Can I undo a refresh on windows 8, I have no restore points but would like to go back 24hours?

Anonymous

I've recently got a new computer with Windows 8, I was having trouble with it and decided to refresh to clean up all the bits and pieces I'd added to start again. The windows office package was installed recently by partner before he went away as he bought two licences and it has now gone.

Can I undo the refresh in any way? I have tried and tried but it seems there were no restore points. Very grateful for any advice as have just managed to get some work for first time this year and need word, excel etc.

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Anonymous

@Shawn yes make the users wrong for not understanding Windows 8's arcane messages. Microsoft can do no wrong (sarcasm.)

Raul Freitas

tech wizard

(not a Microsoft apologist)

For the record Windows 8 is worse than both Vista and ME.

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Anonymous

No restore points = no going back. I don't think that you can go back anyway, certainly there is no easy way.

Your other stuff will have to be re-installed..

If you are going to need Refresh in the future, make a CUSTOM Refresh image that better reflects what is installed and running. The new image is not perfect but better than the default Refresh..

http://www.howtogeek.com/108944/how-to-create-a-custom-refresh-image-in-windows-8/

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110 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-12-13T13:29:10+00:00

I reinstalled my printer software this morning. The internet crashed right smack in the middle of the install, of course. Funny thing happened after the refresh. When I bought this desktop it came with a 60 day free trial of Norton Anti-virus already installed. When I logged on to find it "refreshed" it automatically had the 60 day free Norton trial on there again. HA! I usually use AVG's free version and the free Spybot Search and Destroy, but I am using the free 60 day Norton again just because. lol I hope you can get everything back to where you where. Good luck, and thanks for the advice. I like Windows 8.1 for the 24 hours I had it before the refresh. Actually I did not really notice much difference from the 8.0. Whenever I have another free hour I guess I will upgrade again. I still think that Windows 8.1 might be on that recovery drive, but I cannot figure out how to view what is on there.
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Anonymous

2013-12-12T18:48:37+00:00

I have had nothing but grief since I used refresh w/o back up. I have not installed 8.1 because I still haven't got back to where I want to be after refresh. I'm going to create a back up before doing that anyway. I have had to buy a replacement disk for Office. I've had to re-install my printer. I had to re-install my security program & much more. From what I've read you can't recover anything you installed after factory settings. That is probably all that is on recovery drive.
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Anonymous

2013-12-12T14:45:25+00:00

I think my BF did the system refresh yesterday. I logged on this AM to find my desktop looking like it did when we first purchased it. I have a question. I did not have my files backed up on "d" recovery drive, but I see now that there is a lot less space on "d" recovery drive. Can you tell me what is on there now? This would have likely happened during whatever my BF did yesterday. He cannot tell me exactly what he did, but he says he though he was refreshing the computer. What is now on the recovery drive? How can I look at the files? Of course no restore points. Oh, 2 days ago I upgraded to Windows 8.1, but when I look at system properties now it says Windows 8. So does that mean 8.1 is gone? Thanks for any information!
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