A reader recently did a refresh of her Windows 10 PC. While you can keep personal files like documents and folders, all apps that are not part of the Windows operating system will be removed and need to be reinstalled.
She was curious to know which apps needed to be reinstalled. She writes: “These are the apps that were removed when I reset my windows 10 as instructed,could you tell me what I have to have from this list? I have installed my virus and a few of the others but not a lot of them.”
Apps removed while refreshing your PC:
App name Publisher Version
7-Zip 15.14 (x64 edition) Igor Pavlov 15.14.00.0
Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Adobe Systems Incorporated 15.010.20060
Adobe Flash Player 21 NPAPI Adobe Systems Incorporated 21.0.0.182
AMD Install Manager Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. 5.00
AMD Quick Stream AppEx Networks 4.0.0.0
Avast Free Antivirus AVAST Software 11.1.2253
Bonjour Apple Inc. 3.0.0.10
Canon MX320 series MP Drivers
Citrix Online Launcher Citrix 1.0.258
Coupon Printer for Windows Coupons.com Incorporated 5.0.1.7
CyberLink LabelPrint CyberLink Corp. 2.5.5.6805
CyberLink Media Suite 10 CyberLink Corp. 10.0.5.3103
CyberLink Power2Go 8 CyberLink Corp. 8.0.5.3215
CyberLink PowerDVD 12 CyberLink Corp. 12.0.2.3212
Energy Star Hewlett-Packard Company 1.0.9
Google Chrome Google Inc. 49.0.2623.87
HP Documentation Hewlett-Packard 1.1.0.0
HP Registration Service Hewlett-Packard 1.2.7127.4628
HP SimplePass Hewlett-Packard 8.00.51
HP Support Assistant Hewlett-Packard Company 8.2.8.25
HP Support Solutions Framework Hewlett-Packard Company 12.2.8.17
Microsoft Office Microsoft Corporation 15.0.4454.1510
Microsoft Silverlight Microsoft Corporation 5.1.41212.0
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition [ENU] Microsoft Corporation 3.1.0000
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Microsoft Corporation 8.0.61001
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable (x64) Microsoft Corporation 8.0.56336
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable (x64) Microsoft Corporation 8.0.61000
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable – x64 9.0.30729.17 Microsoft Corporation 9.0.30729
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable – x64 9.0.30729.6161 Microsoft Corporation 9.0.30729.6161
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable – x86 9.0.30729.17 Microsoft Corporation 9.0.30729
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable – x86 9.0.30729.4148 Microsoft Corporation 9.0.30729.4148
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable – x86 9.0.30729.6161 Microsoft Corporation 9.0.30729.6161
Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x64 Redistributable – 10.0.40219 Microsoft Corporation 10.0.40219
Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x86 Redistributable – 10.0.40219 Microsoft Corporation 10.0.40219
Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (x64) – 11.0.50727 Microsoft Corporation 11.0.50727.1
Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (x64) – 11.0.61030 Microsoft Corporation 11.0.61030.0
Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (x86) – 11.0.50727 Microsoft Corporation 11.0.50727.1
Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (x86) – 11.0.61030 Microsoft Corporation 11.0.61030.0
Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x64) – 12.0.30501 Microsoft Corporation 12.0.30501.0
Picasa 3 Google, Inc. 3.9.140.248
Pinger Pinger Inc. 1.1.1.2
PlaysTV Plays.tv, LLC 1.8.11-r110387-release
QuickTime 7 Apple Inc. 7.79.80.95
Raptr Raptr, Inc 5.0.3-r110001-release
Realtek Card Reader Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 6.2.9200.30164
WildTangent Games WildTangent 1.0.4.0
Windows Live Essentials Microsoft Corporation 16.4.3528.0331
That’s a heck of a list! I agree that reinstalling your security software is a great first move. Let’s look over the list. If you use a card reader, I’d probably suggest reinstalling the software for the Realtek card reader and drivers for other devices that you use. You’ll probably want Adobe Reader for PDFs. Adobe Flash may be needed for some websites, but it can be a security risk. You could just wait until a website asks for it to download. You may want to consider Windows Live Essentials, which has Movie Maker, Live Mail and other programs. But the support life is ending for these programs, so it might be time to consider an alternative.
Other than that, you can probably just wait until you miss something. Most PCs come overloaded with bloatware that tends to slow things down. In fact, if you’ve purchased a new Windows 10 PC, I suggest doing a factory reset as soon as you get it home to remove all of the extra stuff. Click here to learn more about doing a refresh.
~ Cynthia
Hey Cynthia,
Something may have changed that (I) may not be aware of but (I) have always retained all Microsoft Visual C++ per the following: http://www.worldstart.com/can-i-remove-the-multiple-visual-c-entires-in-addremove-programs/
“Adobe Flash may be needed for some websites, but it can be a security risk. You could just wait until a website asks for it to download.”
Shouldn’t you clarify that the program should be taken from the creator’s website and not from clicking on a suggestion on the page requiring it? We don’t want folks to become infected because of wording, do we?