Safely dispose of your computer (Windows)

All kinds of personal data and files can be found on a computer. If you dispose of a computer without additional measures, that data will be easily accessible to the next owner. That’s not wise. Are you getting rid of the PC? Delete your personal information from the computer.

Deleting files via the Recycle Bin is not enough to prevent this. With free recovery software, files are easy to recover. This is because Windows doesn’t actually delete files, but marks the disk space that a file occupies as free space. If that disk space is not subsequently overwritten by another file, recovery is usually still possible. Just installing an arbitrary program as a solution does not work either: after all, you do not know exactly where on the hard disk the new software will be placed.

In this article, we are preparing a Windows computer to give away or sell. We assume that you have backed up your mail, photos and other information that you want to transfer to a new computer.

The actions are performed in a fixed order. First, disable Windows System Restore. This makes it impossible for the next user to restore a previous situation on the computer and get started with your data. Then remove all programs that are not intended for the next user. Old restore points are deleted.

We will then create a new computer user. We do this for the following reason: When you use your computer, log on to Windows as a computer user. Almost all documents, mail and other personal matters are stored in a personal folder of this user. From the newly created user, we delete the current computer user(s), along with their personal files and settings.

The computer is now bare and usable for the new owner. Information can only be retrieved with great difficulty.

The first step is to disable System Restore. System Restore is a kind of time machine with which the computer can be restored to an earlier situation. We disable this option to prevent the new owner from using it.

• Click the magnifying glass icon in the taskbar.
• Type ‘Control Panel’.
• click on Control Panel.
• click on System and Security (if you don’t see this, first click at the top right behind ‘View on’ on Category).
• click on System.
• click on Advanced System Settings.
• Click on the tab System Security > Configure.
• click on Disable System Protection.

• click on OK.
• Confirm the warning with Yes.
• click on OK.

Now remove programs from the computer that you do not want the new owner to use.

• Click the Start button.
• click on Institutions (the gear icon).
• click on apps > Apps & Features.
• A list of all installed apps (programs) appears on the screen. In Windows 10, click the program you want to remove. In Windows 11, click the icon with the three dots behind the program.
• click on remove > remove.

Due to rights and licenses, it is recommended that you uninstall all programs that you have paid for.

Remove temporary files from, for example, Chrome and other programs with the Windows ‘Disk Cleanup’ program:

• Click the magnifying glass icon in the taskbar.
• Type ‘Control Panel’.
• click on Control Panel.
• click on System and Security (if you don’t see this, first click at the top right behind ‘View on’ on Category).
• Click at the bottom at the bottom Free up disk space.
• Optionally, select the disk you want to clean. Usually that is C.
• click on OK.
• Check the boxes for the files you want to delete.
• click on OK > Delete files.

Easily remove old restore points from the computer.

• Click on the magnifying glass icon in the taskbar.
• Type ‘Control Panel’.
• click on Control Panel.
• click on System and Security > System (if you don’t see this, first click at the top right behind ‘View on’ on Category).
• click on System Security.
• Select the drive you want to clean up and under ‘Security Settings’ click Configure.
• Under ‘Disk space usage’, click remove.

• click on Get on > Close > OK.

Now create a new user for the future computer owner. From this new user you remove the computer users still present (and their settings and files).

• Click the Start button.
• click on Institutions (the gear icon).
• click on Accounts.
• click on family and aother users.
  
• In Windows 10, click Add someone else to this PC. In Windows 11, click behind ‘Add another user’ on Add Account.
• click on I do not have this person’s login details.
• Click at the bottom Add user without a Microsoft account.
• Enter a name for the new user, for example computers.
• click on Enter password and type a password.
• click on Re-enter passwordn and retype the password.
• Select three security questions and type the answers.
• Are you giving away the PC? Then write down the password and the security questions with answers. The next user can then log in to the PC and adjust the data.
• Click Next one.
• You are returned to the ‘Settings’ menu. Click on the name of the new account at the bottom of the screen.
• Click on ‘Change account type’ on Standard user.
• click on Administrator.
• click on OK.
• Restart the computer.

Once Windows starts, you will see the new user you created. Log in to the account and then delete the other users and all associated files.

• Click the Start button.
• click on Institutions (the gear icon).
• click on Accounts.
• click on Family and other users.
• A list of users will now appear. You can remove all of those. Click on the name and choose remove.
• click on Delete account and data or remove.
• Repeat for all user accounts you want to delete.

With the steps described, you can safely prepare the computer for sale or to give away in a user-friendly way. This is the most convenient and fastest way to prepare the computer for a new user, without your own data being accessible.

This article focuses on computer reuse. If you want to dispose of the computer at a collection point and want to prevent anything from being traceable again, it is best to remove the hard drive from the computer and destroy it with a hammer. This is the only way to really be sure that the data can never be recovered. Removing the hard drive from a PC can usually be done with one screwdriver. View in this movie on YouTube how to do that.