Refresh, you may recall, is the Windows 8 revitalization procedure that preserves the user's data and settings but re-installs Windows underneath. (Reset is the other option, which wipes out the PC and returns it to the same state it was in when you bought it.) Microsoft advises that Windows 8 customers run a Refresh under the same circumstances that Windows 7 users might run a System Restore -- that is, when your system suddenly falls over or starts behaving absurdly.
System Restore rolls back Registry settings and some system files to an earlier state. Refresh works completely differently. As Desmond Lee explains in a , "Refresh functionality is fundamentally still a reinstall of Windows ... but your data, settings, and Metro style apps are preserved." When performing a Refresh, your PC boots into Windows Recovery Environment, which sets aside user data, settings, and Metro apps, re-installs Windows, then brings back the user data, settings, and Metro apps.
The really cool part about Refresh is that you can take a snapshot of a system, after all the major legacy apps are installed and configured, and use that snapshot as the Refresh baseline. Run a Refresh, feed it the snapshot, and the system is restored to its original, pristine state, with all apps -- including legacy apps -- up and ready to run, and
all user data intact.
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