Question, How does one reset their computer to it's original state?

[druid91]

Well, My computer has been becoming increasingly slow, part of this is my tendency to hide files so my sisters don't mess them up, undoubtedly there are several hundred files hidden in some dark corner of my Computer that haven't been used forever.

Plenty of games I no longer play. Etc...

So how would I reset my computer back to the way it began, after backing up what I want to keep of course.

[KuReshtin]

Depends on what make the computer is.

I can only speak for Lenovo machines, but to reset the machine to factory default on a Lenovo/IBM, you need to press the F11-key during bootup, when you see the Lenovo/IBM logo.

Some computers use the F10-key, some use other keys.

[Worira]

Assuming you're using XP, this (http://www.ehow.com/how_6026_format-hard-drive.html) is a pretty good guide.

READ ALL THE WARNINGS

[ShadowHunter]

If you have Windows you can do a system restore...instructions are easily googable and will be different depending on which Windows you have, if you still have the CD, etc.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084 there's one

But really, this response seems...strange to me. For starters, your computer doesn't just magically slow down. Are you running out of hard drive space? It would take you 10 minutes or less to delete your unused games. Is it your COMPUTER running slow, or just your internet browser? Is your computer riddled with spyware and adware? Restoring it and trying again is just a band-aid until you acquire all that same again, or learn to browse the internet safely. Plus, it'd take, again, less than 10 minutes to download malwarebytes and then you could run a scan overnight and probably clear most of that out.

Learning to solve the problem will serve you better than dousing everything with kerosene and burning it to the ground.

[druid91]

My two main reasons for doing this are...

A: I hide files. Or I used to, My sisters enjoyed messing around with my computer so I'd hide anything important, if I forgot about it....


And

B: My computer has problems that I can seemingly find no reason for. Example: Every few minutes when offline a window pops up with the internet explorer cannot connect to internet message.

[Xuc Xac]

I'm not a computer expert, but I've had the same problem with my laptop and I got it sorted out. Before you completely start over from scratch, try this instead:

1. Uninstall your old games and other programs that you don't need anymore. Don't just delete the folders they are in. Use the uninstaller, which should remove most of the alterations to your system that were made when the game was installed. If you just delete the folders with the game files, there will still be system files elsewhere that point to the now-missing files.

2. Go to ninite.org and select "Essentials" under "Security". Select "CCleaner" and "Defraggler" under "Utilities". (Also, feel free to select any other software you'd like to install. I highly recommend VLC, OpenOffice, uTorrent, Dropbox, and 7-zip.) Click "get installer".

3. Run the ninite installer and let it set up all the programs for you.

4. Run "Essentials". Click the update button to get it up to date then run it to check for viruses that could be slowing down your system. If you are running another free anti-virus program, you can just delete it. Essentials is really good and it's very user friendly. If you're running a paid program, then I guess you can keep it until it's subscription runs out, but paying for anti-virus software is a waste of money unless you have an important computer system (for a medium-sized business or a university academic department that does sensitive research). You don't need them for normal home use.

5. Run "CCleaner". There should be a CCleaner option if you right click your recycle bin. If not, just run it from the shortcut. Analyze and run the Cleaner. Then click the Registry tab. Scan the registry for issues and then fix them (by clicking "fix all"). That will clear up a lot of dead files and useless scraps of data that were left behind by program crashes, incomplete uninstalls, etc. Click on Tools and look at the Uninstaller. Check the list of applications to see if you missed anything that you want to uninstall. Uninstall them.

6. Run "Defraggler" on your hard drive. This will scan all your files and find out where they are located on the disc. Large files take up more than one "spot" on the disc and files are written to the next available space. Because deleting makes gaps in the available space, this means that many large files can end up spread across the disc in several pieces. Accessing the files when they are fragmented is really slow (and puts more physical stress on the hardware of the drive). This program will rearrange the files so that all of the fragments of one file are adjacent to each other for faster access.

That should help get things back up to speed.

[Kobold-Bard]

Factory settings for my Advent laptop involves speed tapping F8 at the first start up screen. This brings up several reboot options, including the wonderfully named "Complete Destructive Restart".

[leakingpen]

your best bet is to backup all your folders except the windows folder, reformat your hard drive, and reinstall the os.

[ericgrau]

Ya that's the most sure way. Make sure to make a backup copy of everything and make sure that backup really exists. Put it on another hard drive. It helps to have 2, or at least an external drive as your 2nd. Then wipe your main drive, copy your documents back over, copy your applications back over, recreate the shortcuts to your applications (find c:\program files\whatever it is\something.exe, right click, create shortcut, move shortcut to desktop).

If all you want to do is get rid of the background stuff slowing down your computer then you can run msconfig. Start => run => msconfig. If you get an error then google and download msconfig from microsoft (not someone else). Start unchecking things in services and startup. Check "hide microsoft services" to get rid of some of the clutter. Don't worry, if you uncheck the wrong things and something stops working (usually only the internet) you can always run msconfig and recheck it. Google to find out what unknown things are. If something rechecks itself without your permission, you may have to change the settings within that application, or it may be a virus, or you may have to uninstall that application.

[Katana_Geldar]

Learning to solve the problem will serve you better than dousing everything with kerosene and burning it to the ground.

This quote is epic, can I sig it?

[Archonic Energy]

So how would I reset my computer back to the way it began, after backing up what I want to keep of course.

Well the case is probably Aluminium so you'd need to oxidise that back to Bauxite, the Silicon you'd have to turn back to sand somehow, same for the glass lens in the optical drive. the Iron in the HD needs to be burried back in a mine. and the plastics need to be turned back into Oil...

shouldn't be too hard :smallamused:

[grimbold]

pretty sure its f10 in boot up
BUT BACK UP YOUR STUFF!

[KuReshtin]

pretty sure its f10 in boot up


Depends on what make of computer it is.
Not every manufacturer uses the same key-command to access the recovery partitions.