Windows 8 ships with a set of new backup and restoration tool like the refresh option that let you keep settings that would be lost if you’d install the operating system anew on the PC. Sometimes though a refresh may be overkill as it is not keeping all data that has previously been installed on the system. A refresh won’t restore desktop programs that you have installed for instance.

Apps just like many desktop programs save data to the system when they are used. This may be the progress in a game that you have downloaded from Windows Store, playlists in a music application or custom profiles that you have set up in a photo editing app.