How to downgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 8.1 or Windows 7: So you give Windows 10 a try and you don’t like it? Well you have 31 days to try Windows 10 and still be able to roll back to your previous operating system, whether that is Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 you can still downgrade as long as you’re within the 31 day period. Downgrading from Windows 10 doesn’t have to be a nightmare. Microsoft are offering an easy way for users to roll back to their old operating system. So what happens after I upgraded to 10 and it goes past a month? Your old Windows files will be kept in a folder called Windows.old as well as two other
important hidden folders: $Windows.~BT and $Windows.~WS. These are deleted after 31 days by Microsoft. So how do I downgrade from Windows 10 after month has expired?
Here is how to rollback after 31 days has expired:
- Have a system image of your old operating system?
- Have a hidden partition with your factory default operating system in it?
- Rename Windows.old $Windows.~BT and $Windows.~WS. So Microsoft can’t delete them after 31 days, then just rename them back when you want to rollback.
How to downgrade from Windows 10
- Make sure you’ve backed up all your data to external hard drive, don’t have an external drive? Use a USB flash drive or cloud service like Dropbox, IDrive, OneDrive, Google Drive and many more.
- Start > Settings > Update & security, and then select Recovery in the left of the window.
- On the right hand pain of the window you will see an option Go back to Windows 7 or 8. Click the Get started button this will start the uninstall process.
- Be patient the uninstall process will take some time, you will be prompted with a question box asking why you are removing Windows 10. State your reason, you will then receive some warnings and then your PC will restart and Windows 10 will be uninstalled. Depending on the speed of your computer will determine how long the uninstall process will take, this can take anything up to an hour or so.
- Once that’s completed Windows 10 should be removed and you’ll be back on Windows 7 or 8 depending what you upgraded from. Now just check everything is working normally and your good to go.
