IT guy here.
FRAT INSTRUCTABLE
I never do a factory reset, personally. I would actually do a clean install of Windows and then go from there.
Prepare for reinstall:
1. Make sure you have a copy of Windows handy. If you have it on a CD, great. If not, you'll have to get the ISO from somewhere and put it either on a CD or make a bootable flash drive. You can learn to make a bootable flash drive
here
2. Go to your manufacturer's website and download all of your applicable drivers, you'll need 'em after a fresh install of windows (l
ink here). You'll mainly want your network driver, but while you're there get the Graphics, Audio, and Mouse/Keyboard ones. Put them on a flash drive.
Note: if you see multiple options for drivers you
can just download them all to be safe. Later when you try to run them, the wrong one's will fail on install, thus preventing you from actually installing anything incorrectly. But if you want to be precise, you can go to your
Device Manager and look at what you have. For instance, If I got to my
network adapters, then I can see I have an
Intel network card and would want to get the Intel drivers.
Display Adapters will show you what graphics drivers to get, same with
Audio Inputs and Outputs and audio drivers
3. Next, make sure you grab your Windows key - assuming it's a legit copy
They're not easily accessible, so you can get it with a third party program like ProduKey (
link here), extract it and run it, and it will give you your license keys for Windows, MS Office, and some other things you might have a key for. You'd hate to reinstall windows and then find out you lost your key for a piece of software. If you have some licensed software that doesn't appear in this program, google how to get the key for that software.
4. Now, backup all of your data onto a external drive, flash drive, whatever you want.
Note: You
can backup your bookmarks and favorites in Chrome/IE/Firefox, if you need help with that, do a quick google, or hit me up.
Install Windows!
Here's a decent write up on how to reformat your computer and reinstall windows
Link here
After Windows Reinstalls!
1. install your drivers. Several times I've downloaded the wrong network drivers, and after the reinstall, had no way to access the internet anymore to get the right ones! So I had to go to a second PC and download the right ones on a flash drive. Don't be me. Be better than me
After all of your drivers are installed, go ahead and start downloading all of your favorite programs and software again. Also put all of your data back.
This will now be as smooth as it will ever run. If you continue to have performance issues, we can now assume you're experiencing a hardware issue. Which is a topic for another day.
If you have any questions, reach out to me via PM or just reply back here. Hope this helps put you down the right road!
@BrunoMcGyver is as well, maybe
@Ghost Bro
