Windows 8 gets reset, refresh functionality

recovery partitions, similar to functionality built in to most smartphones, tablets and other appliances, AnandTech reports.

These recovery options can be accessed either through the Control Panel, through the pre-boot Windows Recovery Environment, or through a bootable USB drive created using a special tool, depending on the system's state of disrepair.

The Reset option allows users to completely wipe their programs and data off of the computer and start from a fresh Windows install. Microsoft gives users both "quick" and "thorough" options for resetting their PCs - the latter will wipe the drive more securely by writing random data to each sector, an option currently available only through third-party utilities.

The Windows 8 beta will include a new “Thorough” option to help insure that personal data that a user removes is difficult to recover, ZDNet notes.

The new option “will write random patterns to every sector of the drive, overwriting any existing data visible to the operating system”, Lee said, so that it will be tougher for those without “special equipment that is prohibitively expensive for most people” to recover it.

But features like this are not going to draw many average consumers who were considering trading their five-year-old Windows laptop in for an iPad, The San Francisco Chronicle comments.

That's what Microsoft has to do with Windows 8 to be successful.