Cleaning a Windows 10 laptop

kah22

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I have a laptop computer I seldom use, 95 percent of the time my iPad does the work for me. Some of the reasons I don't use it more is that it stalls regularly, it's pretty slow, and the little pointer just takes notions and really wants to do it's own thing. I'm sure there is some malware or virus lurking there somewhere. But maybe I'm just been paranoid

Anyway I want to do an in depth clean up. I don't think a simple System Restore will do the job. I think it's got to be something like a factory reset, but I've never done this type of thing before

From what I've read it seems a relatively simple operation, but I think the operative word is ‘seems.’

There seems to be a two options available. A short factory restore where Windows will do a restore without affecting my documents, but everything else is removed. I can easily do a backup of important documents to my Dropbox Account. However, I'm wondering if this will get rid of any virus or malware that might be on the laptop ? Will it help speed up the machine ? Will do a good enough job?

As mentioned above I've had the laptop for sometime now but I've no idea where the original discs that came with the computer are. In fact I didn't set the system up it was my nephew. Can I do what seems to be best option a complete factory reset without these discs? I think that would be my preferred option.

The laptop is a Hewlett Packard. As always many thanks for your advice.

Kevin
 
Microsoft offers a Windows 10 installer download so you can create your own disks (or USB stick) these days:
Download Windows 10

I'd probably start with the reset option though, you can always reinstall from disc if that doesn't work.
 

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