Don’t like Windows 10? As long as you’ve upgraded within the last month, you can uninstall Windows 10 and downgrade your PC back to its original Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 operating system. You can always upgrade to Windows 10 again later.
Even if it’s been more than a month, you should be able to perform a clean install of the version of Windows that came with your PC using fresh installation media and its product key.
Go Back to Windows 7 or 8.1
Previously, Microsoft forced users to upgrade to Windows 10 before they could start fresh and do a clean install–which was annoyingly complicated and time-consuming. Now, things are much easier, since you can activate Windows 10 with a Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 key. On Windows Settings pane click 'Update & Security' option. Step 2 Click 'Recovery' option on the left navigation options and then click Get 'Started' button under 'Reset this PC' section. Step 3 Select 'Remove everything' option which removes all of your personal files, apps, and settings and start over.
If you’ve upgraded a PC to Windows 10—not performed a clean install, but an upgrade—you have an easy option that lets you revert to the last version of Windows. To access this, hit Windows+I to open the Settings app, click the “Update & security” icon, and then switch to the “Recovery” tab. You should see a “Go back to Windows 7” or “Go back to Windows 8.1” section. Click the “Get Started” button in that section to get rid of your Windows 10 install and restore your previous Windows install.
Windows will first ask you why you want to go back. Just pick anything, and then click the “Next” button.
Next, it will run you through a couple of screens where it asks if you want to try updating Windows 10 instead (to see if it makes anything better), and then reminds you that if you have a password, you’ll need to remember it or disable it while you can. When you get to the final screen, click the “Go back to Windows 7 (or 8.1)” button to make it happen.
Windows will then restore your previous version, restarting your PC a couple of times along the way.
This Process Uses the Windows.old Folder
RELATED:How to Restore Your Files From the Windows.old Folder After Upgrading
Downgrading is possible because Windows 10 stores your old Windows installation in a folder named “C:Windows.old” on your PC. You can see this folder in File Explorer, though you shouldn’t attempt to delete it from here. You can also browse the Windows.old folder and restore files from it.
RELATED:7 Ways To Free Up Hard Disk Space On Windows
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Obviously, storing every single file from your old Windows installation takes a lot of space. If you open the Disk Cleanup application, you’ll see just how much space it uses. Hit Start, type “Disk cleanup” into the search box, and then click the result to run it.
In the Disk Cleanup window, click the “Clean up system files” button.
In the list of files Disk Cleanup can remove, find the “Previous Windows installation(s)” entry, and can see just how much space it’s consuming on your hard drive. If you’re sure you don’t want to go back to your previous version of Windows, use Disk Cleanup tool to remove those files and immediately free up space.
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How to Downgrade if Windows 10 Doesn’t Give You The Option
Assuming you have an old computer you upgraded to Windows 10, that computer previously had Windows 7 or 8.1 on it. That means that computer came with a product key that allows you to use Windows 7 or 8.1 on it. If you can’t downgrade to your old version (maybe it’s been to long, or maybe something went wrong with your downgrade attempt), you’ll have to perform a clean install of Windows—something PC geeks often do on new computers, anyway.
RELATED:Where to Download Windows 10, 8.1, and 7 ISOs Legally
Thankfully, Microsoft now offers easy downloads for Windows 7 and 8.1 ISO files. Download the Windows installation media and burn the ISO file to a disc or copy it to a USB drive using Microsoft’s Windows USB/DVD download tool. You can then boot from it and reinstall Windows 7 or 8.1 fresh, telling it to overwrite the Windows 10 system already on your hard drive. Be sure you have backup copies of all your important files from your Windows 10 PC first.
RELATED:How to Find Your PC’s Windows Product Key So You Can Reinstall Windows
You’ll have to find your PC’s product key if you do this. On a Windows 7 PC, examine your PC for a “certificate of authenticity” sticker with a key on it. The sticker may be on the back of your desktop case, on the bottom (or inside the battery compartment) of your laptop, or it may have come on a separate card with your PC. On a Windows 8 PC, you may not have to do this at all—the key may be embedded in your computer’s firmware. If so, Windows 8.1 will automatically detect it and allow you to reinstall Windows 8.1 without even asking you to enter a key.
If you bought a new PC that came with Windows 10 and you want to go back to a previous version of Windows, that’s tougher. To do this legitimately, you’ll need to purchase a Windows 7 or 8.1 license and install it from scratch, entering the product key you purchased during the install process.
If an important program or hardware device you use doesn’t work on Windows 10, you’ll want to downgrade. If Windows 10 just seems unstable, you’ll want to go back to your previous version of Windows and wait a while longer before attempting an upgrade. Or, if you’d just rather hang onto Windows 7 for a while longer, you can downgrade. If you’ve upgraded a PC to Windows 10 once, you’ll always be able to do it again later.
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New computers that come preinstalled with Windows 7 often have what is called a recovery partition. This is used to reinstall the operating system in the event of a system crash. To access it, you will need to boot into when you start your computer by pressing a function key. This can be either F1, F2, F9, F10, F11, F12 or even DEL or Tab key. Consult the owners manual that came with your PC for instructions about how to reinstall Windows.
- Samsung uses ESC on most of its systems
- HP uses F9 on most of its systems - Fujitsu uses F12 on most of its systems - Acer uses F12 on most of its systems, but you often need to go into the BIOS to enable it
- Dell uses F12
In general, look at the screen during POST for a hint about what is possible.
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If your recovery partition is not available or damaged, you should contact the manufacturer of your computer and request a recovery disc set you can use to reinstall Windows 7. They might charge a small shipping and handling fee.
or
download one of the following:
Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65732/X15-65732.iso
You are going to edit the contents of the .ISO file and remove the ei.cfg file. After editing burn it to a blank DVD disk or put it on a thumb drive. Boot from it, this will reveal all editions of Windows 7, select the Starter edition. More information in the following article about how to edit the ei.cfg file
Ei.cfg Removal Utility Lets You Use Any Product Key
http://lifehacker.com/5438005/eicfg-removal-utility-lets-you-use-any-product-key-with-your-windows-7-disc
we will edit the image and remove the ei.cfg file so we can reveal all editions of Windows 7 during the installation and select Windows 7 Starter. Lets take a look at doing it step by step.
After downloading the eicfg removal utility, you need to extract, since its in a .zip file. Just right click it and click Extract All.
Double click the eicfg_remover.exe file to launch it.
How To Completely Wipe And Reinstall Windows 7
Browse to where the Windows 7 Image (.ISO file) is stored, select it and click Open.
That’s it! the ei.cfg file is now removed. The next step now is to reinstall Windows 7 Starter. Because most Netbooks do not include a DVD drive, you will have to use a tool such as the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool)
This simple tool will help you convert the same image file into to a USB thumb drive. For installation purposes, you should get a thumb drive that’s at least 4 GBs in size to store the installation files. Browse to where the Windows 7 Image is stored, open it.
Select the USB device where you want to have the backup stored to for installation.
Once the USB device has been identified, click the Begin copying button.
And that’s it, the next step now is to boot your Netbook from the thumb drive, make sure the thumb drive you will be installing Windows 7 from is plugged into the USB port. This might vary by manufacturer, but the usual one to try is F12, start your Netbook and press F12 repeatedly until a screen is displayed giving you the option to boot from a USB Memory device, select that and press Enter on your keyboard.
Windows 7 will boot as it normally does into the setup environment, the only difference this time is, you will be given a choice to select the edition of Windows 7 you want to reinstall. Carefully click through during the setup wizard.
Select Windows 7 Starter and proceed with the installation as normal. I suggest that you create a backup once the installation is complete.
Once setup is completed, you should have Windows 7 Starter installed. You can enter the product key and activate using the following method:
Click Start, type: CMD'
Right click CMD
Click Run as adminstrator
How To Wipe Computer Clean And Reinstall Windows 7 Without Cd
At the command prompt, type the following commands:
How To Wipe And Reinstall Windows 7
slmgr.vbs -ipk xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx (allows you to replace the current product key with the specified)
xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx - represents your product key
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