If you currently have a running Windows 11 machine and you want to initiate a reset, or a full installation using the "Cloud" download option, you can follow these Windows settings.
Open Settings
Go to System
Click on Recovery
On the recovery screen, select Reset PC
Choose between Keep my files or Remove everything
Now you can select Cloud download [from Microsoft] or a Local reinstallation from your disk drive
If you select Cloud download, this will use Windows Update to download the fresh Windows files
The SSD in my Tower PC that is allocated to Windows has a usable capacity of 111 Gigabytes of which 47% is free.
The PC is wired by ethernet to an extension access point that is in turn wired directly to the router.
Using the fast.com speed-test site I regularly [as @ Nov 2022] get download speeds of around 1.10Gbps to 1.20Gbps when running the Chrome browser under chromeOS Flex - under the new installation of Windows 11 this figure is slightly reduced to around 950Mbps to 1.04Gbps - but the test was taken mid afternoon which is probably a relatively 'busy' period.
Had issues with Windows being unable to properly remove a couple of free EaseUs programs following attempts to blitz a Kingston USB drive that was not being properly detected and unable to format / initialise.
On screen messages lead though a number of different phases so decided to log approximate times of each activity.
Progress jumps to 30% almost immediately, followed by a number of small percentage increments over the first minute until it reaches 76%
After 2 or 3 minutes it reached 96% then 100% - from here it takes a further 5 minutes to complete this phase then moves on to …
Resetting this PC
Moved quickly through to 99% and went into restart
14:15 moved up to 70%
14:16 Reboot
Preparing installation 9%
Screen blanked
Installing 24% - then 48%
Screen blanked
14:19 Reboot
Automatic restart followed by “Welcome” screen showing 84% complete
Set Up screens
Selected “UK” country and keyboard
Error / Update Check ? - Problem reported to Microsoft - another restart followed
Accepted terms of licence agreement and allocate device name as ”WinTower”
Message output saying “Just a minute” followed by a mini-reboot
Restarted the PC and desktop loaded up o.k.
To keep things as 'simple' as possible downloaded Chrome & CCleaner only - Chrome sync'd fine and ran CCleaner which tidied up a bit.
I'll just let basic Windows and Defender do their job and in a worst case scenario I can always download everything from the Cloud again.
Checked under ‘Settings’ for any outstanding Windows updates and there were some available as per first Cloud install below.
Went into Settings and created a restore point named "Cloud + Chrome + CCleaner"
Add / Remove Programs : Checked that the EaseUs stuff was not there then removed Microsoft One Drive and a couple of other M/S programs.
Checked Windows Update again and there were a couple more downloads available - applied them.
16:15 Took anther restore point called "CCC-Plus"
9:37am : Started with a warning message output saying to expect a number of automatic restarts and took the option to do a complete installation as opposed to a smaller one where user files are retained throughout the process.
On screen messages lead though a number of different phases so decided to log approximate times of each activity.
Progress jumps to 30% almost immediately, followed by a number of small percentage increments over the first minute until it reaches 76%
After 2 or 3 minutes it reached 96% then 100% - from here it takes a further 5 minutes to complete this phase then moves on to …
Resetting this PC
Moves slowly up to 14%
At about 9:53 though 9:54 it skips through 24% to 32%
At about 9:55 moves on to 39% to 40%
At about 10:04 it quickly goes through 52% and 62% to reach 75%
At about 10:05 it reaches 99%
Quickly moves through 9% to 24%
Automatic restart followed by “Welcome” screen showing 84% complete
10:10am : Set Up screen
Selected “UK” country and keyboard
10:11am Update Check ? - Problem reported to Microsoft - another restart followed
Accepted terms of licence agreement and allocate device name as ”TowerWin”
10:12am : Message output saying “Just a minute” followed at 10:19am by a mini-reboot
N.B. At this point the ‘refresh’ phases may have actually finished but there was nothing to indicate a successful conclusion.
10:24am : Another message output saying “Just a minute” followed by a mini-reboot
10:29am : Another message output saying “Just a minute” followed by a mini-reboot
10:39am : Another message output saying “Just a minute” followed by a mini-reboot
10:45am : Another message output saying “Just a minute” followed by a mini-reboot
10:50am : Another message output saying “Just a minute” followed by a mini-reboot
10:55am : Another message output saying “Just a minute” followed by a mini-reboot
Googled the above message to see if it is a known problem - and it is. Some reports say it can take 45 minutes to an hour to complete [what can be happening ?] others actually say that on older equipment it can take 4 to 5 hours - unbelievable !
Anyway, enough is enough.
Decided to force closure by holding down the power button on the PC for several seconds and eventually it went off.
11:30am : Restarted the PC to find what looked more a more normal Windows installation screen and completed all of the usual bits until I eventually arrived at what you could call a working desktop.
Made a decision that I would keep this installation as 'simple' as possible and avoid installing things that I've done out of habit in the past like Ccleaner, Drivers downloaders and other 3rd party stuff. I'll just let basic Windows and Defender do their job and in a worst case scenario I can always download everything from the cloud again.
I decided [as a precaution] to check under ‘Settings’ for any outstanding Windows updates and there were indeed 4 waiting to be done. Why this should be when I’d just finished the ‘cloud install’ directly from Microsoft’s site I don’t know - can only presume that these downloadable images are not kept bang up to date.
The updates comprised 2 x small, one cumulative for .NET 22H2 and finally ‘biggy’ cumulative for other 22H2 stuff.
The good news was the smaller ones updated in seconds, the middle one only took another minute or so, and finally the ‘biggy’ completed in another 5-10 minutes max.
This is a massive improvement on my previous ‘updates’ experiences so I’m left thinking that the previous Windows 11 installation on the SSD was in some way ‘deficient’ - fingers crossed something has gone right for a change to speed things up.
I will reserve judgement until subsequent updates arrive and are applied, hopefully quickly.
The 'refresh' seemed to be quite settled now so I installed the Chrome browser and synchronised everything with my Google Account so that I have access to all my 'data' and 'services' in the Cloud so this system can provide the basics of what I need for a 'standby' machine.