Windows 10: Reinstall, reset, refresh... I'm confused!

Three things:
#1: Have your Win 10 serial number.
#2: See #1
#3: Awe, you know!

You prob. will have to call them anyway,
start there, and ask for an explanation of the different types.

This is what Microsoft thinks of your question: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415
But not everybody uses the same terms, alas.

I would call it a factory reset if you use the procedure described by the maker of the device in the user manual, by booting from the recovery partition and recovery disk and telling it to make it like it was when you bought it.

I would call it a reinstall or clean install if there is no factory reset option and I use a generic Windows 10 disc on a new hard disk (or an existing one and tell it to delete every old thing of Windows and programs). I'd have to install all drivers myself.

Fresh start is an informal description for all of the above. Reformat is wrong: after (re)formatting there's nothing on the disk.

Update is what Windows does each month, mostly fixing bugs in an existing working Windows.
Upgrading is going to a new version. For Windows that's each half year. For Android and iOS on your phone it's each year or so.

"Reinstall" means installing your W10 operating system again.
"Reset" means reinstalling W10.
"Refresh" uses an in-built Microsoft tool to load a default version of W10 from the existing W10 installation. The new W10 will be that which came with the computer, so it will have none of the updates that might have occurred since, and it will not keep your apps. If you want them you must back them up and reinstall them after "Refresh" is completed.
"Clean install
" means deleting the current W10 operating system by reformatting the hard drive partition it's on and loading a new version of W10 from, say, the CD that came with your PC. This, however, is the "nuclear" option and should only be used if all other options fail, since it will wipe everything from your operating system partition (e-mail contacts lists, applications, web site cookies, etc etc.) Not recommended unless you are very familiar with Windows operating systems, and hardly ever necessary -- in using a large number of Windows PCs from W95 through to W10 I have only ever done it once!
"Update" Is simply downloading and allowing the installation of any W10 updates offered by MS. It is not a solution to PC problems -- just a means of keeping your PC up-to-date.
"Upgrade" means installing a higher version of the operating system, usually for a charge.
"Factory reset" is returning your PC to as it was when it left Microsoft's production facility -- ie: no apps, no email contacts, etc.
"Reformat" means clearing everything from a hard drive partition or from the whole hard drive. As with "Clean install" above, is done in order to be able to do a clean install.

Without knowing what the issues are that you are experiencing, I would suggest that you try "Reset" or "Refresh" first as they are simpler to do and MS guides you through the processes. But whatever you do, make sure that all of your data and applications are backed up, because you only need to mistakenly click the wrong button to lose everything!

More information here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-ie/help/12415
https://www.techspot.com/article/1671-windows-reset-keep-your-files/

Some brand name PCs experience "broken" features, or apps that no longer work, or error messages when doing tasks that were perfectly OK before Windows 10 updated itself. Some times you can fix this by going to the maker's website "Support" page and downloading/reinstalling the maker's drivers or software. This is because Windows 10's "generic" driver isn't compatible with your Dell/HP/Lenovo/Acer PC. So, you restore the maker's specific driver or app. It's a shame people have to troubleshoot these problems not of their own making.

Did your PC come with Windows 10 already installed? Or, did it come with Windows 7 or Windows 8 and you "upgraded" to Windows 10?

Many Windows 7 and Windows 8 users who upgraded to Windows 10 find that when Windows 10 gets a major update (about every 6 months) something on the computer no longer works, whether it be software or hardware.

For example, we have two Windows 8 computers, a laptop and a PC. Both were upgraded to Windows 10 a couple of years ago. Since then each computer experiences a problem with an app, or a feature, or hardware (such as no sound or no webcam) after Windows 10 updates itself. The most annoying issue is that our carefully set up home networking (for sharing files, music, and video) is reset to Windows "default" with every new update. This "breaks" our home network, forcing me to go through all the advanced sharing steps again and again.

We finally got fed up and reverted to the earlier version of Windows (with the addition of a free program called Classic Shell which gives us the old familiar Win 7 start button and start menu). No more problems!

I think adding RESET with Win 8 (and carrying it over to Win 10) was a hot mess. I have had numerous clients who somehow found this and did it (being cheap, trying not to call me). But they did not realize all the junk programs I took off would be back and all the programs they really wanted and needed to use, that I loaded for them, would be gone. Good for my business, but bad for the average user, whom M$ does not care one bit about.

Many times people leap to using a big hammer (ie: Reinstall, reset, refresh...) when a small scalple would do!
What is / are the problem(s) you are having?
What was the last change you made before problems broke loose?
Have you looked at a GOOD AV product to scan your system?
Have you looked at a good anti-malware product?
Have you run CHKDSK and does it come back 'clean'?
I manage multiple PCs in my household and have assisted a half dozen of my friends. I have NEVER been in a situation where (Reinstall, reset, refresh, etc) was needed, and i have been through WINDOWS 7, WIndows 8, Windows 8.1 and now Windows 10.

When we got Xp (I think it was), they said, "Hooray!!! No more BSOD!!!"
What they meant was, it would still crash, but
...
No more BSOD.

which I do not see mentioned here. Was it dropped?
I've used it, and it works as advertised.

Before you do anything else, you have to make sure that all the computer hardware is in good health, especially the hard drive, the most frequent point of hardware failure. If the hard drive has bad sectors, you will only mess things up further by doing whatever. Defraggler and CrystalDiskInfo are two free Windows programs that will tell you about hard drive health by showing you the SMART data, info maintained by the firmware of the drive itself. Look for defective sectors, reallocation events, current pending sectors, and uncorrectable sectors, any of which are non-zero.

All of the terms are pretty much the same anyway now, with the way Microsoft has set things up.

BIG first step is to back up all your local files. Copy them to a flash drive, whatever. Windows 10 Installer will give you the option to keep all your apps and files at a stage of the installation, but better safe than sorry.

I recommend browsing to Microsoft and using their "Create Windows 10 installation media" tool. (Google for the quoted terms and you'll see a hit from Microsoft) You'll get the latest version and gives you the option to upgrade your PC or to create installation media. Later you'll see the option to keep all your apps. It auto-detects which version of Windows you should be on, so you don't need to worry about that anymore.

Windows 10 includes the drivers for most hardware. If you have a weird or old machine though, a factory reset would have all your drivers. Otherwise, go with a fresh install.

If you do a clean install, apps and files are all gone. A factory reset does much the same thing, except you'll end up with all the bloatware that came on your device and any proprietary drivers.

My recent experience: I opted to keep everything the first re-install, and things didn't improve much. Then I did a clean re-install and that fixed my issues. 2¢