- Apr 19, 2016
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Windows 10 is a great operating system but it isn’t for everyone. Its appeal isn’t universal and that’s okay. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to use it. As long as it has been less than a month since your upgrade, you can downgrade from Windows 10 quite easily. Here’s how.
It is still possible to downgrade from Windows 10 after that month’s trial but it involves either a factory restore of the device if you have a restore partition or a clean install of Windows 7 or 8. I’ll cover those another time.
Downgrade from Windows 10
To be able to downgrade from Windows 10, you must have upgraded from a previous version. This will not work if you performed a clean install of Windows 10. It also will not work if you deleted Windows.old to save disk space.
1. Back up any files and folders you don’t want to lose just in case.
2. Navigate to Settings, Update & recovery and Recovery.
3. Select ‘Get started’ under Go back to Windows 7 (or 8) in the right pane.
4. Select a reason for the downgrade in the window that appears.
5. Back up your files if you haven’t already and click Next.
6. Keep confirming after reading the various notice windows until you get to the ‘Go back to Windows 7 (or 8)’ option.
7. Select Go back to Windows 7 or 8.
Let the process complete, which involves a couple of reboots. You should now be presented with your old Windows desktop.
There is a way to use System Restore to downgrade from Windows 10 but it’s a little messier. This way is cleaner and will get you back to the familiar Windows 7 or 8 desktop in no time.
Other useful Windows 10 installation guides you may find useful:
How to perform a Windows 10/Ubuntu dual boot
How to clean install Windows 10 directly without having to upgrade first
Fix Unmountable_boot_volume in Windows 10
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