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Are you starting the new year with a new PC? What are you going to do with the computer it's replacing?
You might be planning to hand down the old device to a family member or reassign it to another employee in your small business. Perhaps you'll donate it to a local charity, put it up for sale, or take advantage of an offer to trade in the old device.
Before you do any of those things, your top three priorities should be migrating your apps and files to your new device, expunging your personal data from the old PC, and resetting the operating system on the device you plan to recycle, so the new owner can be productive right away. As with all things Windows, there are multiple ways to accomplish these goals.
Also: How to upgrade your 'incompatible' Windows 10 PC to Windows 11 now - for free
In this post, I'll outline your options, along with some thoughts on when to choose each one. (Spoiler: The most important question is who you're planning to give the PC to.)
But first, a few things you should do to get that old PC ready.
Step 1: Migrate your apps and files
Your new PC comes with a squeaky-clean installation of Windows. Before you can get any serious work accomplished, you need to install the apps you use regularly. You can use this opportunity to weed out old apps you no longer use, or you can simply transfer everything and sort through it later.
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