Made Stupid Error

I have done something rather stupid with my PC. I have Reset it (Keeping my Files). It has made more drastic changes to my PC than I thought it would. I would like to know if there is anyway of undoing the reset. If there is I would like to know how I go about it.

 

Don't worry, just use your backup.

 

That is provided a backup exists. We have to assume that no backup was made so how does the OP recover his system?

 

I have to admit that I was stupid enough not to have made a back-up. I did copy all my photos, music, documents and other files on to an external hard drive because although it says a Reset will leave your files intact I did not trust it to. However, as far as I can tell it did leave them all intact. What it, of course, does is delete all apps. That does not bother me because the ones I used such as CCleaner, Glary Utilities, etc. were freeware and I can easily download them again. I pay for Microsoft Office 365 and can just go to my account and download that again on my PC. I also know what was deleted because it has produced a nice list for me! It has lost all the OEM software, most of which I am not bothered about. My PC is an HP one and it came with a combined photocopier/printer/scanner and all the software for operating that has gone and I am not sure what to do about that.

What I would like to do is roll things back to where they were yesterday before I was stupid enough to do the reset. The problems I was having I can then try to tackle them individually. When I bought the PC it came with what I think are called partitions. Drive C was the hard-drive where things got saved and there is also a Drive D, which is named "Recovery". Could that hold a solution to my current predicament? If it does how would I go about using it to sort out this mess I have created.

 

The recovery partition resets the system to its condition when new. Only an image can do what you want, and only then providing no significant change since the last image was created.

You should be able to download the printer software from HP.

 

Thank you for clarifying what the recovery partition will do. I ought to wear a pointed hat with a large letter 'D' on it when sat at a PC, so I'll ask what maybe a stupid question. Would the recovery partition set it back to the way it was new from HP together with the OEM software? Would it revert the PC back to Windows 7, which was the OS on it at the time of purchase? I don't want to go back to Windows 7; I want to keep Windows 10. I would just like to rollback to yesterday morning prior to acting so stupidly.

 

As I said, only an image can take you back to a previous state. Other than that you have two choices - use the recovery partition to go back to factory condition (Win 7) or clean reinstall Win 10 and install whatever software you want. If you choose recovery then yes, it goes back to Win 7 and you get all the HP preinstalled stuff back. If the printer software was pre-installed you should get that back too. Then you have the task of upgrading to Win 10 which you should be able to do without having to purchase it though best to wait until someone else can clarify the exact steps you will need to take. Or you can download Win 10 and reinstall from scratch. If you have been using a Microsoft account to login you will be recognised and activated automatically. Not sure what happens about activation if you have been using a local account but it will be possible. Both methods are going to require a considerable effort on your part so it would probably be better to try addressing whatever problems the system has as it is.

 

When you switch on your PC and Windows has loaded you are faced with a screen, which I think is called the Windows Welcome screen (it's what I'm going to call it for the rest of this post). On it are the user accounts and your PC. You click on your user account, enter your password and you're in. On that Windows Welcome screen, which you come back to after logging out of your account there was a button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. You could choose to restart or shut down and if updates are available you can update and restart/shut down. Since I Reset my PC that option is no longer there. Is that normal or has something gone wrong?

 

My laptop just shows the battery and network status icons. The PC just shows the network icon. Yours seems the same.

 

If you can see the items in the recovery partition, you may see a driver folder in there (mine had one,in my Lenova) That may give you other items that you can use - I often played with these folders in my laptop, to see what I could keep/re-use.