Windows 10 Revert windows 10 to previous version

[spiderplant0]

I have a Dell Inspiron N5050 that has been upgraded to windows 10. I doesnt work properly. (It suffers from the black screen on boot issue where you have to close and open the lid to get the display to show, plus the desktop continuous flicker/refreshing issue, plus the start menu will not show issue.) So I want to revert to WIndows 7. However I cant get to the revert menu item in the control panel as I cant get the start menu to work. I have also tried pressing windows + R key and typing "control panel". The control panel pops up and them instantly close again.

I have tried running the command (the powershell window does seem to stay open): sfc /scannow
and also I have rebooted + F8 key and done the Troubleshoot.

Is there another way I can get windows 10 to recover back to windows 7?

Unfortunately I dont have any recovery disks for the original OS.

 

[kemical]

This guide may help:
How to Uninstall Windows 10 and Downgrade to Windows 7 or 8.1

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

Does you computer still have it's original Dell recovery partition?

Mike

 

[spiderplant0]

It does still have the recovery partition (I can see it if I boot the PC using an ubuntu live cd), but I couldn't figure out how to activate it. When I press key F8 during boot, I get to the repair menu. I tried the repair option that leaves your files intact - this fixed some issues but it was still win 10. If I choose the option to delete all files, will this use the recovery partition and get windows 7 back?

I thought about downloading a windows 7 ISO as I have my 25 character product key. Windows 7 came preinstalled so I cant download the windows 7 ISO from the microsoft site. Does anyone know how I can get a windows 7 install disk?

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

It would delete all of you files if it does a recovery, the hard drive would look just the way it did when you got it.

Read through this and see if there is any help.

Link Removed

Have you tried downloading the Windows 7 ISO?

Link Removed

It says you can if you have your product key.

Windows 7 ISO used to be available to anyone from Digital River with Microsoft's blessing, I don't know why they've made it harder.

Can you use your Ubuntu disk to backup all your important stuff?

Mike

 

[spiderplant0]

Thanks Mike, That was the site that I used to tied to download the ISO. I typed in my product key but it said I could not download it as my windows was a pre-installed version.

On the Dell website it says I can go back to factory state, but it only has options for using the windows start-menu (which I cant access), or using recovery media (which I dont have). Other sites say I can use the F8 method, but I havent found the "Dell Factory Image Recovery and DataSafe Options" on the boot menu.

What is so annoying is that I didnt even want windows 10. When one of the numerous win 10 nag pop-ups came up, someone accidentally clicked on the wrong thing and windows 10 got installed.

 

[spiderplant0]

Update, I discovered that the start menu could be accessed immediately after login. But when I tried to revert, it told me that it could not be done (and when I checked, the windows.old folder was not present). This is strange as it has been less than a month from when windows 10 was installed and there is plenty of space on the hard drive.

I can now no longer access the F8 recovery boot menu. From what I read the F8 boot menu is part of windows (F2 and F12 are part of BIOS). So it looks like windows is totally goosed and I should reinstall from scratch (I have backed up the data). So unless there is a way to create a bootable CD and access the recovery partition that way, I think my remaining option is to somehow get my hands on a win 7 installation DVD. Anyone know how I can do that given that I have an OEM version of windows 7.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I don't know anything about this site but they offer downloads for all the versions of Windows 7...

Operating Systems

Make sure you pick the one that matches your previous install.

McAfee says this site it safe but it's new to me.

pcriver.com | Web Safety Ratings from McAfee SiteAdvisor

Mike

 

[spiderplant0]

Mike, thanks for the link to win 7 iso. In the end I reinstalled windows 10 selecting the 'remove all user data etc' and it now seems to work.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

Glad to hear that you got it fixed, probably better then going back to 7 anyway.
Windows 10 is the way it's going to be for a long time.

Mike