Windows 10 has been launched for almost a month now, and if you installed the upgrade on Day 1, your window to downgrade has started to shut down. Microsoft only provides you a month to experience its newest operating system and reinstate the old one if you dislike it.
It’s easy enough to relegate Windows 10 to Windows 7. If you wish to reinstall your old operating system, read on for the steps you need to sort it out.
You have 30 days to reinstall Windows 7 right after upgrading to Windows 10. It’s important that you make a solid decision before the downgrade option ends. If you have added another user account since the upgrade, you will need to log out of them and then take them off from the principal account before the downgrade begins. Naturally, the course of action is only possible if you updated from Windows 7 (or Windows 8.1). If you did a clean setup of Windows 10, you will not see the option to reinstall your old OS. Instead, you must use a recovery disc or set up Windows 7 on your own.
Before You Start
The first thing you need to do is to backup any data on your computer you wish to retain. Upgrading or downgrading an operating system is a huge step, and if you’re not careful,information can often be misplaced or lost. You may use external hard drives, USB, or a cloud storage to back up your files for free. When you have securely copied all the important data you need, you may begin the downgrade process.
Use the Update and Security Settings
When you upgraded to Windows 10 on a computer that previously has a Windows OS, the previous system was kept in a folder labeled as “Windows.old.” This folder occupies up to 30GB of space. It also gives you the option to recover the old version through the new OS. To make
this happen, you need to:
- Click the Windows icon in the bottom left-corner of your screen.
- Open the Windows Start menu.
- Choose “Settings.”
- Look for the “Recovery” option from the list. Click it and a window pane will show a range of options.
- Find the “Go back to Windows x” option.
- Click on the “Get started” to start the process.
- Answer the prepared questionnaire by Windows for users who wish to downgrade from Windows 10. This is essentially a tool from Microsoft to assess the customer experience with its newest OS.
- Tick “Next” when you’re finished.
From here, Windows will systematically roll back your old OS. If you’re reinstalling your previous operating system on your laptop, it must be connected to a power source for the procedure to work. Also, if you’ve deleted the Windows.old folder on your own, you may not use this easy process to reinstall Windows 7 on your computer.
Based on some reviews from those who’ve downgraded from Windows 10, an error stating that files needed to be removed kept interrupting the process. Microsoft is yet to release an update about this error or how to fix it. For more information about this process, Gadget Salvation, an online shop that sells electronics, will keep this topic up-to-date.
