How to Factory Reset Windows 11 the Right Way — Keep My Files vs Remove Everything (and Before You Sell)

A factory reset is Windows' built-in "start over" button: it reinstalls a fresh copy of Windows and clears out the software mess — the accumulated corruption, the bad update, the thing you can't chase down — without touching the hardware. It's the same tool whether you're trying to rescue a sluggish, glitchy PC or wipe an old one clean before it goes to a new owner. The good news up front: it's completely free and built into Windows. If your search results are full of paid "PC reset," "factory reset tool," or "data eraser" downloads, ignore them — you don't need any of them, and some are junkware. Everything here uses Windows' own Reset this PC feature.

Before you touch anything, get one thing straight, because it changes every choice you make: are you keeping this computer or getting rid of it? If you're trying to fix your own PC, you want the "Keep my files" path, which reinstalls Windows but leaves your documents and photos in place. If you're selling, donating, recycling, or handing the machine down, you want "Remove everything" — with one extra setting turned on that most people miss. We'll walk both. And a quick scope check: if you just want back into a PC you're locked out of, start with our guide on a forgotten Windows password; if Windows won't even boot, see the automatic repair loop guide first; and if you're only trying to fix one specific problem, a reset is the big hammer — try the targeted fix first, because a reset means reinstalling all your programs afterward.

First, back up — a reset is not a backup

This is the step people skip and regret. Even "Keep my files" only keeps your personal files — it removes every program you installed, your drivers, and your settings, and Windows saves a list of the removed apps to your desktop so you can reinstall them yourself. It is not a backup. And resets can and do fail partway through, occasionally leaving a machine worse off than it started. So before you reset anything, copy your important files — documents, photos, anything irreplaceable — off to an external drive or a cloud account like OneDrive or Google Drive. Don't forget the things that hide: browser bookmarks and saved passwords, your email if it's stored locally, and any software license keys or authenticator apps you'll need to set up again. If you don't have a backup habit yet, our guide on why you need a backup makes the case; if you're moving to a new machine, our new-PC setup guide covers carrying everything across.

One more reason to back up first: it forces you to answer the question "is my data safe?" before you wipe anything — which is exactly the moment to catch it if the drive itself is the real problem (more on that below). Ten minutes of copying files is cheap insurance against an afternoon that goes sideways.

Keep my files vs Remove everything — pick the right one

When you start a reset, Windows asks you to choose between two options, and getting this right is the whole ballgame. Keep my files reinstalls Windows fresh but preserves your personal files — your documents, pictures, and downloads survive — while removing the apps you installed, your drivers, and your settings. This is the one you want when you're fixing your own PC: it clears deep software problems while leaving your data alone. You'll reinstall your programs afterward, but your files are still there.

Remove everything does exactly what it says: it deletes your personal files, your apps, and your settings, returning the PC to a clean, out-of-the-box state. This is the choice for a computer that's leaving your hands — selling it, giving it away, trading it in, or recycling it. Do not use Remove everything to fix your own PC; there's no reason to erase your files when Keep my files reinstalls Windows just as thoroughly. The simple rule: fixing this PC → Keep my files; getting rid of this PC → Remove everything.

How to actually do the reset

On Windows 11, open Settings > System > Recovery, and next to "Reset this PC" click Reset PC. (On Windows 10 it's Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Reset this PC.) If Windows won't start normally, you can reach the same tool from the recovery screen — power the PC off and on a few times to trigger it, then choose Troubleshoot > Reset this PC. Pick Keep my files or Remove everything as decided above.

Next, Windows asks how to reinstall itself: Cloud download or Local reinstall. Local reinstall rebuilds Windows from the files already on your PC — no download needed, which is handy on a slow or metered connection. Cloud download pulls a completely fresh copy of Windows (around 4 GB or more) straight from Microsoft's servers, with the latest updates baked in. Choose Cloud download if the local files might themselves be damaged — for example, the reset keeps failing, or the PC has been badly corrupted or infected — because it doesn't rely on the possibly-broken copy already on the machine. Otherwise Local reinstall is faster. After that, confirm the summary and let it run; the PC will restart several times and can take anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple of hours depending on your drive and connection. Leave it plugged in and don't interrupt it.

You don't need to worry about your Windows license. A reset keeps your activation — the license is tied to your PC's hardware, so Windows reactivates itself automatically once you're back online, and you won't be asked to re-enter a product key.

Selling or giving it away? Turn on "Clean data" — this part matters

Here's the trap that catches almost everyone wiping a PC before selling it, and it's the single most important thing on this page. By default, "Remove everything" is not a true wipe. Windows just deletes the index that points to your files and marks that space as free — but the actual data often sits on the drive untouched until something else happens to overwrite it, which means the next owner can dig your files back up with free recovery software. Your tax returns, photos, and saved logins can still be there.

The fix is a setting Microsoft tucks out of the way. During Remove everything, click Change settings (sometimes shown as "Change settings" on the confirmation screen) and turn on the Clean data toggle. That tells Windows to deliberately overwrite the drive so your old files can't be recovered. It takes much longer — figure 30 to 90 minutes extra on an SSD, and potentially several hours on an older spinning hard drive — but that's the price of a computer that's genuinely clean. If the PC has more than one drive, there's also a "Delete files from all drives" option so you don't leave a second disk full of your data.

Two things to do before the wipe, not after: sign out of your accounts and deactivate licensed software first. Sign out of your Microsoft account, OneDrive, and your browser, and deactivate anything with a per-device license (Office, Adobe, and the like) so you don't waste an activation or leave the buyer locked into your accounts. Do it in that order — sign out, then wipe with Clean data on — and the machine is genuinely ready to hand over. Our guide on setting up a new PC covers cleaning off the old one as part of the move.

"There was a problem resetting your PC" — when the reset itself fails

A frustrating but common snag is the message "There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made." It almost always means the hidden recovery files Windows uses to rebuild itself are missing or corrupted — often the very damage you were trying to reset away. Work through it in this order. First, make sure Windows is fully updated and try again, since a half-finished update can block a reset. Next, open Command Prompt or Terminal as administrator and run the built-in repair tools — sfc /scannow, then DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth — and restart; these rebuild the corrupted system files the reset needs. It's also worth trying the reset from Safe Mode, which loads Windows with the bare minimum so a bad driver or app can't trip it up.

If it still won't reset, the reliable fix is to reinstall Windows from a bootable USB stick instead of from the broken copy on the PC. On another working computer, go to Microsoft's "Download Windows 11" page, use the Media Creation Tool (or the ISO) to make a bootable USB drive on an empty 8 GB stick, then boot the troubled PC from it and do a clean install. Because this doesn't depend on the damaged recovery files, it works when Reset this PC simply can't — just make sure your files are backed up first, because a clean install from USB wipes the drive. Cloud download during the normal reset is the gentler version of the same idea and is worth trying before you reach for a USB.

When a reset won't fix the problem — check this first

A reset cures software problems, and only software problems. If your PC's real trouble is hardware, a reset either won't help or won't hold — and you'll have wiped the machine for nothing. The classic example is a failing drive: reinstall Windows onto a dying hard drive or SSD and the crashes, freezes, and corruption come right back within days, because the surface you reinstalled onto is the thing that's broken. Overheating, failing memory, and a swelling battery are the same story. So if the PC has been crashing, freezing, throwing blue screens, or making clicking noises, don't reach for a reset first — check the drive's health, since a reset onto a bad drive is wasted effort (our guide on the signs of a failing drive walks through the free health checks). Rule out hardware, then reset.

It's also worth knowing the flip side, because it's genuinely useful: when a PC is unstable for no reason you can pin down and the hardware checks out fine, a clean reinstall really is often the most reliable cure — our piece on how a clean reinstall fixes constant freezing explains why. The trick is doing it in the right order: back up, rule out hardware, then reset.

On a Mac: Erase All Content and Settings

Macs have their own version of this, and on recent models it's just as clean. On a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 and later) or an Intel Mac with the Apple T2 chip, running macOS Monterey or newer, go to the Apple menu > System Settings > General > Transfer or Reset, then click Erase All Content and Settings. An assistant walks you through it: it signs you out of iCloud, turns off Find My and Activation Lock so the Mac is no longer tied to you, and erases your files, apps, and settings, leaving the Mac at the "Hello" setup screen — exactly what you want before selling. Back up with Time Machine first, the same as on Windows.

If Erase All Content and Settings isn't there — an older Intel Mac without the T2 chip, or an older macOS — you erase the drive using Disk Utility from macOS Recovery and then reinstall macOS, and you'll want to manually sign out of iCloud and turn off Find My beforehand. Either way, the golden rule is identical to Windows: sign out of your accounts and turn off the anti-theft lock before you wipe, so the next owner isn't locked out and you don't get calls later.

The honest bottom line

A factory reset is one of the most useful tools Windows and macOS give you — a genuine fresh start that fixes stubborn software problems and safely prepares a computer to move on. It's free, it's built in, and it doesn't need any paid software. Just get the two big decisions right: choose Keep my files when you're fixing your own PC and Remove everything when you're parting with it, back up before you start because a reset isn't a backup, and — if the machine is leaving your hands — turn on Clean data so your files really are gone. And if the PC has been acting broken in a way that smells like hardware, check the drive before you wipe, because a reset can't fix a physical fault.

If you'd rather not do it yourself, or you've hit "There was a problem resetting your PC" and don't want to wrestle with a bootable USB, we're glad to help. We reset and cleanly reinstall Windows and macOS for people across Southern California and the Coachella Valley — backing up your files first, ruling out the drive or memory so a reset actually sticks, wiping machines properly before you sell them, and getting your programs and email back the way you had them. We don't sell computers, so we'll tell you honestly when a reset is the right call and when the machine has a hardware problem no reset will cure.