Remove Windows 10 & revert to 7

Dalkeybabe

Hi
I clicked on a dialogue box & upgraded to 10 buy my laptop takes so long to start up. Gave it to a friend of a friend to remove it & reinstall Windows 7 which was on it. He couldn't seem to do it. Anyone got any ideas?

PeterTheEighth

If it's within one month of the upgrade then it's easy enough. If you pass that, you have to do a full reinstall.

If you are within the month do the following,
From the menu choose Settings, then Update And Security, then Recovery.

You should have an option there to Go Back To Windows 7. click on this to start the procedure. Note that if you do NOT see that Go Back To Windows 7 option then you have probably passed the month and you will need to do a full reinstall.

Dalkeybabe

PeterTheEighth wrote: »

If it's within one month of the upgrade then it's easy enough. If you pass that, you have to do a full reinstall.

If you are within the month do the following,
From the menu choose Settings, then Update And Security, then Recovery.

You should have an option there to Go Back To Windows 7. click on this to start the procedure. Note that if you do NOT see that Go Back To Windows 7 option then you have probably passed the month and you will need to do a full reinstall.

It's past the one month the mark.
As initial post mentions I gave it to a friend of a friend. Don't know how good a techie he is but couldn't get Windows 7 back. Why would that be?

PeterTheEighth

Dalkeybabe wrote: »

It's past the one month the mark.
As initial post mentions I gave it to a friend of a friend. Don't know how good a techie he is but couldn't get Windows 7 back. Why would that be?

It's not the techie's fault in this case. Microsoft have updated the operating system and then put a timer on it, limiting when you can downgrade. To get Windows 7 back on it, you have to do the following:

- Source the original DVD / recovery partition that the original Windows 7 OS was on.
- Backup the hard drive on the current installation. (and be 100% sure you have everything cos there will be no way back after the recovery procedure has finished).
- Boot to the DVD / USB drive / Recovery partition and carry out a Factory Restore.
- Configure username password etc etc. Source whatever installation DVDs you need to reinstall the software you use.

is there no way that you can just run Windows 10, what problems has it given you?

Dalkeybabe

PeterTheEighth wrote: »

It's not the techie's fault in this case. Microsoft have updated the operating system and then put a timer on it, limiting when you can downgrade. To get Windows 7 back on it, you have to do the following:

- Source the original DVD / recovery partition that the original Windows 7 OS was on.
- Backup the hard drive on the current installation. (and be 100% sure you have everything cos there will be no way back after the recovery procedure has finished).
- Boot to the DVD / USB drive / Recovery partition and carry out a Factory Restore.
- Configure username password etc etc. Source whatever installation DVDs you need to reinstall the software you use.

is there no way that you can just run Windows 10, what problems has it given you?[/quote

It's made my pc so slow...

PeterTheEighth

I would try to take down all the Windows 10 updates and see if it resolves the slowness issues. There are a few known issues with it, and taking down the updates may sort out the problems that you are experiencing.

Just remember that if you do the factory restore to get Windows 7 back, the laptop will be the same as it was when you took it out of the box originally. It will not have either a) your files or b) your applications. And in my experience, home users never have all the DVDs they usually require to install the applications they have installed. Many home PCs have a dodgy copy of Office installed, dodgy copy of Photoshop that their pal up the road had a DVD for.

ItHurtsWhenIP

If you factory restore, then your laptop will spend the next several days downloading the last few years worth of Windows updates. Whatever you do, let them download and install (otherwise you are asking for trouble).

Then when it's fully updated, download this Never10 tool and get it to turn off Windows 10 downloads so you don't end up in the same position in the future.

Dalkeybabe

PeterTheEighth wrote: »

I would try to take down all the Windows 10 updates and see if it resolves the slowness issues. There are a few known issues with it, and taking down the updates may sort out the problems that you are experiencing.

Just remember that if you do the factory restore to get Windows 7 back, the laptop will be the same as it was when you took it out of the box originally. It will not have either a) your files or b) your applications. And in my experience, home users never have all the DVDs they usually require to install the applications they have installed. Many home PCs have a dodgy copy of Office installed, dodgy copy of Photoshop that their pal up the road had a DVD for.

I have the original cd's & codes for Windows 7,etc.

PeterTheEighth

Dalkeybabe wrote: »

I have the original cd's & codes for Windows 7,etc.

Yeah, that's good, but what about the other software. Do you have a legitimate copy of MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook etc)?

Dalkeybabe

PeterTheEighth wrote: »

Yeah, that's good, but what about the other software. Do you have a legitimate copy of MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook etc)?

I bought the student office edition 2007 CD with my previous laptop & still have it.

PeterTheEighth

Dalkeybabe wrote: »

I bought the student office edition 2007 CD with my previous laptop & still have it.

Okay that's a good start. any other software packages that are very important to you, and how did you install them (i.e. from a DVD / download etc)

mordeith

Dalkeybabe wrote: »

Hi
I clicked on a dialogue box & upgraded to 10 buy my laptop takes so long to start up. Gave it to a friend of a friend to remove it & reinstall Windows 7 which was on it. He couldn't seem to do it. Anyone got any ideas?

If it's just the long start up time that's annoying you try disabled quick boot in the power options. I did this on a new Windows 10 install and ironically it has gotten rid of the slow boot up and shut down problems I was having.
The option was actually grey out but you can make the change with a simple registry edit.

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-10-a.html

You don't have to download the bat file. You can double click the registry entry and change the value to 0 (if it is enabled in the first place).