[Tutorial] Downgrade Windows 11 to Windows 10

Need to downgrade Windows 11

The official release of Windows 11 will arrive in late 2021. After upgrading to Windows 11,  if you find out a certain device can’t be compatible with Windows 11 or you just like the design of a perversion version, you may consider rolling back to Windows 10. 

How to: downgrade from Windows 11 to an old version

If you have decided to downgrade Windows 11 and need assistance to complete the operation, two step-by-step guides are listed in the following content and you can choose one correspondingly.

Downgrade from Windows 11 to Windows 10 within 10-day rollback period

The downgrading process is pretty straightforward if you’ve upgraded to Windows 11 in the past 10 days. If it’s been longer than 10 days, then the process is slightly more complicated as you’ll need to clean install the previous operating system (i.e Windows 10) to uninstall Windows 11.

If you upgrade to Windows 11 from a previous version of Windows, you can downgrade your operating system within 10 days from Windows Settings using Windows. old folder. Here are the detailed steps.

Warning: This way won’t damage your data. Nevertheless, it’s still recommended to back up all important files before the downgrade.

Step 1. Click “Start” and choose “Settings”.

Step 2. In the “Settings” window, click “Update & Security” and “Recovery”.

Step 3. Then click “Get Started” under “Go back to Windows 10 or Go back to Windows 7.

Step 4. Choose why you are downgrading Windows 11 among server reasons or you can write your own causes under the “tell us more” box.

Step 5. Click “Next” to continue and wait for the process to complete. During the process, your PC can restart several times.

Step 6. Once the downgrade is finished, log in to your previous Windows account, reinstall your apps and recover your files.

Downgrade OS to Windows 10, 8.1, or 7 from bootable media

If you never had an older version on your computer before Windows 11 installation or it has been more than 10 days, you won’t able to downgrade to a previous version in Windows Settings. Then, you roll back to a n old operating system by perfroming a clean install. 

 What’s you should pay attention to is that this way will cause data loss on your computer. Now, let’s walk through the process. Take installing Windows 10 as an example.

Stage 1. Make a Windows 10 bootable media for installation.

If you have a Windows 10 installation CD/DVD, you can start the process from Stage 2.

Step 1. Insert a USB drive into your computer. Download the Windows Media Creation Tool from Microsoft and run it.

Step 2. Choose “Create installation media” and click “Next”.

Step 3. Select language, architecture, and edition and click on “Next”.

Step 4. Choose “USB flash drive” under “Choose which media to use” and then click “Next”.

Step 5. Choose the USB drive from “Removable drives” and then click “Next”. Then, wait for the process to complete.

Stage 2. Boot your computer from the Windows 10 bootable USB or CD/DVD

Step 1. Insert the Windows 10 bootable media to your computer. Tap the functional key (typically, F1, F2, ESC or DEL key) while restarting the computer to enter BIOS Setup utility.

Step 2. Go to Boot menu and set the installation USB or CD/DVD as the first boot device.

Step 3. Save and exit from BIOS. Then, the computer will boot from the USB or CD/DVD.

Stage 3. Install Windows 10 on your computer hard drive

Step 1. Once your computer starts again, press any key to start and then click “Install Now” to start Windows Setup.

Step 2. Enter your Windows product key. This is the product that came with the Windows CD. Or you have it in your email when you registered for your Microsoft account.

Step 3. Agree to the license terms, click “Next” and choose “Install Windows only”.

Step 4. Choose a primary drive where you need to install Windows 10 and click “Next”.

Step 5. Wait for Windows 10 to install. Once it’s completed, your PC will reboot again.

Step 6. Enter BIOS to choose the computer hard drive as the first boot device.

Step 7. Customize your Windows 10 and log in to your computer account.

Step 8. Wait until Windows 10 get settings and start screen ready. Then, you can use Windows 10 on your computer.

Further reading: Clone the current hard drive for backup

In case of data loss caused by Windows 11 downgrade error, it’s recommended to back up all essential files and folders before the operation. You can clone your existing computer hard drive to an external hard drive to get a copy.

Preparations:

▪ Connect an external hard drive to your computer. Its capacity should exceed the used space of your hard drive in use.
▪ Download hard drive cloning software, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.

Step 1. Install and run the tool. Go to “Clone” > “Clone Disk”.

Step 2. Choose “Clone Disk Quickly” and click “Next”.

Step 3. Select the internal hard drive as the source disk and the external hard drive as the target disk.

Step 4. You can fit partitions to enter disk or edit partitions on this disk. When cloning to a large disk, the first option “Clone without resizing partition” will be available as well.

Step 5. You’ll see a message about how to boot from the cloned hard drive. Click “Finish”.

Step 6. Click “Apply” and “Proceed”. Then wait patiently for the cloning to complete.