How to restrict laptop user from restoring to factory defaults

[JimShrader]

Hello! We have Windows 10 laptop users with company supplied applications and data. We have had some recent employees leave the company, and prior to them leaving, will restore the laptop to factory defaults. Is there a way to restrict the user from doing that so that all programs and data remain and out IT group can then backup that data prior to re-deploying? Thanks in advance for your help!!!

 

[Bighorn]

First off, the employment rules need to make plain anything on a computer is company property and destruction of it could be illegal, things such as the licensed programs, data created from them, E-Mail, etc. Secondly, find out what the manufacturer put on the HDD or SSD and remove it, see if it can be saved or get a copy from that maker. An extreme would be to wipe the drives and use the Enterprise edition of Win10 to install, would get rid of the factory restore possibility but not the Windows Reset/Restore.

 

[Wolfie]

Further to what @Bighorn said, make sure that the users don't have admin privileges and/or, restrict what they can actually do on the units by limiting user permissions!. Your IT dept should know how to do that!.