Booting from a USB device doesn’t refresh or reset your Surface. Instead, it lets you start your Surface using Windows or another operating system that’s on your USB device. For info about how to create a bootable USB drive for your Surface, see Creating and using a USB recovery drive for Surface.

Create a recovery drive with a downloaded factory image. If you're able to use your Surface or you have another Windows PC, visit our Download a recovery image for your Surface page. From there, select your Surface and download a recovery image .zip file for the device you selected.

Fix your audio drivers. Hardware problems can be caused by outdated or malfunctioning drivers. Make sure your audio driver is up to date and update it if needed. If that doesn't work, try uninstalling the audio driver (it will reinstall automatically).

You can use installation media (a USB flash drive or DVD) to install a new copy of Windows, perform a clean installation, or reinstall Windows. To create installation media, go to the software download website, where you'll find step-by-step instructions.

Manually update Surface drivers and firmware. Manual updates are useful if you need to update an offline device, update many devices that are all the same model, or if you’re creating system images for your organization.

The root cause of the camera error 0xA00F4244 is often linked to issues with the camera driver. If this driver is outdated or corrupted, it might not effectively communicate with the hardware, leading to this error. Resolving this issue can often be as straightforward as updating the camera driver.

How to open PC Health Check. In Windows, use Search on the taskbar to search for “PC Health Check,” then select it from the list of results. If a PC Health Check update is available, you can quickly install it for the latest version.

To find out which version of Windows your device is running, press the Windows logo key + R, type winver in the Open box, and then select OK. Here’s how to learn more: Select Start > Settings > System > About . Open About settings.

Virtualization lets your PC emulate a different operating system, like Android™ or Linux. Enabling virtualization gives you access to a larger library of apps to use and install on your PC. If you upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 on your PC, these steps will help you enable virtualization.

Add an app to run automatically at startup in Windows 10. Windows 10. Select the Start button and scroll to find the app you want to run at startup. Right-click the app, select More, and then select Open file location. This opens the location where the shortcut to the app is saved.