How To Downgrade From Windows 10 To 8.1
Elnora Heidrick
You cannot downgrade to Windows 7 Pro without doing a complete re-installation, and you cannot use a Windows 7 Pro activation key to activate Windows 7 Ultimate. However, you should be able to use the activation key from an OEM copy of Windows Ultimate that you purchase.
If it doesn't accept the Win7 Ultimate activation key when you enter it, you should be able to do a repair installation of Windows using the Ultimate OEM CD that you purchased and use that OEM CD's activation key. It will activate Windoows 7 Ultimate using the OEM CD, but it should not remove any of your files or software.
A Windows 7 Ultimate Installation can normally not change into a minor version of "Windows 7 Home Premium" or "Professional". If you have installed a preview version of Windows 7 Ultimate (e.g. beta, release candidate build 7100 or RTM build 7600) and want to install a cheaper version Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional the installation is refused:
All data, documents, music and movie files, installed driver and programs, shortcuts, program and user settings are retained. Only in a few Windows 7 programs some settings are reset to the initial settings; e.g. in the "services". After the downgrade the Windows 7 installation, of course, must be re-activated.
Can't be done. When you install Windows 7, it installs THAT edition. You can't go backwards. If you use a multi-disk with all the installations, it asks you during Setup, and tells you to make sure you chose the right one. You will need to reinstall Windows 7 Pro to get only the Pro features. If you already have OEM Ultimate, I'd say keep using it (unless it was pirated)
I was in a similar situation. I had "Windows 7 Home Prem OA HP" on a HP desktop I bought new and then upgraded the system to Ultimate with an Upgrade key. But now that I bought a refurb desktop with no OS (with a COA for "Windows Vista Business OEMAc") I needed to use that Ultimate license on the "new" refurb desktop. So my "downgrade ultimate to home premium" search brought me here, amongst other places.
I used the registry solution explained here, manually and without the use of a popular tool from a website called deviantart. I figured I was better off hacking the puter manually myself. I did however used it this way (notice upper & lower case matching the "Ultimate" entry format):
Then, I needed to do the "in-place repair upgrade." I tried using the windows 7 repair disk I had originally made with the HP desktop only to realize that it was not what I needed. What I needed was a Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit installation disk. Since I was afraid to use the system recovery disks of the hp desktop (who knows, it might have worked but I did not want to risk a complete recovery), I downloaded an iso image from digitalriver. For that I followed the advice and links I found on a microsoft community post (://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/can-i-downgrade-from-windows-7-ultimate-to-home/ca6cda9a-3c44-40aa-880f-45b12947a880). I burned the iso image to a dvd using imgburn.
To do the "in-place repair upgrade" I used the DVD I had made, pop it into the dvd drive and allowed autorun to start the process (you can navigate to the dvd and double click setup.exe if necessary). I then followed the process as presented by unawave (www.unawave.de/installation/downgrade-en.html?lang=EN) and here, although the german screen shot is just superfluous. This was a very good step by step site that helped me. I did not get a compatability report about the languages pack; only a small warning that the system needed rebooting before runing setup.exe (which I did before running setup.exe a second time). After the second time running setup.exe, then the rest of the process went as planned. When I was done, I was able to confirm that the windows version had been downgraded to Home Premium.
But, a brief warning about activation of the product key. Once I "downgraded" I needed to re-activate my Home Premium key (stuck on the side of the HP desktop). When I tried activating it, the system responded that it was invalid and that I could not activate it online and needed to do a phone activation process to get an confirmation id. I figured, I was already done with the deed and since I legally owned the license (aka product key) I had nothing to loose. The pop-up warning window asked me to call a toll free number and follow instructions. The call was answered by an automated system which asked me to enter on the phone a total of nine six-digit number groups which were displayed on the pop-up instructions. After this, the automated response indicated that my activation was valid and that I needed to enter eight six-digit number groups (A through H) it would give me to put in their corresponding spaces on the pop-up instructions window (see ://img.technospot.net/windows-7-activation-screen.png). The automated system allows for all the number groups to be repeated to verify they are entered correctly. I completed the phone verification process and there it was ... the install was activated and fully functioning as it used to be. So, this was a successful "in-place repair upgrade" downgrade from Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 7 Home Premium (HP original install).
My thanks go to everyone who contributed in this thread on this page. Also, my thanks go to the following websites and postings which also helped me to do this. Mind you, I used the advice in all of them as advice only and did not follow anyone's instructions blindly or uniquely. Always do your homework before undertaking tinkering such as this ... and of course, always backup backup backup
2) Windows 10 doesn't have games from Windows 7? Apart from solitaire and solitaire collection and all this other crap games I don't even like - At least Microsoft could have left mahjong, chess titans and many other games including minesweeper on Windows 10 for crying out load
3) Windows 10 will not allow me to use XP Mode which I need due to a program that doesn't work on WIndows 7. So when I got my WIndows 7 laptop I've always had XP Mode to run the program that Windows 7 couldn't clearly run and now I can't freaken use it in WIndows 10
5) A pc game called Microsoft Train Simulator clearly doesn't work on Windows 10, although this new laptop has both intel and Nvidia graphics - The only thing that works is the Tools and Editors for Microsoft Train Simulator, this worked great on my WIndows 7 laptop so I don't see any need to using Open Rails as my main game and not use the actural game itself on Windows 10, I've tested all compatibility modes and nothing happens - Get a load of this! A pc game called Alien VS. Predator 2 made in the same year as Microsoft Train Simulator works brilliantly on WIndows 10 so you can see my argument there
I was unable to get internet connection, unable to install driver's, unable to get anything to function correctly it wasn't worth the money I spent upgrading Windows 10 Home edition to Windows 10 Pro so I've obtained a refund for this
it's hard to even understand Indian people it's not their fault so they incorrectly got my address wrong when I had to get recovery media with sadly Windows 10 on it, I still had to pay for it? Not sure why considering when I ordered my recovery media for my Windows 7 laptop I got it free of charge not really sure why I had to pay for the USB recovery media with WIndows 10 on it, but anyway I had to restore the stupid system somehow
Furthermore, HP does not supply Win7 drivers for the new hardware that comes with Win10 PCs, so even though you may be able to FORCE Win7 onto the PC, in all likelyhood, you will find that one or more of the hardware functions will not work properly -- due to the lack of HP drivers.
Others with more access to Win7 drivers may be able to recommend drivers for another PC that will also work with yours, but barring that, forcing Win7 onto this PC is only going to leave you with a nonworking PC.
What I think now is that everyone who has been successful downgrading their desktop or laptop from Windows 10 to Windows 7 is simply they used a WIndows 7 machine which was upgraded to Windows 10, every post I've read and every video I watched is all fake... How about downgrading a REAL new WIndows 10 desktop or laptop, prove me wrong in fact get the same laptop as mine and prove me wrong I bet you will never be successful to all those idiots who post bull, fake, lies saying that it is possible to downgrade
People pay a lot of money buying PC games and software and then when they find out it's not compatible after buying a new desktop or laptop well it's a price we all have to pay for a dumb F**k up that Microsoft could simply fix in Windows 10, and they say that Windows 10 is the best Windows platform Microsoft has ever made what a load of rubbish, WIndows XP was more compatible with games and software from much earlier versions of Windows so therefore WIndows XP was and still is the best Windows platform Microsoft has ever made, I would choose Windows XP over any other Windows platform both 32 and 64 bit systems
Furthermore, the Upgrade from Win7 to Win10, at least on HP machines, is known to corrupt the Recovery information. While folks can still TRY to rollback to Win7 after the Upgrade to Win10, if it does not crash outright (which is usually the case), it may APPEAR to work OK, but then when they reboot into Win7, they invariably find stuff that does not work properly. So, the rollback results appear to be OK -- but they are not.
c80f0f1006