I recently needed to wipe my Windows 10 PC
to factory settings due to some issues I was experiencing with the operating system. I
usually do this about once a year just to make everything feel new again. Since PC components
are outrageously expensive at the moment and will probably be like that for a while,
what better time to do some spring cleaning to make your PC last longer?
So this is a three part series with tons of pro tips to make this
process as smooth and painless as possible.
First, some comments before the comments. No,
I don't need help fixing my computer. I've built computers since I was 9 years old,
and I've fixed more PCs for the men in my life than most people I know.
Also, yes, I am very aware that I can reset a Windows 10 box
straight through the settings, and I think that's awesome for most people.
In fact I use those tools anytime I need to wipe a laptop I've reviewed before I send it back to PR.
I know a lot of y'all out there prefer starting completely fresh, so that's what we're doing here.
Also, not something I did this time around, but still an excellent tip. You can move
your entire user folder from the C directory to
another drive. You can TOTALLY do this and all your preferences would be kept in tact
since the user directory is custom for you depending on your software and settings.
So for part 1, these are all the pro tips you should know BEFORE wiping your OS and starting
anew including a really cool tool you can use from the command prompt and powershell.
Before getting started, you'll need two different external storage options - one for storing
important data, and another flashdrive at least 8GB big to create a Windows 10 recovery drive.
1. 1 Let's get organized! If you skip these steps, you could lose important data or files
from your system, so start by making a list, checking it twice, and ensuring you're ready
to reset your PC before you actually do so. This might take some brainstorming
if you've saved random portable apps locally or if there's anything you only use occasionally. I
save my notes into [Notion.so](http://notion.so) which is this organizational all in one workplace
that stores notes on Notion's servers, so I can access these from any OS on any device.
I wouldn't use this for any sensitive information though - I'd rather use a password manager
that can store notes for that kind of stuff. 2. 2 Plug in a flashdrive or an external SSD
or a NAS... some device for storing data that you won't be
wiping during your OS reinstall. You'll use this to store some data before you wipe your computer.
3. 3 Look at your installed programs list and make note of any you may need to reinstall after
reinstalling Windows. I do this by hitting Start, typing in Programs and hitting enter,
and that brings up my System Settings with all my apps. I do this since some apps may
have gotten buggy or need updates anyway, so installing a fresh app after resetting
may give you access to new features or fix issues you'd experienced. It's also a good
idea to look through here for any applications that are no longer available for download online,
so you can grab those installers or apps from your current OS directory and save them
somewhere so you can reinstall them afterwards. 4. 4 Once I have that list, I go over to Ninite to
create an installer package and speed up the process of reinstalling apps. Ninite will create
a personalized installer for all of these popular apps. You pick and choose whichever ones you use,
it'll grab those up to date installers for you from each of those separate sites,
and you just save ONE installer instead of having to go to each of those sites
to get the separate up-to-date files yourself. Once I've grabbed my Ninite installer, I'll check
off the software from my list that I've saved. 5. 5 If any apps aren't available on Ninite,
I go ahead and find their download websites so I can set myself up for quick success by downloading
the .msi or .exe installers to that flashdrive for later use. And then I'll check those off my
list too. So my flashdrive has .exe installers for my corsair and elgato hardware for example. That
stuff isn't available on Ninite, but I don't wanna go fishing around for the download sites after my
PC is freshly wiped, so I'll just save 'em now. 6. 6 Ok, this is also important and crucial
for anyone who does a lot of creative work on their machines - I don't use Adobe cloud
for backups, and even if I did, some of the presets and templates I use for my creative work
wouldn't be backed up. Things like my premiere pro keyboard presets, photoshop presets,
lightroom presets on, lightroom catalog of edits, watermarks for photography,
even my elgato streamdeck settings profile are all saved locally. This will vary depending on
your use case, but I opened each program and made note of what settings I use,
and I went into my file directory to find each of those template or settings files.
I copied and pasted all the important ones to an external drive or flashdrive to be imported
into the software after OS reinstall. You DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS if you save all of
your user files from Windows onto a drive that won't be wiped during the OS reinstall.
7. 7 Let's talk drivers! You can find your current driver version and more details, through your
device manager. Components require these drivers to work and be compatible with other components,
and if you don't have the proper ones, your system might not work right.
It can be a pain to reinstall all your drivers after OS install,
and sometimes they may not even be available through the manufacturers website anymore
so this pro tip is really, really useful. 8. 8 Windows 10 is pretty good at finding
drivers and updating everything for you the first time you allow it to connect to the internets,
but for anything that it can't find - especially if you're using really random products or systems,
or something is no longer available, you might want to save those drivers before
reinstalling. Finding drivers via the file system is kinda convoluted, but there's an easier way.
Props to Rkiver to sharing this with me. Rkiver often has to wipe lots of PCs or update drivers
for lots of PCs at his work, so finding drivers for each machine would be a huge time suck.
9. 9 First, how many drivers do you actually have installed? You can see them listed out using
PowerShell. Click start and type in powershell and right click to open it as an administrator.
Then type in Ger-WmiObject Win32_PnPSignedDriver | select DeviceName, Manufacturer, DriverVersion
and press enter. That will list out every single driver on your PC, like I have my
Nvidia display and GPU drivers, Elgatos drivers, etc. So now I have a visual representation
of what I currently have on this machine. 10. 10 You can actually backup all your drivers
in one fell swoop with a command line tool. Click start, type CMD, and right click to open
the command prompt as administrator. Then type in "dism /online /export-driver /destination:"full
path of folder"" That Full path of folder will be wherever you want to save your drivers to. For me,
that was my flashdrive. So I would use "G:\Drivers Backup" which is a folder that I already created
on my flashdrive so everything would have a temporary home. Hit enter and it'll export all of
your drivers into the new folder. It might take a while. You can cross check this against what
you had open in PowerShell to ensure everything backed up correctly. When we get to the third
part in this series I'll show you how to reinstall these, but for now, just keep them somewhere safe.
11. 11 Now backup any licenses or keys for your software, especially your Windows 10 license.
This will be found on the box, if you bought it from a store, in your email receipt if you bought
it online. If you lost it, there are plenty of websites that show you how to find it again via
the UEFI or via the command prompt. Win10 may activate automatically using a digital license
key but I still like keeping mine on hand in case it doesn't register it. You should store this key,
along with any other license keys for software, somewhere private and secure,
like a fireproof safe or a password manager using proper secure authentication. A place
you won't lose them and no one else could access. 12. 12 At this point, you've pretty much prepared
yourself for success, so you can unplug your flashdrive and plug in an empty drive that
can be turned into your Windows 10 Installation Media. Use the steps outlined on the Microsoft
website to turn your flashdrive into a bootable installation drive for Windows 10. This is what
Windows will reinstall from once you've started the factory wipe. This flashdrive needs to have
at least 8GB storage for the installation media. 13. 13 Once it's completed, you're almost done!
Ensure your cloud backup or external backup for all of your files - photography, important word
documents, locally stored music or audio files or video files, anything like that - make sure it's
all backed up into a secondary storage JUST IN CASE anything happens when you start reinstalling
Windows 10. And DOUBLE and TRIPLE check that data backup to ensure it's not corrupted or anything.
I save all my important files to a cloud backup solution as well as a few offline external SSDs.
This ensures I have redundancy so if one of those platforms fail, I'll always have a backup.
14. 14 At this point, I'm going to tell you to do something that might make you go
"huh?" but it'll make sense I promise. Unplug your ethernet cable or unhook the Wifi adapter.
No, really. I have my reasons. Stick with me here. 15. 15 ALSO, turn off your computer
and open up your PC and physically unplug and disconnect ALL drives EXCEPT for whichever one
you want to reinstall Windows onto. You may look at your drives in your PC tower and not know
which ones go to what drive letter. If that's the case, just turn off the PC, unplug one, restart,
and see which one isn't showing up in your file directory. Do that multiple times until all your
extra drives are unplugged. This will ensure you IN NO WAY could reinstall Windows 10 onto a drive
that is holding important data on it. And make sure whichever drive is still installed doesn't
have anything important on it. Because at this point, you're ready to factory wipe your PC.
If you do have hardware upgrades to do, now's a good time to do it.
You've already backed everything up so you won't run the risk of losing anything,
so you could refresh your hardware components at this point if you want. It's also a great
time to clean your PC of any dust and label any wires or cables for organization down the line.
That's everything for pre-reinstallation of the operating system! The next video will cover
crucial steps for the actual installation and why the heck I told you to unplug your internet.
Comment below and let me know what you always do when factory wiping a PC for OS install!
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Thanks again to my smores for subscribing and watching.
I'm Shannon Morse and I'll see ya soon. Bye yall!