Apps removed whilst resetting your pc

Hi SunshineNuggett,

There are actually 3 options that you can choose from if you want to reset your device. You can either Keep your files, Remove everything or Restore your PC to factory settings.

Keep my files

• Reinstalls Windows 10 and keeps your personal files.
• Removes apps and drivers you installed.
• Removes changes you made to settings.
• Removes any apps your PC manufacturer installed. (If your PC came with Windows 10, apps from your PC manufacturer will be reinstalled.)

Remove everything

• Reinstalls Windows 10 and removes all your personal files.
• Removes apps and drivers you installed.
• Removes changes you made to settings.
• Removes any apps your PC manufacturer installed. (If your PC came with Windows 10, apps from your PC manufacturer will be reinstalled.)

Restore factory settings

• Reinstalls the version of Windows that your PC came with (either Windows 8 or Windows 8.1) and removes your personal files.
• Removes apps and drivers you installed.
• Removes changes you made to settings.
• Reinstalls any apps your PC manufacturer installed on your PC.

As you can see, performing a reset will remove all the apps and drivers installed on your device no matter what you choose. Unless there is a separate partitioned drive on your Hard Disk that contains the recovery media (Image of Windows 10 OEM), preinstalled apps and drivers will not be reinstalled.

There is a possibility that either your laptop doesn't have a partitioned recovery media, recovery drive got corrupted or the recovery drive got deleted. Without this, once you perform a reset, it will be a plain OS with generic drivers installed. 

If you want to restore all the apps and drivers that were previously installed on your computer, you need to contact Sony to get a Restore/Recovery Media for your laptop. It might be a USB drive or a DVD that contains a backup of the original factory condition (drivers and apps included) configured by OEM (Original equipment manufacturer).

For the 3rd party apps including Office 365, the best option to get them back is by reinstalling them. To reinstall Office 365, please refer to this link.

If you would like me to provide additional advice, simply respond to this thread. I will get notified and I’ll reply to you as soon as I can.

thats the windows 10 was designed in such a waythat, it will  remove  applications 

Before clicking on reset button , the warning will be displayed and windows will ask confirmation to continue , you have confirmed to remove,  so all the applications are removed 

Perhaps you could explain."

I can explain.

There are different types of reset, but they have this in common: A reset erases your hard drive. Everything on your hard drive that you haven't backed up is gone. Where the different types of reset differ is in what happens after your hard drive is erased.

In what Microsoft calls a "remove everything" reset, after your hard drive is erased a fresh copy of Windows 10 is installed. That's Windows 10 only - nothing else.

In what Microsoft calls a "keep my files" reset, after your hard drive is erased and Windows 10 is reinstalled, Microsoft restores information stored in your Microsoft account. Any account settings, Windows Store apps and personal files stored in your Microsoft account are restored to your computer.

In what computer manufacturers call a "factory reset," after your hard drive is erased the manufacturer restores the software that was installed on the computer at the factory.

As you can see, your VAIO software is included in none of these, nor is any other application software and drivers that were not obtained from Windows Store. I believe you can understand why this is so: Microsoft cannot search the internet to find installers for your software, and even if they could, Microsoft doesn't know what configuration choices you would make during installation.

What Microsoft can and does do is create an HTML file on your desktop after a reset that has a list of the software that you need to install on your own.

Of course, there is a simple way around this: Keep copies of all your software installers. It's that easy. If you have software installers on disks, keep the disks. If you downloaded the installer, store a copy on a USB flash drive. I've got all my software installers - including drivers and firmware - plus license keys (for software I purchased) plus installation instructions all stored on a USB flash drive. This is an enormous time saver when I do a clean install or setup a new computer.

Hi,

Thank you for responding and my apologies for the delay.

My laptop was gifted to me with Windows 7 loaded on it by the manufacturer.  I downloaded Windows 10 for free prior to the end date for installation without fee.  If I restore to previous Windows version it will reset to 7 and then I shall have to pay for 10?

I cannot find the drivers etc on Sony and have not contacted them yet as I have put off making further revisions on software as I have deadlines to meet that need my pc and I do not want to risk a mix up!

Please clarify these further queries and I will get back to you asap.

I really appreciate your suggestions though and thank you.

P.S with regards to the reset and removing everything I still am confused as to why the system would list everything taken off.  A wifi port after all is a wifi port and currently because of the revisions my device doesnt have one even though it does?  And it has to be said that Windows 10 was working perfectly well with my wifi smart utility prior to the reset and why didnt remove the smart utility when I downloaded windows 10 to replace windows 7?  And I didnt get a prompt asking me if I was sure I wanted to remove software as I recall.

Great! Lucky you to have all of your drivers etc to hand...…….

In the real world a lot of us haven't!  The pc in question was gifted to me without any disks, keys etc.  I had a working version of 10 on the pc that I had successfully added and used for many many months which was using all of my pre loaded drivers and the like and then...……..windows stopped being efficient with many glitches which meant a reset.  Inefficient software?

It would be great if the programme recognised the existing settings which work and then installed the missing variants to make things work as they once did when windows 10 was working n'cest pas!

I've learned a lot from posting the question...…….namely Microsoft is not helpful after the horse has bolted.  My memory of the reset of my system is vague as I didn't take notes but I am sure I did not receive a prompt saying that programmes or drivers would be erased.  I am not a dodo. 

At no time did the pc state all of your wifi utility will be erased or your existing anti virus etc.  Perhaps the tech guys could write that into your message prompts so that the user could manually decide whether things would be erased during reset?  That would be most impressive and restore some faith in the operating system provided.

Thank you everyone for posting a reply, however at this point the responses have not been helpful, have not actually explained why the existing software would stop working, why drivers would be erased on an existing working system and have not solved the problem and have just created a larger mess for me the consumer to sort. 

I am rather unimpressed with Windows 10 and further unimpressed with Office 365.

Overall my Microsoft experience these days is unsatisfactory.

There is no need to respond further I have taken on board your comments and there is nothing you can do and it appears there are no explanations as to why the system glitched in the first place. 

Thank you for your time.