Windows·65,649 discussions

How to delete everything but keep OS

Tags: Windows

Basically I ‘m selling my desktop to a friend, I want everything to be removed, but I don’t want the operating system to go away. (I’m not sure where the key is & I don’t want to go through the hassle of re-installing, etc.)

Is there a way to do this or what do you recommend?
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Topic

For most, this will do fine. But first, that CDKEY.

In reply to How to delete everything but keep OS

The CDKEY can be retrieved with the MAGIC JELLYBEAN FINDER (see google.)

Remember that what I’m going to share is good enough for most but those that are paranoid just won’t be enough.

The simplest method is to create TWO (this is important to have two) LOCAL LOGIN ADMIN accounts. When you are ready to dust off your old account and its files you can log into one of these and then remove your old account. When you do that Windows will ask if you want to keep the files, you answer you want to dump those files and you have cleaned out most of your junk.

If you want to uninstall apps, then do that.

A final step would be to use CCLEANER (see google) to wipe empty space which is noted at https://www.ccleaner.com/docs/ccleaner/using-ccleaner/wiping-free-disk-space

Yes, there may be a few remnants but it’s 99% clean and good to go.

Delete everything

In reply to How to delete everything but keep OS

If you have w10 this may work.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/recovery-options-in-windows-10-31ce2444-7de3-818c-d626-e3b5a3024da5#bkmk_section2

Operating System

In reply to How to delete everything but keep OS

Just Reset your windows thats all

Reset Your Computer

In reply to How to delete everything but keep OS

To delete everything on your computer without affecting your Operating System, this is what you need to do.

1. Go to statup
2. Search for “Reset this PC”
3.Click on get started in the reset pc section.
4. Choose Remove everything among the options.
5. You are done.

Give your computer some time to completely reset your computer. It might take a while.

If you don’t like to reset your pc but prefer to increase storage by deleting large files on your computer, use this guide:

How to Find Large Files on Windows 10 Easily

Delete EVERYTHING while keeping your WINDOWS PRODUCT KEY

In reply to How to delete everything but keep OS

Hope it helps

Reset this PC

In reply to How to delete everything but keep OS

Windows 10 has a built-in method for wiping your PC and restoring it to an ‘as new’ state. You can choose to preserve just your personal files or to erase everything, depending on what you need.

Go to Start > Settings > Update & security > Recovery, click Get started and select the appropriate option. Then follow the on-screen instructions to restore Windows 10 to a factory-fresh state.

Bruno J.

How to delete everything but keep OS

In reply to How to delete everything but keep OS

CCLEANER is the best way to delete everything but keep the OS.

How to delete everything but keep OS

In reply to How to delete everything but keep OS

You can format the all drive except installed OS drive to delete everything from your PC

delete everything but keep OS

In reply to How to delete everything but keep OS

there are so many options for this, you can reset your pc or you can use USB flash disk to reset your drives,

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