You can download the recovery image for your Surface Laptop to restore the default settings when your device isn’t working correctly or you’re ready to sell it.
Microsoft finally made the traditional clamshell laptop that everyone wanted. However, even though, it’s perhaps one of the best Windows 10 laptops you can buy, the time will come when you’ll need to restore the device’s default settings, because of system failure, performance issues, or just because you want sell the laptop.
Of course, you can always use the reset feature built into Windows 10 S, but if your Surface Laptop won’t start, things aren’t working the way they should, or you upgraded to Windows 10 Pro and you’re trying to go back to Windows 10 S, you’ll need to use the recovery image to reset and repair the device.
If you ever need to reset your Surface Laptop, Microsoft has updated its support site to make available the recovery image for every member of the Surface family, including Surface Laptop, Surface Book, Surface Book with Performance Base, Surface Pro (2017), Surface Pro 4, Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 2, Surface 3, and older devices.
In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to download the Surface Laptop recovery image from Microsoft.
How to download Surface Laptop recovery image
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Head over to the Microsoft support page, sign-in with your Microsoft Account, and you’ll need to register your Surface Laptop if you haven’t done it already. If you have already registered your laptop, it will appear in the list. Simply select it and click Continue.
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The link to download the recovery image for your Surface Laptop will appear, click Download to get the image. It’s important that you don’t save it directly into a USB flash drive, you need to save it to your Surface Laptop or another PC.
Surface recovery image download -
On “Step 3”, the support page will provide all the instructions you need to follow to create a Recovery Drive. The process involves connecting a USB drive, formatting it to FAT32, and copy all the unzip files into the drive.
Create Surface recovery drive instructions
After you’ve completed the process, you can use the Recovery Drive with the recovery image to recover your Surface Laptop to the default factory settings, or to refresh your laptop without losing your files and programs. Microsoft has documented the instructions to recover your Surface using a USB recovery drive.
Alongside the recovery image, Microsoft is also making available the Surface Laptop drivers and firmware in case you need to install them manually.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].