Microsoft has detailed the options that will be available to recover a crashed PC running Windows 8.
Users will be offered two alternatives when presented with a Windows crash, with options to either refresh or reset their lost machine.
The changes are detailed in a blog post from the firm where the refresh option was described as a way of retaining some work while restoring core OS functions. The other is a full face wipe.
“We’ve built two new features in Windows 8 that can help you get your PCs back to a ‘good state’ when they’re not working their best, or back to the ‘factory state’ when you’re about to give them to someone else or decommission them,” explains Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky in the introductory blog post.
“The strength of this approach is that you start over from a truly clean state, but you still get to keep the things you care about. With that as the basis of the solution, our goal was to make the process much more streamlined, less time-consuming, and more accessible to a broad set of customers.”
Broadly, the two options work as follows. Fully resetting your PC will remove all personal data, apps, and settings from the PC and reinstall Windows, while just refreshing will keep all personal data, Metro style apps, important settings on the PC and reinstall Windows.
The reset option includes features for erasing old data more thoroughly. This involves choosing the “Thorough” option and should help protect more sensitive users, or firms storing official or compliance related information, from having their data exposed through third party refreshes.
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