Windows 8 to include built-in Reset, Refresh, and hard drive imaging

Rejoice, all ye faithful! Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, will provide push-button Reset and Refresh in Windows 8. Reset will restore a Windows 8 PC to its stock, fresh-from-the-factory state; Refresh will reinstall Windows 8, but keep your documents and installed Metro apps in tact.

That’s right: When your aged mother phones up to complain about her slow, broken, and malware-infested computer, instead of schlepping over there with a Windows install disk, you can just tell her to click “Refresh.” Refreshing keeps network settings, BitLocker settings, drive letter assignments, and personalizations (lock screen image, desktop wallpaper, etc.) Only Metro apps are preserved, however; Desktop apps, due to their third-party installers and other caveats are not easy to save — plus, due to the restrictive permissions placed on Metro apps, it’s probably a Desktop app that is causing a computer to misbehave in the first place. File associations, Windows Firewall settings, and Display settings are not preserved during a Refresh.

Reset is obviously very useful if you want to sell an old computer — or if you just want to perform the standard Six Month Windows Dekluge. Both Reset and Reffresh are surprisingly quick, too: Reset takes six minutes, and Refresh takes eight minutes (compared to a baseline of 25 minutes using a system image backup tool). When Resetting, you have the option of performing a “thorough” wipe of your documents and settings, which takes a little longer to perform — 24 minutes, according to Microsoft (in reality it will take longer) — but it will prevent the next owner of your computer from discovering the details of your sordid affairs. These very quick speeds are achieved by using the same data migration tech as the Windows 8 upgrade engine, incidentally. Reset and Refresh can be performed either from inside Windows (pictured above), or at boot using the new Windows Recovery Environment (below).

In true Microsoft, One OS To Rule Them All style, though, the Redmondites have also added a hard disk imaging/ghosting tool to Windows 8, ala Norton Ghost or Acronis True image. By using a tool called recimg.exe, you can define what image will be used by Refresh. In other words, you can install all of your normal Desktop apps and games — Photoshop, Steam, and so on — configure all of your tweaks and personalizations, run recimg.exe… and then when you Refresh, your computer will be cleaned up and also ready to go immediately. Neat.

At this juncture we have to point out that both Reset and Refresh are very tablety features, though given Windows’ innate malware magnetism, the same features will be very welcome on the desktop as well. Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7 all support a Reset function — and through iCloud, Google’s cloud services, and Windows Live, resetting a phone is almost painless. Windows 8, if it wants to succeed on tablets, must have the same functionality as iOS and Android and then some.