Factory restore; clean OS

[star_limit]

I recently purchased a new notebook. At the moment, I have 2 goals: (1) to guarantee I can arbitrarily restore my notebook to its factory, out-of-the-box state and (2) make clean, bloatware-free installations of my OS.

(1) Factory restore

Before I make a clean OS installation or potentially reformat or repartition my SSD, and before my SSD fails or its data is corrupted, I'd like to guarantee I can restore my notebook as it was out-of-the-box--this is to say, restore it with Windows 10 Home 64-bit v1803, the configuration, and the pre-installed firmware, drivers, software etc. it came with. I presume the recovery data for such a factory restore is on my SSD. My notebook has 1 disk drive with the following partition scheme:

(Disk 0 partition 1) | 260 MB | Healthy (EFI System Parition)
Windows (C:) | 118.01 GB NTFS | Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Parition)
Windows RE tools | 980 MB NTFS | Healthy (OEM Parition)

I would guess the recovery data is on the "Windows RE tools" partition, but I have doubts because of how small it is (980 MB). If this partition does contain the recovery data, how should I back the data up, and if not, where is the data? Would creating a recovery drive (Control Panel > Recovery > Create a recovery drive) include all the pre-installed software and accomplish my goal? Note that I have used "Reset this PC" (Settings > Update & Security > Recovery) with the "Remove everything" option, which seemed to accomplish a factory restore (of course, this won't work if my SSD fails and I require a factory restore on a replacement drive).

(2) Clean OS

I want to make clean installations of my OS--meaning installations without vendor pre-installed software and configurations. I have already created verified media for Windows 10 64-bit US via Microsoft's Media Creation Tool. I would boot this media, and therein, likely delete all existing partitions and install Windows. However, my notebook did not come with a Windows Product Key for my OEM license, and I am concerned there could be a problem with authentication. Is my Windows Product Key embedded in my UEFI/BIOS, and will Windows find it upon installation? If so, is my Windows Product Key tied only to my motherboard (in other words, would I be able to authenticate my license if I replaced my SSD)? I have used the following command prompt code to print what seems to be my Product Key. I'd like affirmation that this works and learn if it is even necessary.

(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey

After installing Windows, I presume I need to manually install my notebook-specific drivers. I found a list of drivers for my notebook within HP's product pages. Is there any additional software I would need for my 15-da0012dx or any caveats to be aware of? Lastly, I have not tried "Fresh start" (Windows Defender Security Center > Device performance & health > Additional info). If someone has experience with it, I'd also like to know if it is a good alternative to using the verified media.

Thank you in advance.

[ieee488]

If you laptop came originally with Windows 10, you can install Windows 10 repeatedly to your heart's content.

The factory restore is only useful up to a certain point and is useless in a year's time given Microsoft's Windows 10 update schedule of major updates every 6 months. 

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[star_limit]

@ieee488 I appreciate the reply.

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@ieee488 wrote:

If you laptop came originally with Windows 10, you can install Windows 10 repeatedly to your heart's content.

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My laptop did originally come with Windows 10. Do you know if I'll need a 25-digit Product Key, or does my hardware have the key embedded? Could I replace my SSD and still install Windows 10 to my heart's content?

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@ieee488 wrote:

The factory restore is only useful up to a certain point and is useless in a year's time given Microsoft's Windows 10 update schedule of major updates every 6 months.

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You are right; I would not want to use an outdated version of Windows in 6 months. However, the factory restore is intended to be a starting point to then update Windows, drivers, and other software to whatever the latest versions are. If I start with a factory restore, I won't have to worry about missing any drivers and software my computer needs or originally had. Please correct me if I've misunderstood.

[ieee488]

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@star_limit wrote:

@ieee488 I appreciate the reply.

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@ieee488 wrote:

If you laptop came originally with Windows 10, you can install Windows 10 repeatedly to your heart's content.

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My laptop did originally come with Windows 10. Do you know if I'll need a 25-digit Product Key, or does my hardware have the key embedded? Could I replace my SSD and still install Windows 10 to my heart's content?

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@ieee488 wrote:

The factory restore is only useful up to a certain point and is useless in a year's time given Microsoft's Windows 10 update schedule of major updates every 6 months.

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You are right; I would not want to use an outdated version of Windows in 6 months. However, the factory restore is intended to be a starting point to then update Windows, drivers, and other software to whatever the latest versions are. If I start with a factory restore, I won't have to worry about missing any drivers and software my computer needs or originally had. Please correct me if I've misunderstood.

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Yes, the Windows 10 key is embedded on your motherboard.  Replacing original hard drive with SSD will not be a problem.

I am not keen on factory restore as I find it much more important and time-effective to make backup images of the hard drive.

That has saved my butt more than a few times.

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[star_limit]

@Ieee488 Good suggestion. Perhaps I can use "Reset this PC" and then clone an image of my drive with "Backup and Restore (Windows 7)" in the Control Panel. I just figured there's a more space-efficient or cleaner (a factory image before entering/setting up Windows) way.