Remove everything and reinstall windows. What does it reinstall?

[Kelemvor]

So I have a brand new Asus laptop that came with Windows 8 (not 8.1). Of course it also cames with tons of crap that I don't want on there.

I see that there is an option called Remove everything and reinstall windows. I've seen conflicting information on exactly what this does so I'm hoping someone here can tell me for sure.

Does this:
1) Remove everything but then restore it to hwo it was out of the box which includes all the stuff installed by Asus at the factory
or
2) Remove everything and then just reinstall fresh Windows with nothing extra. No games, No apps, No McAfee junk, etc

If it's #2, that's awesome.

If it's #1, is there some other way to get a fresh install of Windows 8? I can pull the license key out of the system easy enough but don't know if there's an official place to download the normal install of Windows 8.

Thanks!

 

[JackMDS]

Maybe this can Help (read both before you decide what to do).

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/update-from-windows-8-tutorial

http://www.howtogeek.com/187525/how-to-perform-a-clean-install-of-windows-8.1-with-a-windows-8-key/

 

[JEDIYoda]

I just went through having one of my Dell Inspiron 23 need to complete wipe and reload.
Seems somebody used CC cleaner and deleted some major stuff.

Dell sent me out the OS disk and the driver disk.

After doing the complete reload procedure...all the bloatware was included om the OS disk with no option whether to load the bloatware or not load the bloatware.

I would say -- clean install is not exactly true.
It would be more like a clean install that includes all the companies bloatware that came with the original install!!

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

It restores back to the factory image. There is a process to replace the image that Windows uses with one of your own but I don't know about that process and am unwilling to look it up.

 

[JEDIYoda]

It restores back to the factory image. There is a process to replace the image that Windows uses with one of your own but I don't know about that process and am unwilling to look it up.

exactly and if the factory was an HP factory or a DELL factory it gets reloaded with the bloatware,,,lol

 

[lxskllr]

What I would do is image it in the as-shipped condition, remove the crapware by hand, add core programs/updates, remove any recovery partitions, then re-image the clean install. That way you get a factory image in case of resale, and a real image sensible people would want, while freeing up disk space. It doesn't take that long.

 

[Ketchup]

The last "new" Asus I ran into a situation like this on (this was a refurb Asus with 7, but after 8 was out) the removal of bloatware still took less time than a full OS reinstall would have taken.

 

[bluwing]

Hi,

I use IObit Uninstaller.. I does the removal and has powerful scan that goes into the registry to remove the rest. One thing is it may ask you if you want to reboot after the normal removal. Say No and the powerful scan will come up other wise you will not get the powerful scan.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I guess I would expect this with OEM laptops to an even greater degree than with the OEM desktop offerings.

Sounds as though I'm some sort of Luddite throwback, but for working with "micro-computers" (we used to call them that in the early '80s) for 30 years, I only acquired my first laptop last June. It was a 2007 Gateway executive model that had been refurbished by a surplus reseller -- say it was more like an "individual" who was speculating in this surplus hardware -- corporate IT surplus. He had installed a branded [Dell!!] OEM Win-7-64 on it.

I went through all the hoops and spent time evaluating everything from event logs to Device Manager. All the driver installs were kosher. But no "bloat-ware." Yet I've seen OEM desktops purchased through the usual OEM channels with all this CRAP they install, including their special "spyware" they use for "extended warranty maintenance."

How you "unhinge" and unload the CRAP, I'd have to see by exploring it firsthand. I feel sorry for my Mainstreamer friends, who in turn think they feel sorry for me (and my wallet) for building my own.

While I complain, I'll also complain about ISP's who want to make it "easier" for customers, who then download the ISP bloatware. Some years back, I discovered EarthLink's "Total Access" or whatever it was called was difficult to uninstall.

Pardon me for sounding off.

 

[Berryracer]

What model of ASUS laptop is it? I can find you a Windows 8.1 clean install guide