Resetting or reinstalling Windows 10 or Windows 11 is a very simple process. Microsoft has improved this problem a lot over the years and it is no longer necessary to have an optical drive or installation media to perform this process, as We can do it locally or in the cloud.

However, many users still struggle when choosing between one option and the other They are not clear about the differences between them, and they don’t know how to decide which is the best option. In this article, I will explain in detail everything you need to know in order to choose the one that best suits your situation and your needs.

Reinstall Windows locally

In a local reinstall, our computer will use the Windows image we have on our storage drive to reinstall said operating system. It has important benefitsWhereas the:

• You don’t need an internet connection.
• It tends to be less problematic.
• It takes less time because you don’t need to download anything.

However, it also has disadvantages, which is that it can cause problems if any of the files in our system are corrupted or if it has any type of problem that could affect the reinstallation of the operating system. If this happens, reinstall it may crash or freeze.

Reinstall Windows from the cloud

If we choose this option, downloads a “clean” copy of Windows from the cloud using official Microsoft servers. The process is completely safe in this sense and the said copy will be installed on our computer. The main advantage of this method is that the installed copy is fresh and without errors, so we should not have problems during the installation.

Unfortunately, it also has its disadvantages, which are it has to download quite a bit of data from Microsoft’s servers, which means that we will need a fairly fast and stable connection and that the process will generally be much slower. The difference in total time can be very big, especially if we have a slow internet connection.

So which option is best?

In general a local reinstall is usually the best option because it’s much faster and generally less of a hassle. It’s the one I use regularly and the truth is I’ve never had the slightest problem with it.

However, reinstalling Windows from the cloud can be the best option is that we have serious problems in the computer at the level of the operating systemif we have suffered a serious malware infection or if we want to do a “fresher” reinstall.

If you try to reinstall from the cloud and you can’t complete the process because it shows you an error or because your internet connection is not stable, try reinstalling locally and vice versa, ie if what gives you the error is reinstalling locally, try the cloud option.

Note that if neither of these two options always work for you You can reinstall Windows from a USB drive creating installation media. If you have questions about this topic, don’t worry, we’ll tell you everything you need to know in this article.