Remettre un PC
Licenses, browsers, and privacy-minded wipe options.
Handing off a PC is part logistics, part privacy. You want the next owner to boot into a clean account without inheriting your tokens, saved passwords, or half-uninstalled trialware. You also want to avoid bricking activation or encryption because a key step was skipped the night before moving day.
Licenses and paid software
Deactivate or transfer seats for products that bind to hardware fingerprints. Export license files or portal receipts you might need later. If the machine will be wiped, confirm you have installers and keys stored elsewhere—not only on the drive you are about to erase.
Accounts, browsers, and sync
- Sign out of email, chat, banking, and school portals; clear saved sessions where appropriate.
- Export browser bookmarks if the recipient should keep them; otherwise remove profiles after sign-out.
- Run Disk Cleanup (including “Delivery Optimization” and old Windows update caches) to reclaim space before imaging or wiping.
- Leave a README on the desktop: Windows edition, whether BitLocker is on, warranty transfer steps, and anything you intentionally left installed.
Privacy levels: quick wipe vs resale wipe
Deleting files from your profile is not the same as sanitizing the disk. For resale or donation where sensitive data lived, prefer a full-drive wipe or factory reset “remove files” option from Windows recovery—not only uninstalling apps. For in-family handoffs, a fresh local account plus removal of your old profile may be enough. Document which path you chose so nobody assumes a secure erase happened when it did not.
Mail, chat, and 2FA apps
Signing out of browser sessions is not enough if desktop mail or Slack-style clients keep tokens in local databases. Remove those accounts inside each app, then uninstall. For authenticator apps, migrate TOTP secrets to a new phone before you wipe the old machine—there is no “undo” for lost second factors.
Recovery partitions and OEM recovery
Some buyers expect the factory recovery partition to still work. If your wipe tool targets the whole disk, say so in the README. If you preserved OEM recovery, note how to invoke it (key combo at boot). Mismatched expectations here create avoidable support calls.
Réponses rapides
- Is “Reset this PC” enough for resale?
- Use the option that removes files if sensitive data lived on the machine; “keep my files” is not a privacy wipe. When in doubt, follow your org’s data-destruction policy.
- Do I need to uninstall apps before wiping?
- A full secure erase makes per-app uninstall order irrelevant, but uninstalling first can surface license deactivation prompts you would rather handle while online.
- BitLocker: what should the next owner know?
- Document whether encryption is on, who holds recovery keys, and whether you suspended protection before imaging. Lost keys mean lost drives.
Keep going: Handoff quality is measured in fewer surprises—encryption state, recovery partitions, and signed-out accounts should be explicit in your README. See the features overview and guides for cleanup before you transfer hardware.