FRESH START vs RESET IN WINDOWS 10

Microsoft seems to have got itself in a bit of a muddle with Windows 10’s reset tools. It’s always good to provide options, but when the difference between them is unclear it just creates confusion.

We tried the Reset and Fresh Start methods on the same computer, and both had very similar results. The only noticeable difference was the time taken: Reset took 45 minutes; Fresh Start just over an hour, presumably due to the latter jumping online to download the latest version of Windows.

Exactly how they compare on your computer will depend on the version of Windows included in your recovery partition and the speed of your internet connection. Since Fresh Start automatically downloads the latest release of Windows 10, we’d recommend that over the Reset alternative. Why Microsoft doesn’t roll everything into one Reset tool is anyone’s guess.