How To Undo Windows 10 Installation

Susan Bradley

By , Contributing Writer, Computerworld |

How to get rid of Windows 11 (and roll back to Windows 10)

If you've tried Windows 11 and for some reason want to go dorsum to its predecessor, timing is central. The clock begins ticking as soon as yous movement to Windows 11. Hither's what to practice.

So, you've installed Windows 11, kicked the proverbial tires and taken it for spin — and at present you want to get back to tried and trusty Windows 10 until the new-OS dust settles. Tin can you uninstall it without having to reinstall your old operating system from scratch?

The reply depends on how long ago you installed Windows xi and how y'all did and so.

Let's assume first that you lot didn't use the Insider program to get Windows xi. (And you didn't adjust your registry to manually go around any hardware block.) Instead, yous were offered the upgrade because your PC had the correct processor, TPM chip, and other necessary items. If so, and it'south not been more than ten days since you installed Windows 11, yous tin can go to Settings>System>Recovery and choose "Go Back." This will revert your computer to the Windows 10 version you had before installing Windows eleven. You'll be asked if you want to check first for updates to Windows 11; decline that and follow the wizard to render to Windows 10.

Reboot and you're all set.

What if you didn't intend to install Windows 11 and paused it mid-installation? If you lot're at the betoken where the operating system is prompting you to reboot to stop the move to Windows 11, it's safer to reboot, consummate the installation, then follow the guidance above to roll dorsum to Windows 10.

Notation: Windows 11 should merely offer you the new feature release, information technology should not automatically install; y'all have to specifically choose to install it. That said, I've heard of at to the lowest degree one person who said they only clicked on "check for updates" and the installation started. I've seen this sometimes happen when third-party security software made selections a user didn't intend. In my ain experience, I've not had this happen. Still, I strongly recommend that you never click on "check for updates" on an unmanaged estimator when y'all're unsure whether you've taken whatever action to defer or cake updates. "Unmanaged" is defined by Microsoft as not being managed by a patching tool such as WSUS, SCCM, Intune, or other 3rd-party patching platforms. (If yous somehow wound up with Windows 11 without agreeing to install it, I'd love to hear about it in the Askwoody forums.)

To avert inadvertently updating to Windows xi, remember that if you've installed the September cumulative updates (or later), the TargetReleaseVersion setting now offers a new fashion to define which Bone version y'all want. If you accept group policy on Windows 10 Professional, drill downwards to Computer Configuration>Authoritative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Update>Windows update for business. Expect for "Select the target Characteristic Update Version." Click to enable information technology and enter Windows 10 in the box, "Which Windows product would you lot like to receive feature updates for? E.g. Windows ten." (If yous are on Windows 10 Habitation version, you lot can employ the registry key method to exercise likewise.)

Windows group policy — User can define which OS version they want using the TargetReleaseVersion setting.

If you've been using Windows 11 for less than 10 days, y'all can review how long you still accept to uninstall it by querying the value. From an elevated command prompt (type in cmd, right-mouse click and click on run as administrator), you can then check the value of the uninstall window setting by using this DISM command:

DISM /Online /Get-OSUninstallWindow

If you've not made whatever changes to the defaults this value volition exist ten. If you lot'd like this to exist longer, use the post-obit command and fix the value to be longer than 2 days and less than lx days.

DISM /Online /Ready-OSUninstallWindow /Value:[days]

Extending that number past 10 days gives you more fourth dimension to evaluate Windows 11. Only accept note of when the menses ends then you lot can roll back to Windows 10 easily. It's also important to recall that the prior version volition be saved in a file called windows.old, so don't delete that file. Because it's commonly a large file, information technology volition be flagged by whatever file-size program.

If it'south been longer than the default of 10 days and you no longer have the option to roll back to Windows x, you lot have ii choices: Y'all can stay on Windows xi or reinstall Windows 10. If y'all remain with Windows 11, you might want to install the optional end-of-the-month not-security updates, every bit Microsoft volition be sliding in fixes in an accelerated mode for a few weeks.

If you lot find there is some issue that you cannot alive with — and y'all have no idea when it will be fixed — your only other option is to exercise a clean install of Windows 10. (Because yous all the same have a digital license for either Windows 10 or Windows 11 you don't need to worry about finding a product key that you lot tin can't probably observe anymore.)

Offset make sure you lot take a full fill-in of your data since will exist installing on summit of the existing data. You tin can download the Windows ten media from the Windows x .iso download site and so prepare the reckoner to kicking from the flash drive. Typically, I observe this is often the hardest part of the process — finding the combination of keys that allows you into the bios to force the system to boot from the wink drive.

Once it finds the Windows ten .iso file, your PC will install Windows 10. You'll side by side want to go into Device Managing director (click on search and type "device manager" to call information technology up). Await for any hardware that has assertion marks — a sign that something is missing a driver. If you are missing drivers, I recommend that you avoid random searches online for missing drivers; go to the manufacturer'south site and find drivers at that place. Most vendors allow you lot to scan the computer system or search for your verbal model to allow you to install the drivers you need.

Generally, whatsoever missing device drivers will be added after installing motherboard or firmware updates. If you built your ain computer years agone, hopefully you placed the drivers y'all needed on a saved bulldoze or flash drive for just this purpose.