Can I clean-install Windows and keep everything?
Q I’d like to do a clean install of Windows 10 to speed up my PC, but without losing my personal files nor any installed programs and customisations. There may also be a fly in the ointment in that my hard drive has been formatted with several logical partitions, used for personal files, and I wish to preserve this structure. I’d also like to keep the registry and all the relevant supporting system files that are personal to my setup. Alan Brown
A What you want is something of a contradiction. By definition, a clean install means allowing Windows to wipe the installation drive and install a fresh copy of itself so that it is 100-per-cent ‘clean’. Anything other than this is not a clean install.
There is a halfway-house approach that lets you keep your files, which we’ll get to soon, but the idea of keeping intact the registry and other personalised system elements is simply incompatible with the concept of a clean install. Only the drive letter used for the Windows installation will be affected, so stuff on other partitions would be left untouched. Ensure to always take a backup before performing anything as major as a Windows reinstallation.
However, Windows 10 does offer a ‘reset’ option. This will reinstall Windows itself while keeping your personal files, but you’d still need to reinstall your software.
To do this, first click Start followed by the Settings cog, and then ‘Update & Security’ followed by Recovery. Next, under ‘Reset this PC’, click ‘Get started’ (see screenshot 1 ), followed by ‘Keep my files’ 2 , and then just follow the rest of the prompts 3.