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I want to use the "reset" function in Windows 10 (choosing to keep personal files).

Which personal files will be kept? I am especially wondering if the settings of other applications (in %appdata% will be kept).

Martin Jü
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  • In Windows 10, in contrast to Windows 8, there is only an option "reset". In the process of resetting Windows, it can be chosen if personal files should be kept (for the wording, cf. http://winsupersite.com/site-files/winsupersite.com/files/uploads/2015/05/reset4.jpg)

    Regarding the answer that is linked to, it is not stated if the contents of %appdata% will be kept. For Windows 7, if an user is deleted and it is chosen to keep his files, %appdata% is deleted, for instance.

     – Martin Jü Jul 16 '15 at 12:42
  • The underline functionality of this feature has remained unchanged between Windows 8 and Windows 10 so this question applies. I decided to remove my older comments in favor of a single comment that links to that question – Ramhound Jan 26 '16 at 17:48
  • Ramhound seems to not like this question. It oftens get redirected to that same link that does not answer the question. The question ended up being answered fully here. – K_Rol Dec 31 '16 at 23:34

1 Answers1

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So, I did a reset. Personal files are kept.

Contents of Appdata and of Program Data are not removed either, but land in Windows.old, and can be recovered manually from there.

Martin Jü
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    There is remarkably little information about exactly which files/directories constitute 'personal files'. Shame on Microsoft. Presumably you mean %APPDATA% and %PROGRAMDATA%? Is this true for all users? What %USERPROFILE%, which usually contains %APPDATA%? – markrian Jan 31 '16 at 17:33
  • Man, to me, "Personal files" means AppData. Had a mild panic moment there (I did have it externally backed up) when I saw it all cleared out. – dbreaux Jun 09 '18 at 20:32
  • I have just discovered that not all of appdata lands in Windows.old. AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles in particular was lost, possibly because there was already a Windows.old? – Ezekiel Kruglick Sep 22 '21 at 02:57
  • Just incase anyone comes to this, I'll add that it will copy all of the contents of %appdata% and %localappdata% for all users to windows.old, but this does come with some odd exclusions if windows.old exists from a previous reset. – Andy Wynn Sep 28 '21 at 23:03