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Windows 8 To Include Built-in Reset, Refresh

Posted by timothy on from the control-z dept.

MrSeb writes "Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, will provide push-button Reset and Refresh in Windows 8. Reset will restore a Windows 8 PC to its stock, fresh-from-the-factory state; Refresh will reinstall Windows 8, but keep your documents and installed Metro apps in tact. For the power users, Windows 8 will include a new tool called recimg.exe, which allows you to create a hard drive image that Refresh will use (you can install all of your Desktop apps, tweak all your settings, run recimg.exe... and then, when you Refresh, you'll be handed a clean, ready-to-go computer). Reset and Refresh are obviously tablety features that Windows 8 will need to compete against iOS and Android — but considering Windows' malware magnetism and the number of times I've had to schlep over to my mother's house with a Windows CD... these features should be very welcome on the desktop, too."

15 of 441 comments (clear)

  1. Next step... by Kenja · · Score: 5, Funny

    Next step is to have Windows 8.5 just auto-refresh every few months since Microsoft seems to assume you'll be doing it any how.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The companies that pre-load all that garbage will make sure that it all gets on the recovery image too. You'll still have to uninstall all that crap once.

    2. Re:Next step... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Next step is to have Windows 8.5 just auto-refresh every few months since Microsoft seems to assume you'll be doing it any how.

      Good, because MS has been making it increasingly difficult to be able to do a reinstall even if you have a licensed copy.

      Between "upgrade" disks which only work if you have a working install, and the trend to get rid of recovery disks ... it's about time Microsoft realized that the only way to maintain a system over a period of time is to rebuild the OS periodically.

      Microsoft recently sued a computer reseller for piracy because they made recovery disks available to users.

      In my experience, the recovery software installed by OEMs is complete shit .. the process for creating it on my wife's HP laptop failed, and then said you were only allowed to do it once, leaving us without one. So, Microsoft hopes when your system crashes you'll go buy a new copy ... but if you've already paid for a copy, you might as well pirate it.

      I know the last few PCs I've bought I've insisted I receive a full boxed install media ... not the OEM, but the retail one, and I pay for it. Because if you don't have this, when your Windows system needs to be rebuilt, you're probably hosed.

      The trend to not give people install media (in order to prevent piracy) has largely left people with systems they can't repair, and an incentive to pirate what they've already bought.

      If a crashed/hosed computer means you lose your data and you'll have to spend as much money as a new computer costs ... something has gone seriously wrong.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:Next step... by rsborg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think your problem might be a case of simple PEBKAC.

      It's attitudes like yours that explain why Android and iOS are the future for many computer users. Blaming the user for an easily exploitable system will drive them fully into the arms of walled gardens and locked bootloaders. Perhaps that's where they want to be - and maybe that's good for the sanity of geeks like you and me. However, I think in the long run, defaulting users to locked systems is a bad thing for software freedom and the availability of general purpose computing devices.

      --
      Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
    4. Re:Next step... by Ossifer · · Score: 5, Funny

      First thing I do when I get a new Windows PC is to wipe the drive. Never had any of these problems after that...

    5. Re:Next step... by Haedrian · · Score: 5, Funny

      I have a Vista install since 2007 still running as fast as when I installed it

      Could hardly get any slower can it..

    6. Re:Next step... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You can reinstall on the same hardware as many times as you like. You can change everything but the motherboard freely.

      If they don't give you the disc, and the recovery feature in the OEM crap doesn't work ... none of what you say is true. And I've seen far too many computers which came with absolutely no media for the OS.

      Besides, the amount of shit that is usually in an OEM install often makes it almost unusable. On my mother-in-law's Toshiba laptop I had to strip out all of their crap to make the machine usable. It was full of wizards, and other tools designed to hand hold you so much that the computer had no CPU and memory left to actually do anything ... the retail copy has none of that shit.

      In short, the retail versions are for suckers with too much money to burn, they're priced so that no rational person would buy them.

      *shrug* That's your opinion and experience. I bought a single machine, which I intended to run Vista on. If the machine became corrupted, I intended to install Vista back onto it. I did the same with my previous XP box, and I'll do the same with my next box for whatever version of Windows is de-rigeur by then.

      For me, paying the retail price for the OS means I don't have to go through some of the bullshit I have had to go through by not having the install media, which has left me stranded without being able to reinstall unless I was going to get a pirated copy.

      As I said, my wife's shitty HP laptop came with no install media for Win 7, and the process of creating the restore disk failed and couldn't be retried. So, if anything goes wrong, it's cheaper to buy a new laptop than to try to fix it. Or, just say fuck it and pirate Windows.

      From what I've experienced, only the full retail copy lets me do a reinstall from scratch -- anything else leaves you with a half assed solution that takes far more of my time than I'm willing to invest.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    7. Re:Next step... by microbee · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So your point is...

      Yes I want freedom and install whatever I want. No I don't want those malware! No I don't really understand what it is when I click 'install now'. But yes I really want to install whatever I want, freedom remember? No, I don't want to get a virus or something like that. When I say install, I mean install! No, I don't want to be locked in a walled garden. No I am not an idiot, you idiot!

    8. Re:Next step... by KingMotley · · Score: 5, Funny

      Please, you aren't required to read the article, but please, read the summary before posting.

  2. Interesting, but.... by KazW · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How long until viruses inject themselves into this recovery image and get "refreshed" onto the new install?

    --
    Geeks don't grock information, they grep it.
    1. Re:Interesting, but.... by ByOhTek · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Finally, a valid complaint on this topic, instead of an "It is made by MS, so I'm gonna bitch!"

      My first thought reading the article was "If I were writing malware, my first goal would to be infect those files!"

      Actually, I've had the same issue with install partitions that many vendors use on their computers - what will keep malware vendors from mucking those up, and screwing up future installs?

      --
      Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
  3. Re:Just an excuse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have an idea. It's a little complicated, so stay with me now: if you use GRUB, don't hit the fucking button.

  4. I've already got that... by Livius · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...with one line of bash script. On my XP machine, there are three partitions: for Windows, software, and documents (Think /bin, /usr, /home) The Linux side has a zip archive of the windows partition. When I want to restore WIndows, I boot into Linux and run unzip and just overwrite the whole partition.

  5. Re:Good luck! by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, you can say that about any backup. With all due respect, your post is a bit of a karma whore...

    --
    "Sufferin' succotash."
  6. "keep your installed Metro apps in tact" by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 5, Funny



    Sounds useful, as I currently keep them in old mayonnaise jars.