Reset from the Windows sign-in screen
Notes
- If you’ve lost your password, you may not have to reset your Surface. See I forgot my password before
performing these reset steps. - If you don't have a keyboard connected to your Surface Pro or Surface 3, you'll need to use the on-screen keyboard to do these reset steps. From the Windows sign-in screen, tap or click the Ease of access icon
in the lower-left corner of the screen, and then tap or click On-Screen Keyboard.
| Step 1: | From the Windows sign-in screen, tap or click Power  in the lower right corner of the sign-in screen. |
| Step 2: | Press and hold the Shift key. (If you're using the on-screen keyboard, tap or click the Shift key.) |
| Step 3: | While the Shift key is still pressed, tap or click Restart. If you get the prompt Restart anyway, tap or click Restart anyway. After Surface restarts, the Choose an option screen will appear. |
| Step 4: | Tap or click Troubleshoot. |
| Step 5: | Tap or click Reset your PC. Surface restarts and the Surface logo displays while Windows prepares to reset your Surface. |
| Step 6: | On the Reset your PC screen, tap or click Next. |
| Step 7: | Choose either Just remove my files or Fully clean the drive. The option to clean the drive is more secure, but takes much longer. For example, if you are recycling your Surface, you should choose to clean the drive. If you are keeping your Surface, you just need to remove your files. |
| Step 8: | Tap or click Reset. Surface restarts and the Surface logo displays while the reset process completes (this can take several minutes). |