Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 16 of 18

Thread: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

  1. #1
    HEXUS.admin
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Posts
    31,709
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    2,073 times in 719 posts

    News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    Single-button re-installation of the OS, with or without data loss.
    Read more.

  2. #2
    You're god damn right Barry's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Posts
    1,484
    Thanks
    70
    Thanked
    75 times in 59 posts
    • Barry's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte Z270M-D3H
      • CPU:
      • Intel i7 7700
      • Memory:
      • 16GB (2x8GB) Avexir 2400
      • Storage:
      • Samsung 860 256GB SSD, Sandisk Ultra 3D 500GB, LG BR Writer
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Evga GeForce GTX Titan X 12GB
      • PSU:
      • Corsair RM750I
      • Case:
      • Fractal Design Focus G
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 10 Professional
      • Monitor(s):
      • 28" Acer UHD 4K2K
      • Internet:
      • Sky Fibre

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    Windows has needed this function for a long time.

  3. #3
    Get in the van. Fraz's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Bristol
    Posts
    2,919
    Thanks
    284
    Thanked
    397 times in 231 posts
    • Fraz's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte X58A-UD5
      • CPU:
      • Watercooled i7-980X @ 4.2 GHz
      • Memory:
      • 24GB Crucial DDR3-1333
      • Storage:
      • 240 GB Vertex2E + 2 TB of Disk
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Water-cooled Sapphire 7970 @ 1175/1625
      • PSU:
      • Enermax Modu87+
      • Case:
      • Corsair 700D
      • Operating System:
      • Linux Mint 12 / Windows 7
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell 30" 3008WFP and two Dell 24" 2412M
      • Internet:
      • Virgin Media 60 Mbps

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    Yeah, all kinds of weird things seem to happen to Windows over time... my current install has a problem where the Desktop Window Manager that provides Aero, etc, crashes regularly, either causing all my monitors to flicker, or throwing me into the basic non-Aero desktop. Haven't found the cause yet, and expect only a full reinstall will fix it, which is a massive ballache.

  4. #4
    Senior Member AGTDenton's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Bracknell
    Posts
    2,698
    Thanks
    984
    Thanked
    827 times in 542 posts
    • AGTDenton's system
      • Motherboard:
      • MSI MEG X570S ACE MAX
      • CPU:
      • AMD 5950x
      • Memory:
      • 32GB Corsair something or the other
      • Storage:
      • 1x 512GB nvme, 1x 2TB nvme, 2x 8TB HDD
      • Graphics card(s):
      • ASUS 3080 Ti TuF
      • PSU:
      • Corsair RM850x
      • Case:
      • Fractal Design Torrent White
      • Operating System:
      • 11 Pro x64
      • Internet:
      • Fibre

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    To the Non Technical this is going to be a massive help, though wouldnt be surprised if forums are filled with 'Refresh lost my data' or 'Reset didnt work properly'

    I suspect this is just a rebranded 'System Restore/System Repair' with an easier interface.

  5. #5
    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    14,283
    Thanks
    293
    Thanked
    841 times in 476 posts

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    It seems that if you can't figure out what setting is causing the problem, then you're in trouble. Chucking all of your settings away and going back to square one seems a bit extreme.

    That said, from a business perspective, it's good for IT support to ensure that troubleshooting can be done from a guaranteed state.

  6. #6
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Posts
    10
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    0 times in 0 posts

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    Many power users believe that over time Windows performance degrades or that the kernel can corrupt
    Whilst I believe that performance does degrade over time, I disagree that it is due to kernel corruption. Is this even possible on modern Windows? What I infer from this was that a badly written or malicious driver could cause problems (if one has switched off the safeguards of driver signing, etc) however this is still not a kernel corruption in my mind.

  7. #7
    Technojunkie
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Up North
    Posts
    2,580
    Thanks
    239
    Thanked
    213 times in 138 posts

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    Performance only degrades over time when people are constantly installing ( and rarely uninstalling) endless crap IMO

    That IS the normal usage pattern of a PC though.

    I admin plenty of XP PCs that just get reimaged from last backup when the drive fails - and no slowdowns - they don't ever have any new software installed though.
    Chrome & Firefox addons for BBC News
    Follow me @twitter

  8. #8
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Posts
    528
    Thanks
    23
    Thanked
    42 times in 35 posts

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    From personal experience I believe performance degradation to be unpredictable. Even if I remove the swap file from the equation and install minimal programs, perhaps performing an installation/un-installation once a month tops, I can find Windows grinding to a halt in less than a year despite little fragmentation and a clean registry. Other times Windows can be running for years and years with no issue.

    One thing I can say is corruption of core files does still occur, perhaps not the kernel itself as such but core windows libraries not part of a 3rd party driver etc. I've also observed uncorrectable filesystem errors from time to time or services that misbehave.

    For me this is a good thing as irrespective of the cause or usage scenario, a < 10min refresh will be quicker than tracking down and correcting most issues.

  9. #9
    Anthropomorphic Personification shaithis's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    The Last Aerie
    Posts
    10,857
    Thanks
    645
    Thanked
    872 times in 736 posts
    • shaithis's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus P8Z77 WS
      • CPU:
      • i7 3770k @ 4.5GHz
      • Memory:
      • 32GB HyperX 1866
      • Storage:
      • Lots!
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Sapphire Fury X
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX850
      • Case:
      • Corsair 600T (White)
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 10 x64
      • Monitor(s):
      • 2 x Dell 3007
      • Internet:
      • Zen 80Mb Fibre

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    IMO, Windows will continue to have the slow-down issue until they take the OS X approach of app management/installation.

    They really need to fix the underlying issue, not create a nasty ham-fisted band-aid button.
    Main PC: Asus Rampage IV Extreme / 3960X@4.5GHz / Antec H1200 Pro / 32GB DDR3-1866 Quad Channel / Sapphire Fury X / Areca 1680 / 850W EVGA SuperNOVA Gold 2 / Corsair 600T / 2x Dell 3007 / 4 x 250GB SSD + 2 x 80GB SSD / 4 x 1TB HDD (RAID 10) / Windows 10 Pro, Yosemite & Ubuntu
    HTPC: AsRock Z77 Pro 4 / 3770K@4.2GHz / 24GB / GTX 1080 / SST-LC20 / Antec TP-550 / Hisense 65k5510 4K TV / HTC Vive / 2 x 240GB SSD + 12TB HDD Space / Race Seat / Logitech G29 / Win 10 Pro
    HTPC2: Asus AM1I-A / 5150 / 4GB / Corsair Force 3 240GB / Silverstone SST-ML05B + ST30SF / Samsung UE60H6200 TV / Windows 10 Pro
    Spare/Loaner: Gigabyte EX58-UD5 / i950 / 12GB / HD7870 / Corsair 300R / Silverpower 700W modular
    NAS 1: HP N40L / 12GB ECC RAM / 2 x 3TB Arrays || NAS 2: Dell PowerEdge T110 II / 24GB ECC RAM / 2 x 3TB Hybrid arrays || Network:Buffalo WZR-1166DHP w/DD-WRT + HP ProCurve 1800-24G
    Laptop: Dell Precision 5510 Printer: HP CP1515n || Phone: Huawei P30 || Other: Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Pro 10.1 CM14 / Playstation 4 + G29 + 2TB Hybrid drive

  10. #10
    HEXUS.social member Agent's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Internet
    Posts
    19,185
    Thanks
    739
    Thanked
    1,614 times in 1,050 posts

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    Quote Originally Posted by themw View Post
    Whilst I believe that performance does degrade over time, I disagree that it is due to kernel corruption. Is this even possible on modern Windows? What I infer from this was that a badly written or malicious driver could cause problems (if one has switched off the safeguards of driver signing, etc) however this is still not a kernel corruption in my mind.
    Indeed. Windows won't boot with a corrupt Kernel. I'd agree on the driver front with you there.

    Quote Originally Posted by mikerr View Post
    Performance only degrades over time when people are constantly installing ( and rarely uninstalling) endless crap IMO

    That IS the normal usage pattern of a PC though.

    I admin plenty of XP PCs that just get reimaged from last backup when the drive fails - and no slowdowns - they don't ever have any new software installed though.
    Oh yes. But it works both ways in my experience, the applications can be as bad as the users.

    The number of applications that feel the need to litter the startup process is shocking. I'm tired of seeing endless apps feel the need to check when a system boots if there is a new version available.

    The same goes for services. There are still too many applications that run services all the time when they are simply not needed. I got to the point of making a few .bat files to start the service before the application because I got that sick of it.

    And don't even get me started on the apps that still don't properly uninstall.

    You know how I used to 'uninstall' an app on RISCOS in the 90's? I'd delete the directory. Gone.
    If it needed to run at startup? It goes in '!Boot'.

    I know how much more complex modern operating systems are, but there really needs to be better management of how apps are managed and interface with the system.

    On windows 7 you still need to dig fairly deep to get proper boot up information.
    There should be a 'speed centre', much like Windows Update that shows what's starting, when, how long it's taking, what application might misbehave if stopped, check for drive fragmentation and so on....

    How many people do you guys know that have brought a new pc because their old one 'has started to get slow'?
    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
    And by trying to force me to like small pants, they've alienated me.

  11. #11
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    London (almost)
    Posts
    1,080
    Thanks
    20
    Thanked
    34 times in 28 posts

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    Handy features

  12. #12
    Get in the van. Fraz's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Bristol
    Posts
    2,919
    Thanks
    284
    Thanked
    397 times in 231 posts
    • Fraz's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte X58A-UD5
      • CPU:
      • Watercooled i7-980X @ 4.2 GHz
      • Memory:
      • 24GB Crucial DDR3-1333
      • Storage:
      • 240 GB Vertex2E + 2 TB of Disk
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Water-cooled Sapphire 7970 @ 1175/1625
      • PSU:
      • Enermax Modu87+
      • Case:
      • Corsair 700D
      • Operating System:
      • Linux Mint 12 / Windows 7
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell 30" 3008WFP and two Dell 24" 2412M
      • Internet:
      • Virgin Media 60 Mbps

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    Quote Originally Posted by shaithis View Post
    IMO, Windows will continue to have the slow-down issue until they take the OS X approach of app management/installation.
    OS X seems just as bad to me. Certainly, my 3 year old iMac is sometimes painfully slow, particularly at bootup and shortly after.

    I'm also amused at how ridiculously bad and bloated some applications are these days. I can think of more than 1 application where I can type significantly faster than the characters appear on screen. That certainly never happened on my ZX spectrum back in the 80s...

  13. #13
    RIP Peterb ik9000's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    7,701
    Thanks
    1,839
    Thanked
    1,434 times in 1,057 posts
    • ik9000's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus P7H55-M/USB3
      • CPU:
      • i7-870, Prolimatech Megahalems, 2x Akasa Apache 120mm
      • Memory:
      • 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance 2133 11-11-11-27
      • Storage:
      • 2x256GB Samsung 840-Pro, 1TB Seagate 7200.12, 1TB Seagate ES.2
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB SuperOverClocked
      • PSU:
      • NZXT Hale 90 750w
      • Case:
      • BitFenix Survivor + Bitfenix spectre LED fans, LG BluRay R/W optical drive
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 7 Professional
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell U2414h, U2311h 1920x1080
      • Internet:
      • 200Mb/s Fibre and 4G wifi

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    Quote Originally Posted by Agent View Post
    I'm tired of seeing endless apps feel the need to check when a system boots if there is a new version available.
    +1, but I do love msconfig for killing them off.

    Quote Originally Posted by Agent View Post
    How many people do you guys know that have brought a new pc because their old one 'has started to get slow'?
    And there is the reason (perhaps) that MS has dragged their heels - it keeps a steady stream of custom, and what ships with new PCs but a new version of Windows. Ca-ching.

  14. #14
    Super Nerd
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Cambridge
    Posts
    1,785
    Thanks
    22
    Thanked
    105 times in 72 posts

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    Most people's Windows performance degrades over time, and in many cases becoming unusable and needing to be nuked from orbit. Too much installation, too many files, careless usage patterns, riddled with malware and toolbars etc etc

    However mine doesn't degrade noticeably, hasn't done for years, it ticks along nicely and has no niggly issues that I live with to avoid a reinstall etc. Any "power user" worth their salt ought to be able to do the same, all it takes is some maintenance here and there and sensible usage patterns.

    I take good care of my installation, update my drivers (with driver only where possible, no vendor software tools I don't need) defrag on spinning drives, clean up old files, put big data on different partitions etc. But it took a while to learn and most people will never learn, what MS need to do is enforce more of this type of OS/Data separation, prompt people to remove unused applications, prevent them from doing the things that cause degradation.

    I don't trust a "reset" to remove everything, I've never trusted vendor restore partitions either, automatic processes all too often miss things or cock it up in some way. I'd still wipe the drive and go back to installation media, especially as it's now trivial to do from a fast USB drive.

  15. Received thanks from:

    ik9000 (06-01-2012)

  16. #15
    RIP Peterb ik9000's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    7,701
    Thanks
    1,839
    Thanked
    1,434 times in 1,057 posts
    • ik9000's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus P7H55-M/USB3
      • CPU:
      • i7-870, Prolimatech Megahalems, 2x Akasa Apache 120mm
      • Memory:
      • 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance 2133 11-11-11-27
      • Storage:
      • 2x256GB Samsung 840-Pro, 1TB Seagate 7200.12, 1TB Seagate ES.2
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB SuperOverClocked
      • PSU:
      • NZXT Hale 90 750w
      • Case:
      • BitFenix Survivor + Bitfenix spectre LED fans, LG BluRay R/W optical drive
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 7 Professional
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell U2414h, U2311h 1920x1080
      • Internet:
      • 200Mb/s Fibre and 4G wifi

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    +1 wipe it every time. About to do that on my machine. I just need a clear w/e... that'll be March then.

  17. #16
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Posts
    12,113
    Thanks
    906
    Thanked
    580 times in 405 posts

    Re: News - Microsoft's Windows 8 brings the ability to 'Refresh' or 'Reset'

    Be nice if it did this over a wireless connection and had some sort of 2 partition approach, partition for OS/Apps and one for data.

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •