Don’t Reset Your PC Until You Do These 7 Things First

Windows is acting up, nothing you’ve tried has worked, and there it is in Settings: Reset this PC. It looks friendly. It even offers to “Keep my files.” What could go wrong?

Plenty. Your apps disappear, your printer forgets you exist, Windows asks for a BitLocker recovery key you’ve never heard of, and you spend the weekend rebuilding a computer that was only mostly broken on Friday.

Resetting Windows isn’t always wrong. Sometimes it’s exactly the right fix. But the time to prepare is before you click it — not halfway through, and definitely not after.

Prefer to watch instead of read? Here’s the full walkthrough — or skip it and keep reading below.

(If Windows won’t even start, a reset may not be your first move. Start here instead: Windows Won’t Boot? What to Do First.)

Step 1: Understand What “Keep My Files” Actually Keeps

You’ll find the reset at Start → Settings → System → Recovery → Reset this PC, and it gives you two choices:

• Keep my files — keeps your personal files, but removes your apps and resets your settings.
• Remove everything — exactly what it sounds like.

“Keep my files” sounds comforting, but it doesn’t keep your programs, your printer, your VPN, your scanner software, your old tax program, or that one utility you installed five years ago and forgot you need every April. The computer will work afterward. You’ll just be rebuilding half of it.

That’s the trap. Know it going in.

Step 2: Back Up Your Important Files — and Check the Backup

Yes, everybody says this. People still don’t do it.

Copy your important files somewhere other than this computer — an external drive, cloud storage, or ideally both. A second folder on the same drive isn’t a backup. That’s rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Check the usual places: Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Pictures, and any folder where you keep work files, taxes, family photos, or projects you’d be furious to lose.

Then open a few files from the backup. After the reset is a terrible time to discover your thumb drive died, your cloud sync never finished, or your “backup” is an empty folder wearing a disguise. Don’t trust the progress bar. Windows progress bars lie with the confidence of a politician near a microphone.

Step 3: Save Your BitLocker Recovery Key

This one can ruin your day fast. On a lot of modern PCs — especially laptops signed in with a Microsoft account — device encryption is already turned on, and you may not know it.

Encryption is good. Until Windows asks for your recovery key and you don’t have it. Then your computer is extremely secure. So secure that even you can’t get in.

Check Start → Settings → Privacy & security → Device encryption. If it’s on and you use a Microsoft account, your key is usually saved at aka.ms/myrecoverykey — sign in and look for it now, from another device. If it’s a work or school PC, your organization likely has it.

Print it, write it down, or put it in your password manager. Saving it only on the computer you’re about to reset doesn’t count — that’s locking your spare key inside the house. (Full walkthrough: Microsoft Locked Your PC… and You Didn’t Even Know It!)

Step 4: Make Sure You Can Sign Back In

Your PIN, fingerprint, or face sign-in won’t necessarily help you after a reset. Recovery screens often want your actual password.

Make sure you know your Microsoft account password (or your local account password, if you use one), your email password, and anything else you’ll need to get back into your stuff. Check that your recovery email and phone number are current and that two-factor sign-in still works.

If every password you own lives in “the browser remembers it,” this is a very good week to start using a real password manager.

Step 5: Make a Short List of the Apps You Actually Need

You don’t need a 47-page software inventory. Just open Start → Settings → Apps → Installed apps and write down (or screenshot) the ones you’d miss.

Pay special attention to anything with a license key or account login: Office, tax software, VPNs, photo editors, backup tools. Find those keys and logins now. After the reset, Windows won’t remember what you had — but it will happily suggest Candy Crush.

Step 6: Know Your PC Model and Where Your Drivers Come From

If Windows comes back without working Wi-Fi, sound, or graphics, you’ll need the right drivers. Press Windows + R, type msinfo32, and note the System Manufacturer and System Model. Laptops often have a serial number or service tag on the bottom, too.

Get drivers from your PC maker’s official support site — not a site with seventeen download buttons and a name like “MegaDriverDownloadProDefinitelyNotMalware.”

On an older PC, save the network driver to a USB stick before you reset. Needing the internet to download the Wi-Fi driver that’s missing is exactly the kind of clown math Windows likes to hand you. Better yet, back up the drivers you already know work: Back Up Your Drivers Before You Need Them.

Step 7: Have a Plan If the Reset Fails

Here’s the part nobody likes to think about: a reset can fail. It can get stuck, roll back, or finish and still not fix the problem — with an error message that explains absolutely nothing.

So before you start, have:

• your files backed up (and checked)
• your BitLocker key
• your passwords
• your app list
• another device nearby to look things up
• ideally, a recovery USB or Windows installation media — with your drivers on it

Don’t count on the broken computer to rescue itself. That’s not a plan. That’s optimism wearing a fake mustache. (How to build that USB before you need it: Windows Refuses to Start? You’re Already Too Late (Unless…))

The Short Version

1. “Keep my files” removes your apps and settings. Plan for that.
2. Back up your files somewhere else — and open a few to make sure the backup works.
3. Find and save your BitLocker recovery key before anything else.
4. Know your real passwords, not just your PIN.
5. List the apps you need, especially anything with a license key.
6. Note your PC model and where to get its drivers.
7. Have a plan B: another device and a recovery USB.

Do those first, and resetting Windows goes from risky to merely annoying. Still Windows. Just less likely to turn into a digital dumpster fire.

Stay grumpy.