How to uninstall Windows 10 and go back to Windows 7 or 8 - carterthreatin1945

Downgrading Windows 10 to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 isn't as easy as it old to be.

When Windows 10 launched in summertime 2022, Microsoft offered the operating scheme as a free upgrade for alive Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users. If you didn't ilk what you found, you could easy roll back to your previous operating system within a 30-day window, and we showed you how to do it therein clause. But that grace menstruum passed months ago, even for stragglers who upgraded on the last day of Microsoft's promotion. Now we've updated the story to tell you what options remain to you.

These days, downgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 requires you to to the full reinstall the older operating system or reconstruct a system backing image you've stashed somewhere if you're a rest home user. (Business licenses and downgrade rights are a much more complicated ball of yarn and won't be covered in that article.)

Grave: Congest your data before you see this process! PCWorld's guide to the best Windows backup software package can walk you through your options.

Michael Magnate/IDG

Prebuilt PCs and laptops should admit a dagger that includes your Windows 7 or Windows 8 product key.

You'll require two things to clean-install Windows 7 or Windows 8.1: the appropriate installation media for the version of Windows you'rhenium trying to return to, and a valid product key for that version of Windows.

Snagging the operating system itself is easy. Simply head to Microsoft's Windows software download page, where you're able to creation initiation media for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10. Make a point the adaptation you download is an literal match for the edition your product key is approved for—a Windows 7 Home license North Korean won't activate on Windows 7 Pro, for example. If you purchased a laptop surgery prebuilt desktop, it English hawthorn have come with a mend disc in the box.

You'll as wel indigence a valid product key to activate Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 after installing it. Your Windows 10 product key won't do the fast one.

Hopefully you jotted your original product key down somewhere before upgrading to Windows 10. Alternatively, laptops and prebuilt PCs should have a "certificate of authenticity" sticker along them (operating theatre enclosed in the original promotional material) that show your new product key information. If you bought Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 directly for installation on a DIY PC, the boxful that Windows came in should include a card or pronounce with your product key thereon.

Brad Chacos/IDG

ShowKeyPlus send away reveal your underived Windows 7 operating theatre Windows 8 product key equal if you've upgraded to Windows 10.

If you don't have any of that, download and install a political platform called ShowKeyPlus (here's the download link if you need it). ShowKeyPlus—which is retained on GitHub—will reveal detailed product key and license data for your Microcomputer, including the crucial "first key" and Windows edition installed before you upgraded to Windows 10. You can buoy use that groundbreaking product discover to activate Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 on your PC after reinstalling the experient operating system.

Once you've clean-installed Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and activated your product key, simply walk through and through the Windows installation march, and you're good to fail. You might have to download compatible device drivers for your computer hardware if your PC no longer has the older files dependent around.

This article was to begin with published by Ian Paul August 6, 2022.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/422928/how-to-uninstall-windows-10-and-go-back-to-windows-7-or-8.html

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