Restoring Windows 10 Computer To Factory Settings

kah22

I have an old Packard Bell laptop. It’s pretty low on speck 500 GB. HDD  4GB DDR3 memory operating on Windows 10.  So not the most powerful computer in the world, you’d agree   Anyway, be that as it may, it does serve a useful purpose.

Now since I’ve had the machine it has gathered up an awful lot of junk from viruses, pop ups , to been littered by unnecessary files. All that I do need, or think I need, is safely stored in the cloud. Now I want to completely wipe the machine and bring it back to its original state.  Before that I’d like to clarify a few things in my own mind, hopefully you can advise

If I take it back to factory status, everything goes. Right? But what is everything?  I’m assuming the operating system remains. What about the little programs that come with the machine: the clock, the notepad and those little programs do they get wiped.  What remains?

Window 10 I’m led to believe is a gluten for memory, and quite honestly I’ve never liked it. At this stage of the game can I change it back to one of the older operating systems?  Or am I best sticking with Windows 10, if only to avoid hassle?

Really and truly all I need it for is to run my copy of Office, it’s an old copy, so I’m assuming no hassle there? Somewhere to store music to upload onto my iPhone and iPad and a web browser. I use Yahoo for my mail. As you can see all I need is a good clean up and a few basic programs.

Can you offer any advice as to the best way to end up with a good basic, clean computer. Any ‘how to’ web address would be fantastic

As always thanks for any advice you can offer

Kevin

EndlessWaves

Windows 10 was being developed during the era where Intel was pushing heavily into the tablet/smartphone market, so at launch all the tests showed it was much lighter on resources than older versions. There's not much point in going for earlier versions, you're better off looking at third party programs to tweak whichever bits of the interface you don't like.

Windows added it's own factory reset option (called Reset) in Windows 8. If your machine pre-dates that (2013ish) then it may also have a second factory reset system provided by the manufacturer.

The Windows 10 system offers a couple of options as to what is kept:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/12415
It'll keep any windows programs like notepad, but will likely remove anything from the PC manufacturer.

The manufacturer's restore system (probably Acer unless it's a really old Packard Bell) will typically wipe everything and restore the system to the condition it came in.

How old is the version of Office? If it's 2010 or similar then it'll be fine. If it's Office 97 then it may require some research to get it working.