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The news he's broken has been covered by outlets like the BBC, The Verge, Slate, Gizmodo, Engadget, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, ZDNet, The Next Web, and Techmeme.

Beyond the column, he wrote about everything from Windows to tech travel tips. He founded PCWorld's 'World Beyond Windows' column, which covered the latest developments in open-source operating systems like Linux and Chrome OS. He also wrote the USA's most-saved article of 2021, according to Pocket.Ĭhris was a PCWorld columnist for two years.

Beyond the web, his work has appeared in the print edition of The New York Times (September 9, 2019) and in PCWorld's print magazines, specifically in the August 2013 and July 2013 editions, where his story was on the cover. With over a decade of writing experience in the field of technology, Chris has written for a variety of publications including The New York Times, Reader's Digest, IDG's PCWorld, Digital Trends, and MakeUseOf. Chris has personally written over 2,000 articles that have been read more than one billion times-and that's just here at How-To Geek.

#Reset windows search defaults windows 10#

However, this option is no longer present in Windows 10 or Windows 11 - but the bloatware-less option is at least a nice consolation prize.Ĭhris Hoffman is the former Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek.

#Reset windows search defaults install#

For example, you could uninstall bloatware that came with your PC, install important software, or change system settings and then create a refresh image with the current system state. Whenever you refreshed or reset your PC, it would use your custom image instead of the default one. Windows 8 allowed you to create a custom refresh image.

#Reset windows search defaults drivers#

If you have a dedicated sound card, or a fancy mouse or keyboard, you'll probably want to manually download those drivers too. Typically, you'll want to manually download drivers for your graphics card at least.

#Reset windows search defaults driver#

If you need a hardware driver or utility that isn't automatically installed from Windows Update, you'll find them on your PC manufacturer's download site.

#Reset windows search defaults update#

The hardware drivers you need should be automatically downloaded from Windows Update after you're done. Related: Should You Use Cloud Download or Local Reinstall on Windows? Then just proceed with the reset like you normally would - it will download a Windows image straight from Microsoft and install it on your system or rebuild a clean copy from your existing local files, giving you a fresh-from-Microsoft system with none of that factory software installed. That means whoever winds up with your computer could conceivably recover pictures, videos, passwords, and other files if you're not careful! Without that special precaution, it is easy to recover 'deleted' data from an HDD. The clean function will overwrite the existing data on the drive to make it unrecoverable. If you're wiping conventional mechanical hard drives and you're going to be selling or giving away your computer, and you were not using any kind of drive encryption, you should absolutely use the cleaning function.

Are you planning on giving away, selling, or getting rid of your computer?.

Are any of the drives you're wiping hard disk drives (HDDS)?.

Were you using Bitlocker, or any other kind of drive encryption?.

Is your boot drive a conventional hard disk drive (HDD), or some kind of solid-state drive (SSD)?.

Whether or not you should spend the time on that depends on a few considerations: If you choose to remove everything instead of keeping your files, you'll have an option to 'clean' your drives, too. Any problems caused by third-party software, system file corruption, system settings changes, or malware should be fixed by resetting your PC. However, all your installed programs and settings will be erased. You can choose whether you want to keep your personal files or erase them. If you installed Windows 10 or Windows 11 yourself, it will be a fresh Windows system without any additional software.

By default, all manufacturer-installed software and drivers that came with the PC will be reinstalled, though you can force it to install a clean version of Windows. If you purchased a PC and it came with Windows 10 or Windows 11 installed, your PC will be in the same state you received it in. When you use the 'Reset this PC' feature in Windows, Windows resets itself to its factory default state. It's faster and more convenient than reinstalling Windows 10 or Windows 11 from scratch. Windows includes a 'Reset your PC' option that quickly restores Windows to its factory default configuration.