How Do I Clean Win10 For New Owner Without Recovery?

HP 15-F039WM laptop purchased 04/2014 with Windows 8.1/64-bit. Windows
has upgraded original Win 8.1 OS several times since then for free.

Goal is to donate laptop to new owner. Currently upgraded to Win 10
v1607 (OS Build 14393.693). Not sure if next owner can upgrade from
Win8.1 to current Win10 if I do a Windows reset from the original
system recovery partition.

Is there a way to clean my system to make it close to a pristine
version of Win 10 so that the next user won't have to go through long
and complicated Win8.1 - Win10 upgrades? I know I can delete all my
installed apps and clean my Documents & Settings folder hierarchy, but
I'm not sure where to proceed from there.

I'm not interested in a full military-type hard drive wipe since
nearly all my personal data has always lived on an external hard
drive. I just want to be reasonably assured that the donated system is
free of my orphaned and trash files and registry settings while
retaining a clean version of the current Win10. Is there any software
designed to do most of the heavy lifting?

Any advice on this issue will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

In article ,
lid says...

HP 15-F039WM laptop purchased 04/2014 with Windows 8.1/64-bit. Windows
has upgraded original Win 8.1 OS several times since then for free.

Goal is to donate laptop to new owner. Currently upgraded to Win 10
v1607 (OS Build 14393.693). Not sure if next owner can upgrade from
Win8.1 to current Win10 if I do a Windows reset from the original
system recovery partition.

Is there a way to clean my system to make it close to a pristine
version of Win 10 so that the next user won't have to go through long
and complicated Win8.1 - Win10 upgrades? I know I can delete all my
installed apps and clean my Documents & Settings folder hierarchy, but
I'm not sure where to proceed from there.

I'm not interested in a full military-type hard drive wipe since
nearly all my personal data has always lived on an external hard
drive. I just want to be reasonably assured that the donated system is
free of my orphaned and trash files and registry settings while
retaining a clean version of the current Win10. Is there any software
designed to do most of the heavy lifting?

Any advice on this issue will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Just download the Win10 install disk from MS and do a fresh/clean
install (reformnat hard disk during process if really paranoid). Machine
is already "activated" and MS's servers will see that and all will be
well.

M.L. wrote:

HP 15-F039WM laptop purchased 04/2014 with Windows 8.1/64-bit. Windows
has upgraded original Win 8.1 OS several times since then for free.

Goal is to donate laptop to new owner. Currently upgraded to Win 10
v1607 (OS Build 14393.693). Not sure if next owner can upgrade from
Win8.1 to current Win10 if I do a Windows reset from the original
system recovery partition.

Is there a way to clean my system to make it close to a pristine
version of Win 10 so that the next user won't have to go through long
and complicated Win8.1 - Win10 upgrades? I know I can delete all my
installed apps and clean my Documents & Settings folder hierarchy, but
I'm not sure where to proceed from there.

I'm not interested in a full military-type hard drive wipe since
nearly all my personal data has always lived on an external hard
drive. I just want to be reasonably assured that the donated system is
free of my orphaned and trash files and registry settings while
retaining a clean version of the current Win10. Is there any software
designed to do most of the heavy lifting?

Any advice on this issue will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Use the tool from he
https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/soft...ws10startfresh

On 2/4/2017 9:40 PM, M.L. wrote:

HP 15-F039WM laptop purchased 04/2014 with Windows 8.1/64-bit. Windows
has upgraded original Win 8.1 OS several times since then for free.

Goal is to donate laptop to new owner. Currently upgraded to Win 10
v1607 (OS Build 14393.693). Not sure if next owner can upgrade from
Win8.1 to current Win10 if I do a Windows reset from the original
system recovery partition.

Is there a way to clean my system to make it close to a pristine
version of Win 10 so that the next user won't have to go through long
and complicated Win8.1 - Win10 upgrades? I know I can delete all my
installed apps and clean my Documents & Settings folder hierarchy, but
I'm not sure where to proceed from there.

I'm not interested in a full military-type hard drive wipe since
nearly all my personal data has always lived on an external hard
drive. I just want to be reasonably assured that the donated system is
free of my orphaned and trash files and registry settings while
retaining a clean version of the current Win10. Is there any software
designed to do most of the heavy lifting?

Any advice on this issue will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

The probability may be low that you forgot some sensitive file somewhere,
but why risk it?
I buy all my computers at garage sales. It's amazing what people
leave on their hard drives. I expect there's a lot more if I were
to do some forensic analysis. I wipe everything.
I'd hate to go to jail because
somebody found erased Clinton emails left over
from the previous owner on my system.

Reload the OS as others have described.
I'd then run a free app like data_eraser.
http://api.256file.com/data_eraser_s...ad-204484.html
It can wipe the remaining free space and the unused clusters
at the ends of the files. I've used it on XP and win7. Claims to work
on win8
should work on win10, YMMV.
There are many wipe apps, but this one is free and trivial to use.
You can do it after the reinstall so you don't have to jump thru
hoops during the reinstall.
I don't think you need a full military wipe, but a quick overwrite
would be prudent.

M.L. wrote:
HP 15-F039WM laptop purchased 04/2014 with Windows 8.1/64-bit. Windows
has upgraded original Win 8.1 OS several times since then for free.

Goal is to donate laptop to new owner. Currently upgraded to Win 10
v1607 (OS Build 14393.693). Not sure if next owner can upgrade from
Win8.1 to current Win10 if I do a Windows reset from the original
system recovery partition.

Is there a way to clean my system to make it close to a pristine
version of Win 10 so that the next user won't have to go through long
and complicated Win8.1 - Win10 upgrades? I know I can delete all my
installed apps and clean my Documents & Settings folder hierarchy, but
I'm not sure where to proceed from there.

I'm not interested in a full military-type hard drive wipe since
nearly all my personal data has always lived on an external hard
drive. I just want to be reasonably assured that the donated system is
free of my orphaned and trash files and registry settings while
retaining a clean version of the current Win10. Is there any software
designed to do most of the heavy lifting?

Any advice on this issue will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


There is a "reset" option built in.

And if your OS is running, you can easily get there
using the graphical menu shown.

https://techjourney.net/refresh-rese...ual-reinstall/

*******

So how did I test mine ? :-)

To make this more interesting, I "assumed" my OS was broken.

Normally, you don't get a usable boot menu. And if you check
out recipes for "emulating F8 Safe Mode", they really suck.

Since your OS is still running, you can do this from
an Administrator Command Prompt (right click menu). For
Windows Insiders, the recipe would be to type "cmd" into
Cortana, then right-click and select "Run as Administrator".
This is intended to change the boot menu, so one additional
option will be present.

bcdedit --- this dumps current settings

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu True

At least a few of the bcdedit options, make no sense. This
one seems to display a text style boot menu. And, it happens
to have F8 at the bottom of the screen as an option.

Now, I used disk2vhd, to convert my physical Win10RLS
disk into a virtual disk. Then pulled it into VirtualBox
as a VHD file. In there, I cleaned up the partition table,
so that just the two OS partitions were present (Recovery and
C: in this case). You could have as many as Recovery, System Reserved
and C: , as examples. That's to emulate your setup, approximately.

By booting a Win10 DVD in the VM, and using the command
prompt there on the (offline) OS, I was able to use the
same command, to add the menu option. So this works from
the DVD as well, to set up the OS so I can get to F8. So
even if the OS was (slightly) dead, I might attempt to
reset it. As a bar bet maybe, not as a practical way
to do things. (Note that, on dual boot systems, some
of these recipes don't work. On a dual boot, you have
enough menu options available there, to actually get
to Reset anyway...)

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu True

If you have more than one BCD on the system, you may need
to use the /Store option, to select the correct one.

In any case, once I got that menu item installed, when the
system boots, at the top of the screen, it offers "Windows 10"
as the default. And at the bottom of the screen is F8.
Press F8.

In the graphical F8 menu, at the bottom it says "F10" for
recovery options.

After pressing F10, there is a "Reset" option. This allows using
files already contained on C: , to reinstall the OS.

Now, mine is off Resetting itself right now, and
I still don't know how this will turn out... :-)

Here is a picture of where it is right now.

https://s28.postimg.org/i03g8rxnh/Windows10_Reset.gif

Later, the first sign of intelligent life, looks like this :-)

https://s29.postimg.org/f6bf2xkkn/re...s_hi_there.gif

Now, my little reset experiment, should have activation
problems, but so far, it hasn't kicked up a fuss.

And it did finish. You'll want to run "cleanmgr.exe"
and click the System button and get the tool to delete
Windows.old for you. There is a "Clean up system files"
button, after it starts up, that you can use to get
into the system cleanup area. It should also be
cleaning up $WINDOWS.~BT while you're at it.

You can use this to zero free space on C: if you want.
By doing this, if the user needs to run Recuva or
Photorec, they won't run into any of your "deleted"
files by accident. By zeroing the disk, there will
be fewer "false positives" when attempting file
recovery. This can easily take 12 hours to
run, and is slow as molasses in spring.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...ernals/sdelete

sdelete64 -z C:

When it hits 100% on the status line, it's not
nearly finished. That's when the zeroing operation
*starts*. It seems to do 4KB writes, and even in my
VM, the write rate while zeroing is only 38MB/sec.

*******

There's no question you should download a DVD and burn it
for the recipient. So they have both a means to boot
to an emergency Command Prompt, but also can re-install
the OS if they want to. The above recipe is purely
for amusement. For once, I get to test these features,
and it actually works! That doesn't happen very often.

And before you try the above, yours is an upgrade install
over another OS. Just in case it decides to reinstall
the "wrong" OS, you may want to take a backup before
running it. One of the reasons I didn't need a backup,
is I tested in a VM. That was my backup. The original
install was never in any danger.

Paul

On 2/5/2017 8:23 AM, Paul wrote:

Normally, you don't get a usable boot menu. And if you check
out recipes for "emulating F8 Safe Mode", they really suck.
Entering the safe mode of Windows 10 is quite easy and versatile.

From the power option icon on any Windows 10 screen, if you hold down
the shift key and click on "Restart" you will give you several options
for repairing or reinstalling Windows 10.

You can do this any time you see a power option icon including the Lock
screen and similar screens.

One thing I learned with my touch tablet, is that I can get to the safe
mode by using a key combinations and clicking "Start with network".
The obvious choice Recover does not do what you think (HP Stream 7)

Also when everything else fails, if you do three a hard shutdowns and
then power ups in rapid succession you will also get the safe mode.

"Yes I have had problems with my Windows 10 computers, and had to use
all of the above to resolve the problem."

HP 15-F039WM laptop purchased 04/2014 with Windows 8.1/64-bit. Windows
has upgraded original Win 8.1 OS several times since then for free.

Is there a way to clean my system to make it close to a pristine
version of Win 10 so that the next user won't have to go through long
and complicated Win8.1 - Win10 upgrades?

Just download the Win10 install disk from MS and do a fresh/clean
install (reformnat hard disk during process if really paranoid). Machine
is already "activated" and MS's servers will see that and all will be
well.

Wow. Good to know that such a simple solution exists. Thanks for the
info.

Is there a way to clean my system to make it close to a pristine
version of Win 10 so that the next user won't have to go through long
and complicated Win8.1 - Win10 upgrades?

Use the tool from he
https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/soft...ws10startfresh

Thanks. That looks like just what I was hoping for. Simple
implementation too.

Is there a way to clean my system to make it close to a pristine
version of Win 10 so that the next user won't have to go through long
and complicated Win8.1 - Win10 upgrades?

There is a "reset" option built in.

And if your OS is running, you can easily get there
using the graphical menu shown.

https://techjourney.net/refresh-rese...ual-reinstall/

*******

Thanks for that time-saving info. I'll use that method first.

There's no question you should download a DVD and burn it
for the recipient. So they have both a means to boot
to an emergency Command Prompt, but also can re-install
the OS if they want to.

My goal is to hand over a usable laptop to the new owner and leave any
contingency plans up to them.

And before you try the above, yours is an upgrade install
over another OS. Just in case it decides to reinstall
the "wrong" OS, you may want to take a backup before
running it.

Paul

Other responses have informed me on how I can reinstall Win10 from a
downloadable archive, so that's what I'll use if things go sideways.

Thanks to everyone for their responses.

M.L. wrote in news:heed9clqd2dpubk39ii0k24qm3pfhatimi@
4ax.com:


HP 15-F039WM laptop purchased 04/2014 with Windows 8.1/64-bit. Windows
has upgraded original Win 8.1 OS several times since then for free.

Goal is to donate laptop to new owner. Currently upgraded to Win 10
v1607 (OS Build 14393.693). Not sure if next owner can upgrade from
Win8.1 to current Win10 if I do a Windows reset from the original
system recovery partition.

Is there a way to clean my system to make it close to a pristine
version of Win 10 so that the next user won't have to go through long
and complicated Win8.1 - Win10 upgrades? I know I can delete all my
installed apps and clean my Documents & Settings folder hierarchy, but
I'm not sure where to proceed from there.

I'm not interested in a full military-type hard drive wipe since
nearly all my personal data has always lived on an external hard
drive. I just want to be reasonably assured that the donated system is
free of my orphaned and trash files and registry settings while
retaining a clean version of the current Win10. Is there any software
designed to do most of the heavy lifting?

Any advice on this issue will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Press Start - Settings - Update & Security - Recovery and select Reset This
PC. This will give you the equivalent of a freshly installed Windows
without all the effort. If you have deleted the hidden 400+ MB partition
that Win10 creates when it is installed this won't work.

On 2/5/2017 2:21 PM, Tim wrote:
M.L. wrote in news:heed9clqd2dpubk39ii0k24qm3pfhatimi@
4ax.com:


HP 15-F039WM laptop purchased 04/2014 with Windows 8.1/64-bit. Windows
has upgraded original Win 8.1 OS several times since then for free.

Goal is to donate laptop to new owner. Currently upgraded to Win 10
v1607 (OS Build 14393.693). Not sure if next owner can upgrade from
Win8.1 to current Win10 if I do a Windows reset from the original
system recovery partition.

Is there a way to clean my system to make it close to a pristine
version of Win 10 so that the next user won't have to go through long
and complicated Win8.1 - Win10 upgrades? I know I can delete all my
installed apps and clean my Documents & Settings folder hierarchy, but
I'm not sure where to proceed from there.

I'm not interested in a full military-type hard drive wipe since
nearly all my personal data has always lived on an external hard
drive. I just want to be reasonably assured that the donated system is
free of my orphaned and trash files and registry settings while
retaining a clean version of the current Win10. Is there any software
designed to do most of the heavy lifting?

Any advice on this issue will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Press Start - Settings - Update & Security - Recovery and select Reset This
PC. This will give you the equivalent of a freshly installed Windows
without all the effort. If you have deleted the hidden 400+ MB partition
that Win10 creates when it is installed this won't work.

I have done a reset with out the partition, but I did have to download
and install some of the OEM software and drivers

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 05 Feb 2017 13:21:48 -0600, Tim
wrote:

M.L. wrote in news:heed9clqd2dpubk39ii0k24qm3pfhatimi@
4ax.com:


HP 15-F039WM laptop purchased 04/2014 with Windows 8.1/64-bit. Windows
has upgraded original Win 8.1 OS several times since then for free.

Goal is to donate laptop to new owner. Currently upgraded to Win 10
v1607 (OS Build 14393.693). Not sure if next owner can upgrade from
Win8.1 to current Win10 if I do a Windows reset from the original
system recovery partition.

Is there a way to clean my system to make it close to a pristine
version of Win 10 so that the next user won't have to go through long
and complicated Win8.1 - Win10 upgrades? I know I can delete all my
installed apps and clean my Documents & Settings folder hierarchy, but
I'm not sure where to proceed from there.

I'm not interested in a full military-type hard drive wipe since
nearly all my personal data has always lived on an external hard
drive. I just want to be reasonably assured that the donated system is
free of my orphaned and trash files and registry settings while
retaining a clean version of the current Win10. Is there any software
designed to do most of the heavy lifting?

Any advice on this issue will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Press Start - Settings - Update & Security - Recovery and select Reset This
PC. This will give you the equivalent of a freshly installed Windows
without all the effort. If you have deleted the hidden 400+ MB partition
that Win10 creates when it is installed this won't work.

So that's what that's for!! I saw it, and I saw that its high level
directory is called Recovery, but I didn't know what to do with it.

BTW, it has no partition letter but Minitool Partition Wizard lets one
look inside the partition anyhow. I don't remember if other such
programs do.

Worth notiing perhaps that this used computer, upgraded from vista to 7
to 10 still has, or regained having, the Recovery partition. So I
guess the guy I bought it from, who has some sort of repair shop 70
miles from here, wasn't so bad.

It also has a 100MB partition in front of the C: partition. I suppose
that is for booting. And for multibooting????

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 04 Feb 2017 23:40:00 -0600, M.L.
wrote:


HP 15-F039WM laptop purchased 04/2014 with Windows 8.1/64-bit. Windows
has upgraded original Win 8.1 OS several times since then for free.

Goal is to donate laptop to new owner. Currently upgraded to Win 10
v1607 (OS Build 14393.693). Not sure if next owner can upgrade from
Win8.1 to current Win10 if I do a Windows reset from the original
system recovery partition.

Is there a way to clean my system to make it close to a pristine
version of Win 10 so that the next user won't have to go through long
and complicated Win8.1 - Win10 upgrades? I know I can delete all my
installed apps and clean my Documents & Settings folder hierarchy, but
I'm not sure where to proceed from there.

I'm not interested in a full military-type hard drive wipe since
nearly all my personal data has always lived on an external hard
drive. I just want to be reasonably assured that the donated system is
free of my orphaned and trash files and registry settings while
retaining a clean version of the current Win10. Is there any software
designed to do most of the heavy lifting?

Any advice on this issue will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Armed with the magic words data eraser I found some more such
programs. I skipped the ones that use data to mean everything, and that
leaves

https://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/
https://eraser.heidi.ie/

I forget which of these uploads all the data to the author's server.
Wait, that was a dream, but indeed I can't vouch for these, and someone
did vouch for the one he posted, but I still thought I'd post them.

Neither mentions money but the second has about a million dl's total,
and ... Oh, they're the same program.

Works with win98 to 10 although XP has to have sp3. 98, me, NT, and
2000 require using an older version.

HP 15-F039WM laptop purchased 04/2014 with Windows 8.1/64-bit. Windows
has upgraded original Win 8.1 OS several times since then for free.

Goal is to donate laptop to new owner. Currently upgraded to Win 10
v1607 (OS Build 14393.693). Not sure if next owner can upgrade from
Win8.1 to current Win10 if I do a Windows reset from the original
system recovery partition.

Is there a way to clean my system to make it close to a pristine
version of Win 10 so that the next user won't have to go through long
and complicated Win8.1 - Win10 upgrades? I know I can delete all my
installed apps and clean my Documents & Settings folder hierarchy, but
I'm not sure where to proceed from there.

I'm not interested in a full military-type hard drive wipe since
nearly all my personal data has always lived on an external hard
drive. I just want to be reasonably assured that the donated system is
free of my orphaned and trash files and registry settings while
retaining a clean version of the current Win10. Is there any software
designed to do most of the heavy lifting?

Any advice on this issue will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Press Start - Settings - Update & Security - Recovery and select Reset This
PC. This will give you the equivalent of a freshly installed Windows
without all the effort. If you have deleted the hidden 400+ MB partition
that Win10 creates when it is installed this won't work.

Thanks for your reply. One thing though, will this method retain my
user account? I really don't want that account to survive.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Mon, 06 Feb 2017 00:58:36 -0600, M.L.
wrote:



Thanks for your reply. One thing though, will this method retain my
user account? I really don't want that account to survive.

I don't know, but this thread reminded me that when I bought a used
smart phone from ebay probably, it still had the guy's email adress or
phone number in it. But I made a point not to use it, at least unless
it was an international call. ;-)

And I bought 2 used hardddrives of the same size and brand at a hamfest,
One was empty and one had loads of stuff on it, including some
moderately dirty pictures of his wife, and someone else, plus some short
video. It even had the guy's, the previous owner's name in one place.
And the vendor's name too. I called the vendor, whose number I already
had, and the guy who owned the drives was a friend of his. I asked the
vendor if he wanted the data back, on a CD or DVD, and he said no.