How to Refresh Windows 10

In Windows 8, a Refresh was a Reset, but with keeping your personal files. The Refresh option relied on a recovery image provided by the manufacturer and would thus re-install bloatware that came with the computer.

As we’ve learned above, you can keep your files when you do a Reset in Windows 10. And seemingly just to confuse you further (or finally simplify things), Microsoft released a Refresh tool for Windows 10 that works slightly different than what we know from Windows 8.

The Windows 10 Refresh Tool requires an Internet connection and approximately 3 GB of available storage space because it downloads the latest version of Windows 10 before refreshing your PC. This ensures that your fresh Windows 10 installation will be completely free of manufacturer bloatware, though you will still find Microsoft bloatware.

A Windows 10 Refresh will not re-install any of your applications and to re-install hardware drivers, you may have to run Windows Update under Settings > Update & security > Windows Update after the installation has completed. As with the Reset option, you can choose to keep your personal files. If you would like to back up and restore your Windows 10 settings and apps, check out our respective article.