I'm In Over My Head Here I think-When I Perform A Factory Reset My Pre-installed Apps Are Gone

Sorry to bother you all with such a silly question but I really am lost and don't know what to do. I've performed factory resets before but it was quite a long time ago (around a year or so ago, but I'm not certain.) and maybe better methods are available now. I contacted HP and they replied with help but the problem is, that I don't understand exactly what they are telling me to do. I'm simply not familiar with some of the terminology in the instructions. The Cloud? Partition? I have included that email with HP here along with my laptop model. I was hoping that someone here may be able to understand their instructions better than I can and maybe tell me in simpler terms what to do. I'm embarrassed to even ask all of you this.

First thing is to copy your personal files to a USB drive. Pictures, documents... things that you can't replace should everything get accidentally wiped. As for the HP software, you really don't need any of it except maybe HP Support Assistant (for hardware updates) and you can downloaad that off of HP's site. You can get HP Smart for a HP printer install from the app store.

Choosing between Cloud or Local... if you choose Local, you will be installing the version that originally shipped with your laptop off of an existing area (partition) already on your drive. This will likely necessitate major updates thru Windows Update. If you choose Cloud install, the version will likely be the most recent 25H2.

Regardless of "reset" method, the options will be either keep my stuff or don't keep my stuff. Sounds like you will want to keep your stuff so choose that. But don't trust it with your irreplacable personal data. Copy it to a USB drive for safe-keeping.

Cyrax said:

When I Perform A Factory Reset My Pre-installed Apps Are Gone

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It should have left a 'Removed Apps.html' on your Desktop.

Edwin said:

It should have left a 'Removed Apps.html' on your Desktop.

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Be sure to enable "show hidden folders" also, just to be sure it will show up.

What problems are you having with the computer?

There are pro and con for the various recovery options.

zbook said:

What problems are you having with the computer?

There are pro and con for the various recovery options.

Recovery options in Windows - Microsoft Support

Learn about the recovery options in Windows. Find out how to reset your PC, go back to a previous version of Windows, or use media to reinstall Windows.

support.microsoft.com

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It's just that someone told me once that I should do a factory reset twice a year to eliminate any viruses and improve the overall performance of my laptop in general. I had no reason to doubt his words at the time because he seemed like he knew what he was talking about. As far as issues go I've noticed these problems, or what I think are problems.

1. Every time I open an app like VLC Media Player, Proton VPN, or any other app window for that matter, it always opens full screen. I did know enough to go to the settings on VLC and adjust it so that it wouldn't do that, but the setting never sticks. It's always opens in full-screen.

Cyrax said:

It's just that someone told me once that I should do a factory reset twice a year to eliminate any viruses and improve the overall performance of my laptop in general. I had no reason to doubt his words at the time because he seemed like he knew what he was talking about. As far as issues go I've noticed these problems, or what I think are problems.

1. Every time I open an app like VLC Media Player, Proton VPN, or any other app window for that matter, it always opens full screen. I did know enough to go to the settings on VLC and adjust it so that it wouldn't do that, but the setting never sticks. It's always opens in full-screen.

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How about when you manually resize it on desktop, close, reopen? Does it stick then?

Cyrax said:

It's just that someone told me once that I should do a factory reset twice a year to eliminate any viruses and improve the overall performance of my laptop in general. I had no reason to doubt his words at the time because he seemed like he knew what he was talking about. As far as issues go I've noticed these problems, or what I think are problems.

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That's horse manure! There's no rational reason to nuke your machine every few months if you're having no problems! Even if you're having problems, knocking things flat and starting over is an extreme step to take!

I ran Windows 10 for years before I finally had enough baggage where I decided to start fresh with Windows 11 last year. I'll run these machines the same way. Unless you run a very basic setup with no significant applications, starting from scratch is a time consuming endeavor. Getting every tweak and setting back to how you like it adds to the fun!

Whoever that was, I'd stop listening to him.

Cyrax said:

It's just that someone told me once that I should do a factory reset twice a year to eliminate any viruses and improve the overall performance of my laptop in general.

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As Colonel Potter once said in an episode of M*A*S*H ... Horse hocky!!! That may have been (arguably!!) somewhat relevant for earlier Windows, it's old school thinking and totally unnecessary and unjustified for recent versions (W10/11 especially)

The old adage .. if it ain't broke, don't try and fix it

From personal experience I have no confidence in any of the 3 Rs options - Repair, Recovery or Restore. Running these is often meat-and-drink for forums like this

Coupla options for protection against this type of thing
- regular backups of personal data
- regular imaging of a working system (Macrium Reflect, AOMEI Backupper, Hasleo all do freebies). Keep multiple editions of each image (I alternate Macrium and AOMEI and always keep the last 5 of image files of each)
- periodically run system "cleaning" options - built-in Windows Disk Cleanup (both standard and system cleanup options), and freeware versions of Wise Disk Cleaner and/or Glary Utilities (but NONE of the snake-oil registry cleaners)

^^^^
Ditto
and ditto.

Back in the day with Windows 98 and a mechanical drive, I would do a reinstall every 6 months (anyone remember the Windows 98SE CD in tandem with a boot floppy and once Windows was installed, using a driver CD?

Different times. I now use a 14" Lenovo Yoga i7 notebook everyday for business. Going on 5 years with the original setup. Snappy as it was on day one. I do not install garbage like registry cleaners, 3rd party optimizers and the like. I also don't monkey around with 3rd party AV programs.

Keep it clean and things don't go wrong.

I want to thank you all for the advice. It has helped me greatly! Thank you all so much!

steveg said:

How about when you manually resize it on desktop, close, reopen? Does it stick then?

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Sometimes it does. I'll keep an eye on it though.