Your Chromebook Has a New Factory Reset Option for When You Don’t Want to Nuke Everything

When facing a system slowdown on a Chromebook, clearing your cookies is a good first step—but it’s not always enough. Then again, a full factory reset might be overkill, creating a lot of work to reestablish your preferences. Fortunately, Chrome’s new OS has come up with a happy medium known as a “Safety reset.”

ChromeOS 131 Will Have a Safety Reset Feature

Now rolling out for Chromebooks, Google’s new operating system has a variety of helpful features, including the Safety reset. The option allows you to clean up your Chromebook similar to a “Powerwash,” or factory reset. However, it doesn’t completely nuke everything you’ve put time into, like all your saved passwords.

Here’s a breakdown of how a Safety reset differs from a Powerwash:

ChromeOS 131 Gets Flashy

While the Safety reset is probably the biggest improvement we’ll see from the new OS, there are other updates to note. Namely, Chromebook notifications will be bigger and brighter—literally. According to Google Support, your notifications will now be accompanied by a flash on the screen to make sure you don’t miss them, such as if you’re hearing impaired or using screen magnification.

For those of you who are not into being flashed, don’t worry—this isn’t a required setting. You can toggle the notification flash on and off in Settings > Accessibility > Audio and captions.

Aside from flashy notifications and other glitzy updates, like the Chromebook’s new Quick Insert key, the new restoration function strikes me as very pragmatic. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it’s necessary to blow everything to smithereens, if it means your machine will run smoothly again. But, it will cost you time and memories. This lighter reset is the perfect “Goldilocks” feature. When completely wiping your system is too “hot,” but clearing your cookies is too “cold,” a Safety reset could be just right.