How to Completely Reset Your MacBook, Windows Laptop, or Chromebook

Hard resetting your MacBook, Windows laptop, or Chromebook is an absolutely essential step before handing the machine over to someone else. Here’s how.

A hard reset can help an aging laptop run a little faster, but it’s absolutely essential to do it before you give the device away, resell it, or otherwise. Erase all apps, files, folders and personal information is not necessarily as easy as erasing the machine itself.

The general principle is always the same: back up important data, delete personal data, and perform a factory reset. In fact, the procedure differs depending on the type of machine.

Let’s start from the end

You may want to start by physically cleaning the machine. To do this, you will need a can of compressed air and some disinfectant wipes. You can also, if you want to go that far, unscrew the case to remove any dust that has accumulated on the fans and other openings.

After cleaning the machine, you can also clean the charger and its various accessories. Also make sure the charger is in good condition.

reset macbook

Before you consider doing an actual reset, you should back up your important data. You probably do it day in and day out, great, but if not, it might be time to plug in your hard drive and take a backup with Time Machine. If you have an iCloud account, you can back up your data there.

Disconnect from everywhere

Disable all your accounts before clearing your MacBook’s hard drive. iCloud, Find My, iMessage, and any individual software accounts you may have. If you are using a browser other than Safari, such as Chrome or Firefox, exit here. Wherever you are logged in, log out.

Two more things to do before running the reset: disable Bluetooth accessories and reset NVRAM – this is the memory that contains the settings that the MacBook needs before booting macOS. To do this, press and hold Option-Command-PR at startup.

Reset on Mac

If you have followed the previous steps, you are ready to erase everything. On an Intel Mac, restart your computer and press Command-R to enter Recovery Mode. On a MacBook with an M1 or M2 chip, things are different.

In recovery mode, you will see a window with macOS utilities. Use Disk Utility to erase the drive. After that, you can reinstall macOS. Then you will come to the Wizard. There you can turn off the machine and give it to someone or set it up for that person.

reset windows laptop

Start by backing up your important files. If you need an external drive, go to Settings > Update & Security > Backup > Add Drive and select your external drive. Then click “Back Up Now”.

Sign out of all your apps

Many paid apps require you to sign in with an account, product key, or something else. Before erasing a drive, disable all such applications and accounts as much as possible. If you need product keys to re-register on a new computer, make sure you have them. If you are using a browser other than Edge, such as Chrome or Firefox, log out.

Perform a reset on Windows

Go to Settings > System > Restore. At the top you will see “Reset this PC”. Click “Start”and select “Erase everything”. There you can choose to reinstall Windows from a local drive or boot from the cloud. Windows will then erase the entire drive. The machine will reboot and the wizard will appear. You can turn the machine off and give it away, or set it up for whoever it is for.

Disable your Microsoft account

If you used a Microsoft account to sign in, remove it from the machine. Sign in to your account from another computer and go to the “Devices”tab at the top of the page. Find the car you are going to donate and at the bottom of the list you will see the option to delete this device.

Reset Chromebook

Chromebooks are the easiest machines to give away. Because they are built for the cloud. Google also makes it very easy to wipe data and delete your Google account.

Check AUE first

Before you decide to donate your computer, check the expiration date of automatic updates. Google does not guarantee updates to Chrome OS and Chrome for a very long time. Each device has its own automatic updates expiration date, the AUE date. Current models are eligible for eight years. For some, it’s only a year or two.

Google maintains an official list. Find your device and you’ll have a date. Otherwise, you can find it in your Chromebook settings (About ChromeOS, then Learn more).

Reset your Chromebook

Powerwash is Chromebook’s own built-in reset tool. After backing up your important files, run Powerwash to wipe your entire system and reboot. When the machine is restarted, it is as good as new.

The Powerwash process takes less than a minute. Look for “powerwash”in your machine’s settings.

Remove your Chromebook from your Google account.

Although you have deleted your account on your Chromebook, you have not deleted your Chromebook from your account. Sign in with your Google account and go to security settings. If you’re using the Chrome browser, click on your account avatar and select “Google Account Management”from the drop-down menu.

In the Security section, scroll down to the Your Devices section. At the bottom of this window, click “Device Management”and find the desired Chromebook. Then select Disable. You can then gift a Chromebook to anyone.