows 8.x and several Windows 10 versions, what various recovery features are named, and what they do. If you get used to a certain way of doing things, you may find, over time, that a process you relied on no longer works the way you expect.

Put simply, the whole thing is a mess.

Documenting how these options changed over time will be difficult and perhaps pointless. But I’ll offer a high-level overview here just to make the point. Then, I’ll describe which recovery options are available to Windows 10 users today. You may be surprised to discover how many ways you can perform the same task. I was.

In Windows 8, Microsoft debuted two related tools, PC Reset and PC Refresh, which used an on-disk system image to blow away your current Windows install and return the PC to its day-one condition. PC Refresh let you do so while retaining your accounts and related personal files and (some) settings, plus your installed Store apps. PC Reset was basically a “nuke it from orbit” option.

Little known at the time, these tools could be modified by the PC maker. So if HP, or whatever, wanted certain utilities, drivers, and even crapware installed every time that a user blew away their PC, they could modify the on-disk recovery image to make that happen. PC Reset was literally about bringing back to its day one condition. Whatever that condition might have been.

By the time Windows 10 shipped, these tools merged into a single tool, called Reset this PC, which provided both reset (nuke) and refresh options via a simple wizard. Fine.

But in Windows 10 version 1607, Microsoft added another tool, called Refresh Windows, which provided another wrinkle to the recovery story: This tool downloaded the latest version of Windows 10 from the web and when you reset your PC using Refresh Windows, you got a clean version of the OS. That is, it did not include any PC maker utilities, drivers, or crapware. This was such a revelation—such a great, user-friendly idea—that I wrote it up as a tip.

But then Windows 10 version 1709 happened. Now, the link in Settings that used to launch Refresh Windows links to a new tool called Fresh Start. Which is found in Windows Defender Security Center, and not Settings. For some reason. And Fresh start is just a limited version of the Reset this PC tool that doesn’t let you blow away Windows completely (nuke it from orbit): Instead, this tool only lets you refresh Windows 10, keeping your personal files, some settings, and any installed Store apps. It’s the refresh half of Reset this PC. It is, in other words, what PC Refresh used to be, back in Windows 8. Adding to the confusion, Refresh Windows is still available on the web if you know where to look. Microsoft just doesn’t let you find it in Windows 10 anymore.

So that’s the basic story of what happened over the past five-plus years. Truth is, I’ve left out some details. But whatever. You get the idea.

The bigger issue, beyond the seemingly arbitrary changes that Microsoft has made to the recovery tools, how they’re found in the UI, and what they’re called, is that we now have far too many ways to accomplish the same basic task. Which is this: You’re running Windows 10 on your PC. Maybe it’s slowed down over time or has gotten buggy. And what you want to do is recover/restore/reinstall it. You want to start fresh, in some capacity. You want to blow away Windows 10, reinstall it, and start over. You may optionally wish to keep some combination of your user account’s personal files, settings, and installed applications. Or not. Your choice.

Here are your options today in Windows 10 version 1709. (I don’t believe they are changing with version 1803, but I’ve been surprised before.)

Reset this PC. Available both in Windows 10 Settings and the Windows Recovery Environment, this core tool can help you reinstall the version of Windows 10 that came with your PC (meaning it will retain any PC maker changes) and optionally keep your personal files (Store) apps, and some settings. Your desktop applications will be blown away no matter which option you choose. And this tool is unique in that it lets you deep-clean the disk during the reset process: This is useful if you want to give away or sell your PC and don’t want the next user accessing the data still written on the disk.

Fresh start. Hidden in the Device performance & health page of the Windows Defender Security Center, this tool provides only a portion of the functionality in Reset this PC: It will reinstall the version of Windows that came with your PC, and keep your personal files (Store) apps, and some settings. (Your desktop applications will be blown away.) It cannot deep clean the disk. Confusingly, it is linked to from the location in Settings that used to launch Refresh Windows.

Refresh Windows. Still available on the web, this very useful tool will install the latest version of Windows—not the version that came with your PC, necessarily—from scratch, and without any utilities, drivers, or crapware that your PC maker may have included. It cannot be used to refresh Windows. This is a “nuke from orbit” option only.

Windows 10 ISO. You can also download the Windows 10 ISO using Microsoft’s Media Creation Utility to install the latest version of Windows—not the version that came with your PC, necessarily—from scratch, and without any utilities, drivers, or crapware that your PC maker may have included. (You can use the ISO to do an in-place upgrade to this version, too.)

PC maker recovery options. Your PC maker also includes their own recovery tools, and these may or may not be based on the Microsoft tools. For example, HP utilizes a Recovery Manager utility that links to Reset this PC (which they customize) and also provides access to driver downloads and other support tools. Basically, yet another way to access the exact same tools.

System image restore. While it is being deprecated over time, Windows 10 still includes the legacy Windows Backup tool that lets you create a system image backup and then restore your PC back to any version you want over time. You can use this tool after cleaning your PC of crapware to create a clean backup, for example, so it works like a (slower) version of Reset this PC.

Now, you may argue that only some of these tools are directly accessible via the Windows 10 user interface, and fair enough. But the sheer number of ways you can do the same task, and the sheer number of places in which you can find these options, is bewildering to me. That Reset this PC is in Settings and Fresh start is in Windows Defender Security Center, for example, is ludicrous. These should be one tool, accessible from one place, and just linked to from other locations. Obviously.

In keeping with my discussion of the “tyranny of choice” last week Paul’s Tech Makeover: Embracing our Cord-Cutting Future (Premium), this is a great example of where Microsoft, in this case, is adding complexity, not driving simplicity. And in doing so, they are simply confusing their user base. This lack of direction is just as bad as any of the other nonsense additions that Microsoft keeps piling in Windows 10, too. And it does more harm than good.