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Windows 10 – Toddler Deletes Everything with 6 Clicks

8 points by scolfax 10 years ago · 11 comments · 1 min read


OK, it's a click-bait title, but check this out: You're only 6 clicks away from wiping out your Windows 10 installation.

Starting from the Desktop, click on: Start / Settings / Update & Security / Recovery / Get Started (Reset this PC) / Remove Everything

You are never asked to enter a password, or type in "Remove Everything" as a fail-safe.

stevep98 10 years ago

> You are never asked to enter a password, or type in "Remove Everything" as a fail-safe.

Some people will still do that and be surprised at the result.

My dad once reformatted his memory card on his camera, losing all his pictures from his vacation. He wanted to 'Change the Format' of the image (why? who knows), but instead he reformatted the card. "Are you Sure? Yes!"

I once copied an empty partition over a full partition instead of vice versa. I knew I only had one copy of this important data, and was trying to back it up. Are you sure? double-check.. YUP!

  • MartijnHoutman 10 years ago

    Well, I had that once on my old Canon DSLR. I really wanted to change the picture format from JPEG to RAW (CR2), so I chose the 'format' option. I got into the format card menu, so I wanted to get out. There were only two options: OK and Cancel, but the interface was so bad I had no idea which button was active and which was not (the colors would invert on scrolling). A 50-50% chance, and I chose the wrong option ;) Luckily it was a quick format, so a raw scan saved my photos :)

  • seanwilson 10 years ago

    Being forced to type out what you're about to do for critical actions like "remove all my data" or "deploy to production" works in my opinion. A yes/no prompt doesn't because you can get trained to click past them without reading.

venomsnake 10 years ago

Well just ask the advertisers and they will give you all your files back. If they refuse - there is always a copy in the NSA worry not.

brudgers 10 years ago

Let's assume that there are only ten options at each level of clicking.

Thus a probability of 1 in (10^6 * the chance of your toddler getting unsupervised access while the computer is on and in an accepting state).

jjgreen 10 years ago

You should never have given him/her the root password.

  • scolfaxOP 10 years ago

    True, but... you obviously don't have kids! ;)

    • nadams 10 years ago

      > you obviously don't have kids

      "kids" should never have administrative privileges on the system (up to the point they can burn a CD - then they can have admin privileges because with enough googling they can do it themselves). And you might want to install a sandbox type program - http://alternativeto.net/software/deep-freeze/?license=free

      • scolfaxOP 10 years ago

        Windows is a consumer operating system. You and I may know the "right" way to use it, but mother-in-laws don't like passwords, kids like Minecraft, and kids = chaos.

bwackwat 10 years ago

I LOL'D.

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