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How to create a custom refresh image in Windows 8


Steve

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Windows 8 has a couple of new options: -

 

Refresh your PC - This will reset Windows 8 back to a fresh installation, but all of your files will remain intact.

Reset your PC - This will reset Windows 8 back to a fresh installation, but everything else will be gone.

 

Both pretty useful, but the problem with the Refresh option is that you then have to reinstall all of your software. There is a solution to that, however, as you can create a custom refresh image very easily, which includes all of the software you have installed.

 

1. First make sure you've got everything installed and customised to your liking.

 

2. Create the custom refresh image.

 

First, open an elevated command prompt. To do this, make sure you're logged in as an administrator, then move your mouse to the bottom-left corner of the screen and right-click. A menu will appear. Choose "Command Prompt (Admin)" from the list and the command prompt will open.

 

In the command prompt screen, type the following commands, pressing Enter after each one: -

 

mkdir C:\RefreshImage

recimg -CreateImage C:\RefreshImage

 

Then sit back and let Windows do its thing. Don't worry if the progress bar looks like it's stuck. Once the process is complete, you're done.

 

3. Create a recovery drive.

 

To do this, go to the main Metro screen and type "recovery". Click on Settings and you'll see "Create a recovery drive" so click on that. From here, you can now make a recovery drive on a USB stick. The stick has to be at least 256 MB in size. If you want to copy the entire recovery image to the stick, obviously it has to be much larger in size. Copying the entire recovery image to the USB stick means that if your hard drive was to die, you could recover your system on a new drive. Whichever option you choose, create the USB stick and keep it safe.

 

4. Refreshing your PC if necessary.

 

Set your computer to boot from USB in the BIOS. Connect your USB recovery drive and boot up your computer. When the menu appears, choose the "Refresh your PC" option. Your PC will then be refreshed using your custom image.

 

Job done.

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