So, the Microsoft Store decided to stop working on my laptop. Queue annoyance. Queue searching for answers, and getting a lot of common questions about it but no real solutions. Try a number of different things, no joy. Next, the SnipIt tool stopped working, which I needed to get an image off a PDF so I could do some redaction… argh. Not fun times.
Resetting the Windows 11 OS
Well, it seems like a reset should fix it. So lets go down that rabbit hole. Should be able to do a reset and just keep the personal files on the system. Try a few times and… yes, that’s right, it kept failing. Rant. Rave. /Rave and /Rant. End up having to explain to Tash what /Rant meant. Finally decide that it will have to be a full reset. So, copy off all the relevant data onto the NAS, and go from there. Wait for data transfer…..
Finally got the data transferred, and did the Windows 11 reset. It’s a bit unexpected where you are supposed to click on to get it to work, but it looks like I got it done anyway.
Microsoft Store
Well. Please work. Umm, why are you still showing me the same error that I had before, saying that I needed to install an app to run the store link? This is stupid! Finally, figured out that it can be installed from the XBox app. Which I didn’t think I really wanted. But apparently I do, according to “this is the way that you want to work today” mentality from Microsoft. sigh. Microsoft Store finally installed, and I can get to doing some work.
Where has my space gone?
Why is my Explorer window showing I’ve used > 450GB of data on my drive? I was expecting that I would have lost all my personal data on the drive, just like the reset function said I would?
I used to have WinDirStat on the computer to be able to see this. Since that’s a bit old and slow, I saw that there is a newer tool called WizTree. Might as well try that. Get the portable version, add that to the system, run. Well, within a few seconds it is actually showing the directory tree, file types and a graphical representation of lots of directories. And, what’s this? A $SysReset folder which contains and OldOS folder with … all the personal files outside of the Windows.Old folder?! So that is where all my space has gone! Maybe I won’t have to “retrieve” the backup that I made before resetting and can just copy things from there. Sounds like a plan to me!