Both features are great, the problem with these features are that desktop applications like iTunes, Chrome, Photoshop or websites are not kept. This translate and many unnecessary hours reinstalling and reconfiguring those applications you use everyday. To mitigate this issue, Windows 8 includes a new command utility called Recimg.exe, that will help you to create a custom Windows 8 Refresh Point (or recovery image) which may include special Windows settings, desktop applications and more. Even though this is done through a command line utility, it is not something difficult to do, using Recimg you’ll only need to point to a target location to save the Windows Installer Image (WIN) image format and configure custom Refresh your PC image a default & active.

Steps to create a custom Refresh Point in Windows 8

  1. In the Start Screen type cmd, right-click and select Run as administrator.
  2. In Windows Command Prompt type the following and press Enter:

The “C:\Custom_Image_Refresh” in the command is just the path to where I want to store the recovery image — you can add your own location and folder name –, and as you might have guessed the /createimage is a switch from recimg that is use to create a custom Windows 8 Refresh image. It’s also important to note that the /createimage switch will also set this new custom recovery image as the new default & active. You can always keep more than one Refresh Point image, but if you want to use one of them, you’ll need to manually set it as default & active. To configure a custom Refresh Point as default & active you have to open the Command Prompt as administrator and type the following:

Remember to replace the “C:\Custom_Image_Refresh” with the path to where you have saved the custom image. If for any reason Windows doesn’t find the custom recovery image in the specified location, Windows will fall back to the default image (or installation media) when you refresh your PC. What you’ve done so far is to create and configure a default custom Refresh your PC image. Now when it comes the time and you need to refresh your PC:

  1. Move the mouse pointer to the top-right or bottom-right of the screen and from the Charms, click or tap Settings and then click on Change PC settings.
  2. From PC settings, click on General and on Refresh your PC without affecting your files, click on Get started.
  3. Finally, click Next, Refresh and wait for Windows 8 to finish. The good thing about this process is that you can always go back and use Microsoft’s Windows 8 default to Refresh your PC image, you can do this by using the Recimg.exe utility with the /deregister switch. And to check which custom image is current you can use the /showcurrent switch. All content on this site is provided with no warranties, express or implied. Use any information at your own risk. Always backup of your device and files before making any changes. Privacy policy info.