Windows 10: How to roll back to Windows 8.1 from the Command Prompt?

I have been running Windows 10 Pro on my HP desktop for overa week with no problems. Over theweekend Windows attempted installing an upgrade; not sure when, but during theupgrade process I received a Critical Process Died BSOD with no error code. All system restarts result in the same error, and I havebeen unable to use Repair, Recovery Mode, or Safe mode to isolate theproblem.

The only usable option seems tobe to do a System Restore where I have the choice of losing all installed apps,or losing both all installed apps and files.
Is there any way to roll back to the Windows 8.1 that isstill located in the Windows.old folder from the command prompt?


:)

 

How to Roll back to Windows 8.1 from Windows 10

Hi,

Thank you for being a part of Windows 10.

I would suggest you to try the steps suggested by J W Stuart from the following link and see if that helps.

How to recover a previous build(s) or your original version of Windows using the Recovery or Rollback feature - Revised July 23rd, 2015

How to recover a previous build(s) or your original version of Windows using the Recovery or Rollback feature - Revised August 17th, 2016

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any other issues with Windows in future.

 

How to Roll back to Windows 8.1 from Windows 10

Is it possible to go back to windows 8.1 from windows10 because i have games on my laptop that arent supported by windows 10 on my steam account. Plz help

 

I read somewhere that booting from a Windows 10 install media (USB stick/DVD) and the repair this PC option gives you the option to roll back. Not sure. I'm an all or nothing kind of guy. After a couple days I delete all the old stuff required for a rollback - but I still have my trusty hard drive image stored on USB hard drive.

 

I did try booting from a Windows 10 install DVD; I'm pretty sure that after a failed repair attempt that only options were a full install (with re-partitioning the HD), or an install where all settings/apps/files were lost - I don't remember seeing the roll back option. Thanks, I'll take another look at it tonight to be sure.

 

How is rolling back to Windows 8.1 better than doing a System Restore? It will cause you to lose the same apps (which is not true, only apps you installed after the restore point was created) and it will lose you Windows 10.

I'd recommend truying the restore and see what happens. You may be pleasantly surprised.

 

Yep I fully agree, just tried the restore again to make sure of what I was seeing. I get a message stating that "No System Restore Points Have Been Created on your Computer's System Drive". So I am seem to be unable to do a restore. I also just tried the Go Back to Previous Build option, and get an error stating "We ran into a problem and won't be able to take you back to the previous build. Try resetting your current build instead". Tried Reset, but it only gives me the option of Keeping my Personal Files - but removing apps and settings, or Remove everything.

I had upgraded my wife's notebook computer to Windows 10 Pro at the same time that I upgraded my desktop system. She hated Windows 10, but the OS provided the option of rolling back to her Windows 8.1 as long as it was done within 30 days and the Windows.old folder had not been deleted. The rollback worked like a charm. The Windows.old folder is still intact (with all the files) on my desktop, but because I can't get past the OS boot up, I can't get to the Roll Back function - hence my question if it is possible to access the Windows 10 Roll Back feature from Command Prompt?

 

Rats, another bad decision by Microsoft, to disable System Restore by default.

 

Tried that on my failed HP laptop upgrade -- and all it would say was that it could not restore my system. So, I tried the Repair option -- and all it would say was that it could not repair my system.

 

I know this thread is a little old, but I got the same message when trying to Go back to a previous build today. Two things I did finally worked for me. First, I had to login as a user with administrator rights that had a user profile on the computer before the upgrade. NOTE: The Domain Administrator account wouldn't work. When logged in with that account the Roll Back button did absolutely nothing and the roll back method you tried gave the message "We ran into a problem and won't be able to take you back to the previous build. Try resetting your current build instead". Don't ask me why rolling back didn't work as the Administrator. I have no idea. Second, I had to delete any user accounts created after the upgrade to Windows 10. In our case, this was a domain connected computer. So, the user profile that needed to be removed could only be removed by going to the System Control Panel | Advanced settings | User profiles. Once that was removed we also had to enable the local administrator account with a password we know. Then we were able to revert to the previous version. I wish some of this was documented. So, I hope this comment helps others because it is still an issue.

 

Hold on - people are confusing a System Restore with a System Recover/Reset.

A System Restore only winds pc back a few days to last restore point. Useful for small niggling issues.

A recovery/reset rebuilds OS from scratch (keeping data files if selected).

 

Agree, I thought that's what I said?

 

Hi there .

do you have an image backup of BEFORE you did the upgrade -- here I mean an image taken with a program like Macrium / Acronis etc.

If you did seems a no brainer to restore and then attempt a new upgrade. This way you should still have all your original installed stuff.

I'm not a fan of the old W8 / W7 system image / restore. Programs like macrium / acronis etc are so much superior and in general always work without problem.

Another possibility is if the windows 8 partition is still available boot a Linux CD and copy using DD. Note this should only be attempted if you know some Linux commands and know exactly what you are doing as any errors will hose you up big time.

After recovering W8 you will then need to to Repair system to re-create the boot partition -- should work from the Windows install disk or ISO if you made one. Use RUFUS to create bootable USB if your machine supports that - much easier than mucking around with physical DVD's.

(If you restored using Free macrium or similar system should boot normally without needing to do anything else. Ensure of course when taking backups as well as the "C" (OS) partition you copy the small reserved system partition if there is one and restore that too on restore).

Note though once you get a running system again ALWAYS take a backup image with a program like Free macrium or similar - it makes life so much easier in the event of any mis-haps etc.

Cheers
jimbo