




You won’t see your usual login page, anymore, but instead will see a “macOS Utilities” window.When the computer shuts off and powers back on, hold Command + R until you see the Apple logo. Restart in Recovery Mode: Click and choose Restart.Make sure your computer is plugged in for the duration of the reset.Make sure you’ve backed up all of your important data in a cloud service.That means you should probably consider hiring an expert to finish the data wiping-especially because the government has certain standards for data sanitation, depending on the field you work in. If you only ever really played games or finished school work on your computer, there’s probably little risk in using a factory reset as your primary form of data wiping.īut if you own a company and complete that work on a computer, you may have employees’ social security numbers on the hard drive, for example. This allows us to invoke the same Reset operation as from the Windows Repair menu.Context is still key. One of the easiest ways to reset your PC without a password is by issuing the Restart command while pressing the SHIFT key. However, what if you forgot your password? You can easily reset your PC to a default state using the Settings app when you are able to log on to Windows 10 or 11. Data erasure > Off only removes files.Note: The data erasure functionality targets consumers and does not meet government and industry data erasure standards. It can take some time (Microsoft mentions up to a couple of hours), but it makes it harder for other people to recover files you've removed. If you're planning to donate, recycle, or sell your PC, use this option. Data erasure > On removes files and cleans the drive.Remove everything > Change settings gives you two options: Removes personal files after Windows 11 reinstallĪpps installed by the PC manufacturer are removed
