I'm about to leave my job and need to return the work laptop I was using. I signed in to it with my personal Microsoft/Office 365 account and I want to make sure that my account and any personal files are completely deleted before handing it back. Will performing a factory reset (Settings > Recovery > 'Reset this PC') guarantee that my personal account is removed and that no one can access my files?
2 Answers
Yes, doing a reset should remove your account, but keep in mind that anything saved before the factory reset may have been backed up by your IT department. So, while the reset will delete your personal information, it's worth checking that they haven't saved any copies.
Got it, I just want to ensure that no new files I create on my Office 365 can be accessed by whoever gets the laptop next. As long as my account is fully removed, I’m okay.
You should definitely overwrite files to make recovery difficult. A simple reset may not be enough to securely delete everything.
Just a heads up, though—"Reset this PC" doesn’t completely wipe data; it usually just removes file references unless you overwrite it. If your data hasn’t been overwritten, specialist software could potentially recover it.