Start with the Windows you have

Make one useful change to Windows, check your everyday work still runs, and keep a way back. This path begins with your existing installation. You can stay with Windows throughout.

The UI steps cover a personal Windows 11 Home or Pro computer on a release still receiving updates. Check your edition against Microsoft’s release table. If work or school manages the computer, ask its administrator to handle application removal and recovery preparation. These instructions have been checked against documentation; recovery on your particular device remains untested.

Record what you depend on

Open Start > Settings > System > About. Write down your Windows edition, version and OS build, processor, installed RAM and system type. Then open System > Storage and note the free space on the Windows drive. Microsoft documents these pages in Find information about your Windows device.

Keep a short setup note with your computer’s model, essential applications, where your working files live, and where their installers and licences can be recovered. Do not put passwords or recovery keys in a note you might share. Open Settings > Apps > Installed apps to help identify applications; it is also the documented uninstall page.

Choose a few real tasks to repeat after a change: open a work document, join a call, play sound and use your usual network connection. Record any existing fault so you can distinguish it from a new one. This is your own baseline, not a performance benchmark.

Recover a file before removing anything

Have an external backup drive with room for the files you need. If an existing backup system is working, recover a harmless sample through that system. For a built-in local option, use Microsoft’s File History procedure:

1. Connect the backup drive. Open Control Panel > System and Security > Save backup copies of your files with File History.
2. Choose Select drive if necessary, select the backup drive, then Turn on. Files outside the covered libraries need adding: right-click their folder and choose Show more options > Include in library.
3. After a backup completes, right-click a backed-up folder at its original location in File Explorer and select Restore previous versions. Choose a version, then Open > Open in File History to inspect it.
4. Use Restore > Restore to… and choose a separate test folder. Open the recovered sample and compare it with the original. Restoring directly over the original replaces it.

Success means you can open the recovered copy and account for every important working folder. An empty version list or a missing folder means the backup is not ready for cleanup. File History protects files; it does not provide a complete application or Windows rollback.

Make the encryption key reachable

Windows Home can use Device Encryption too. Check Settings > Privacy & security > Device encryption where available; Pro also has Manage BitLocker. Microsoft’s encryption guide explains the edition and hardware differences. Leave encryption enabled.

If the Windows drive is encrypted, follow Find your BitLocker recovery key from another device. Confirm you can access the stored key for this computer. At a recovery prompt, match its key ID to the saved record before entering the 48-digit key. If Pro’s BitLocker management is available, Manage BitLocker > Back up your recovery key offers additional backup choices.

Keep the key accessible away from the encrypted PC and out of screenshots or shared notes. If encryption is on but the key is unavailable, stop before changes that could require recovery.

Prepare a Windows recovery route

Search Start for Create a restore point. On System Protection, select the Windows drive. If protection is off, choose Configure > Turn on system protection, allocate disk space you can spare, and apply. Choose Create, give the point a recognizable name such as Before app cleanup, and wait for confirmation. These are Microsoft’s System Protection steps.

To check the point is listed without applying it, open Control Panel > Recovery > Open System Restore, select Next, inspect the available points, then Cancel. System Restore can reverse system and application changes; it does not recover personal files. A listed point is a preparation check, not proof that a restore will succeed.

Locate Settings > System > Recovery > Advanced startup. Its Restart now control opens the Windows Recovery Environment; save your work before using it. For a route that does not depend on Windows starting, complete Microsoft’s Recovery Drive instructions with a separate empty USB drive. Creation erases that USB and does not back up personal files. Keep its device-specific boot instructions with it. A completed drive still needs a planned boot check on your device; do not begin a reinstall as a test.

Choose your next task

Start with ordinary Windows cleanup to remove a known unwanted app or stop it opening at sign-in. Then use the power-user software inventory to choose tools for a job you actually do. For Stata and an editor workflow, continue to Stata with VS Code on Windows. Check each tool’s prerequisites and install only the ones you need.

Keep maintenance and recovery available for update routines and a failed change. The optional modified-Windows comparison is a separate branch with its own scope; completing this Windows path does not require it.

You are ready to proceed when the setup note is saved, a sample file has been recovered, any encryption key is accessible, and you know your recovery route. If a preparation step fails, resolve it before uninstalling software. If you also want Linux practice, prepare a learning environment independently of any migration.