Uninstall Windows 8

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I upgraded windows 7 to 8. I do not like Windows 8,and would like to uninstall it. Is there any way to do that like you could with xp many moons ago?

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I upgraded windows 7 to 8. I do not like Windows 8,and would like to uninstall it. Is there any way to do that like you could with xp many moons ago?

What way was that?

I see two options for you here:

1. You created an image of your system as it was before upgrading. You can restore that image and then update any data that has changed since, which you must backup before the restore.

2. You didn’t create an image. The only way is to backup your data and do a Windows 7 clean install.

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What way was that?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303661

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http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303661

I confess I didn’t even know that was possible, at the time.

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http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303661

I also did not know that it was possible to go back from Windows XP to a previous operating system.

I do know that it is not possible to go back from Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 to a previous operating system.

As others have said, if you have an image of your Windows 7 system before you upgraded to Windows 8, then you need to:

1.) Make an image of your Windows 8 system, (just in case something goes wrong)

2.) Make a backup of the new data that is on your Windows 8 system that was not on your Windows 7 system.

3.) Restore the Windows 7 image.

4.) Any programs that you installed on your Windows 8 system that were not installed on the Windows 7 system
will have to be reinstalled after you revert to Windows 7.

5.) copy the data back to your hard drive.

If you did not make an image of your Windows 7 system before you upgraded to Windows 8, then you need to:

1.) Make an image of your Windows 8 system, (just in case something goes wrong)

2.) Make a backup of all data that is on your Windows 8 system.

3.) Do a clean reinstall of Windows 7 from the DVD.

4.) Reinstall all programs.

5.) copy the data back to your hard drive.

I also know that making an image requires having someplace to store the image, such as an external hard drive, and the reason that many users do not make images and backups, is because they do not want to spend the money to get an external hard drive. This may be the time to bite the bullet and get one.

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I upgraded windows 7 to 8. I do not like Windows 8,and would like to uninstall it. Is there any way to do that like you could with xp many moons ago?

Apologies for not being able to answer your question: I’ve only performed ‘clean install’ upgrades to Win 8 Pro, where I’ve formated the upgraded system during the upgrade and therefore (obviously) couldn’t uninstall it even if I wanted to. That said, I’d suggest that the safest way to revert to Win 7 would be to restore an image of your system that you (hopefully) created just before upgrading, since that would eliminate any possibility that Microsoft didn’t manage the uninstall procedure (if it exists) perfectly.

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Since unless you created an Image of Win 7 before upgrading to Win 8, there may be no easy method of doing this. There is a method (although somewhat involved) to restore Win 7 from the windows.old folder (assuming you did the upgrade install, and a windows.old folder was created).

If none of this works, the complete Install of Win 7 must be done.

Or. . . . you could make a couple of easy customizations and make Win 8 look and feel like Win 7. Install one of the Start Menu replacements ( I use both Classic Shelland Start8 very successfully) then customize the Start Menu replacement app to boot directly to the Desktop UI and disable Charms Bar on the Desktop.

Now your Win 8 will look and feel like your Win 7 did. There are many other customizations shown in the Win 8 forum Sticky Threads to really make Win 8 your own.

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One more thing. I have “scratch” drives. They are mostly old and small, but I had some that were big enough to install Windows 8, so I disconnected my Windows 7 hard drive and connected a scratch drive to install Windows 8 on. When I got tired of playing with Windows 8 all I had to do to get back to my real operating system was disconnect the scratch drive and reconnect my Windows 7 drive.

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Thank you for all your Replies. Only one more question, what image software to you recommend other than the feature in windows.

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I have been using Acronis True Image for a very long time, was never really let down when I needed to restore an image.

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X2 for Acronis True Image 2013

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X3 for Acronis True Image 2013. Or any Acronis app. I have been using the “short” versions now for eons, it fits on a 50 MBs 2.5″ CD, pocket size. It used to be available on their site but lately, I have not been able to find it again. The cat’s meow ! JP.

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Free products which would also do this job are Macrium Reflect Free and EaseUS ToDo Free.

-- rc primak

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If you still have Windows 8 on your computer, why not try installing StartIsBack, which gives you the Windows 7 start button and start menu, and then try Windows 8 a little longer?

I know in my case, once I did that, I had no more complaints of any consequence about Windows 8; and it sure seems a lot faster than previous versions of Windows.

You may be happy with Windows 8 once you do that. If not, you can uninstall it.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Windows 8 tries to bury it, but the complete Windows 7 Backup or Restore Control Panel is still there.

Connect an external USB hard drive to your computer

1) Open the Control Panel
2) if you see View by: Category“, change to View by: Small icons
3) Click on Windows 7 File Recovery
5) In the left panel of the Windows 7 Recovery screen Click on Create a system image

At this point you should already have an external hard drive connected.

The only version of Windows 8 that I have access to is on VirtualBox and it can’t see my external hard drive, so I can’t go any farther, but you should be able to go on from here.

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If I were you, I would stick with Windows 8, because a free update soon to be released called Windows 8.1, is going to address complaints like no Start button.

“Win8 still provides Windows 7’s excellent backup and imaging tools, but Microsoft has renamed them and made them difficult to find, mainly, I think, because it wants users to use Windows 8’s File History (accessed via the Control Panel) for backups. Windows makes mini-backups at 10-minute intervals and saves them to its cloud-based SkyDrive storage space or to another location outside Win8, such as an external or network drive.”

“If you upgraded to Win8 from Win7, it is an item called Windows 7 File Recovery in the Control Panel, which works exactly as it did in Win7, allowing backups and system images to be created. In a clean installation of Windows 8, open File History in the Control Panel and then look for it in the bottom left corner (Recovery and Windows 7 File Recovery).

“On the Windows 8 Start screen just type the word recovery. Doing that makes the Search screen appear. Select Settings if it isn’t selected by default. Windows 7 File Recovery, the new name for the same tool, should appear in the list of results.”

From http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/Essential-information-on-upgrading-to-windows-8.htm

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Read this article. If you don’t like Windows 8 now, help is not on the way.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/30/windows_81_update_changes/

Go ahead and go back to Windows 7

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Or just stay with Windows 8 and turn it into Windows 7 Service Pack 2. See this thread.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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