Question about Reinstall - "Keep everything"

I am having some odd security behavior on one of four computers and am considering a dirty (that is, not a "clean") reinstall of Windows using the "Keep everything" option of a "Reinstall Windows 11 using installation media". But I don't really know what that does. I assume it keeps 3rd party AppData stuff, 3rd party ProgData stuff, and 3rd party registry records in addition to all installed programs. Are Settings values considered "User data" and left unchanged, or are they reset? What things in the registry are changed? (General information - I'm not asking for a list of all registry records changed. ) What about GPO stuff - are current settings maintained?)

One or more of these links may be useful:

I presume that you mean a repair install (aka upgrade in place, which is an upgrade installation using the same build as is present).

It preserves files, settings, and programs. (I don't know about GPOs.) It's possible that some programs might need to be re-installed, but I've not seen that recently.

I wonder sort of "odd security behavior" you are experiencing? A repair install isn't done to get rid of malware.

Here is the short version of the In-place upgrade tutorial...

DISABLE non-Microsoft:
a) antivirus software
b) firewall software
c) drive encryption software


Make a full OS backup with a program like Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Backupper Standard
Making a backup is optional, but always a smart move.
Macrium Reflect
AOMEI Backupper Standard (free)


Get the Windows 11 ISO (Option #2), and save it to your desktop...


Right click the ISO image and choose: MOUNT
Open File Explorer and you will see a new drive letter. It will "look" like a DVD optical drive.
Double click the new drive letter to open it.
Find setup.exe and double click it to start the in-place upgrade.

Choose the Keep personal files and apps option.

After it's all done... to UNmount the ISO image, right click the new drive letter and choose: EJECT.

The ONLY thing you will lose is some of your personalizations.
Your drivers, programs and data will be intact.

@zbook : Unfortunately those are more drastic than I want (at least for now). "Reset" - the least drastic of those keeps data but none of the installed programs. I have over 80 programs I'd have to reinstall and customized (although I assume some of the customization would be in that kept data.)

The process I'm asking about is like an upgrade in place except it's "upgrading" to the same system. And I guess that answers some of my questions. It probably keeps as much as a "keep everything" upgrade keeps. But I don't know what that means. Yes, I've gone through at lease six - probably closer to ten - in-place upgrades on each of my computers, but I never paid a lot of attention what I had to re-customize.

@Ghot: As I was posting this I realized this was just the upgrade in place. I probably will just try it and see what happens. BTW, I've never noticed that antivirus software got in the way of an upgrade in place.

@bobkn: The security problem I'm having is not a malware thing. I'm getting an "Open File - Security warning" popup on one of my computers when editing or executing batch files residing on a NAS. This is not happening on 3 of my computers and did not happen on the 4th until a couple months ago. I figure made some unintentional change to some setting somewhere and haven't found how to undo it. I discuss that problem here. It's a minor enough problem that I'm not willing to do a clean install.

Update: Corrected bad link.

pokeefe0001 said:

but I never paid a lot of attention what I had to re-customize.

Click to expand...

Not much. You'll lose a few personalizations, possibly.
For example... I keep File Explorer like this. But after an In-Place Upgrade, it puts all those pinned folders back, on the left side.
I just have to right click and choose... unpin.





Whenever I install Windows, I keep a folder on a storage drive, with all my "tweaks" for that version of Windows.
Then, if I ever have to redo things... all my tweaks are right in that folder.


There's also, this...

pokeefe0001 said:

(snip)

@bobkn: The security problem I'm having is not a malware thing. I'm getting an "Open File - Security warning" popup on one of my computers when editing or executing batch files residing on a NAS. This is not happening on 3 of my computers and did not happen on the 4th until a couple months ago. I figure made some unintentional change to some setting somewhere and haven't found how to undo it. I discuss that problem here. It's a minor enough problem that I'm not willing to do a clean install.

Click to expand...

I've never gotten that. But a Web search gives many hits. Here's one: Redirecting

bobkn said:

I've never gotten that. But a Web search gives many hits. Here's one: Redirecting

Click to expand...

I've looked at many of those hits on the web. I have not followed the advice because

1. the suggestions applied to security settings of the files or files system and would thus relate to all computers accessing the files (which is not true in my case),
   or
2. the suggestion was to make a change to the problematic computer that was not needed on the other three computers.

I'm reluctant to make the change (except maybe as a test) in the posting you linked to because making that change is not needed on the other computers, and because it disables what could be a useful protection. The change almost certainly will prevent that nag popup, but there must be something different on this one computer that triggers the function. There is something on this one computer that makes Windows think my intranet is as dangerous as the internet.

Update: I tested the change suggested in that change. It didn't help.

Sorry that it didn't help.

I wonder whether there's something particular to using NAS? I don't have one.

bobkn said:

I wonder whether there's something particular to using NAS? I don't have one.

Click to expand...

If there is something peculiar, it effects only one out of four computers, and it became peculiar just a couple months ago.

Well, I did the in-place reinstall. I lost many (but surprisingly, not all) of my non-standard default application file associations. It did not reset my Group Policy objects.

It also did not fix my problem. I'm not willing to do a clean reinstall now so I'm going to put this on the back burner for now.