Windows 10: Revert back to earler version of Office 365?

I have Office 365 that I installed on my son's PC... he mainly uses Outlook. He is blind and uses a screen reading software called JAWS that enables him to use email and the computer in general. While I was on his computer yesterday I noticed there was a Office 365 update so I told it to update. Now after the update his JAWS navigation has become more difficult with his Outlook mail things don't read out the same. He was pretty frustrated about that so unbeknownst to me he tried a Restore (System Restore ? I'm not sure) but whatever he did required me to reinstall Office 365. He couldn't open Outlook because of error screens but after reinstalling it appears to be back to normal, or in the state it was after the initial update. My son still is stuck with an update that makes navigating Outlook much harder.



Now keeping in mind I had to reinstall Office 365 is there a way to revert back to an earlier version of Office 365?

:)

 

How to revert back to previous version of Windows?

Hi Randy,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Community. I understand that you want to know if you can revert back to previous version of Windows as Windows 10 is slower. I will surely help you with this issue.

This issue could have occurred due to conflict between third party applications.



I suggest you to boot the computer to Safe Mode and check if the issue occurs. If the issue do not occur in Safe Mode, I suggest you to set the computer in a clean boot state and check if it helps.



Step 1:

I suggest you to refer the article and check if it helps.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-10/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode



Step 2:

If the issue do not occur in Safe Mode, perform a clean boot and check. Setting the system in a clean boot state will help to identify if any third party applications or startup items are causing the issue.

How to perform a clean boot in Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135





Warning:

1. Applies to Windows 10.

2. After clean boot troubleshooting steps, refer to the section "How to reset the computer to start as usual after troubleshooting with clean boot" in the provided link to return your computer to Normal startup
mode.

However if you still wish to revert back to older Operating System, for a month after you upgrade to
Windows 10 you’ll be able to go back to your previous version of Windows from
Settings > Update & security > Recovery. This will keep your personal files, but it'll remove apps and drivers installed after the upgrade, as well as any changes you made to settings.

Refer the section Go back to your previous version of Windows from the following article for additional information.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-10/windows-10-recovery-options

Hope this information helps. Reply to the post with an updated status of the issue so that we can assist you further.

 

How to revert back to previous version of Windows?

Original title: Windows Upgrade

I recently upgraded to windows 10, but I am not impressed. I will continue to try it but does anyone know if there is a way to go back to my older windows version? This seems to be slower on my laptop and I might want to return to my older window. Thank
you.

 

If you have a ProPlusRetail license you can use the Office Deployment Tool to install earlier versions in the form of update channels.

Update Channel Releases
Version and build numbers of update channel releases for Office 365 clients
Office 2016 Deployment Tool
Download Office 2016 Deployment Tool from Official Microsoft Download Center

I assume that you are using a web installer that is giving you the Current Channel release. If that's the case, you could try using the deployment tool to install the Deferred Channel or the First Release for Deferred Channel. These will be older versions than the Current Channel, but not necessarily the exact same release that you had working before the recent update. After downloading and extracting the Office Deployment Tool you will have "setup.exe" and "configuration.xml". Look at configuration.xml and you'll get the general idea. You could make an XML that is something like this:

<Configuration>
<Add OfficeClientEdition="32" Channel="Deferred">
<Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
<Language ID="en-us" />
</Product>
</Add>
<Updates Enabled="FALSE" Channel="Deferred" />
</Configuration>

Then from an ADMIN command prompt run:

C:\setup-path\setup.exe /configure C:\xml-path\configuration.xml

 

Thunderbird will work with JAWS. Info on scripts for Jaws and Thunderbird. JAWS scripts for Mozilla Thunderbird blind accessibility, ThunderbirdBlind

To use JAWS with 365, they need to update the JAWS software.

 

Boy that sounds pretty complicated to revert back to an earlier version of Office 365.

My son was trained on Outlook so any other email is out of the question. Also updating JAWs would require a new version as we've had to do this few times over the years. These version updates cost several hundred dollars so not something we can afford or want to do at this point in time.

 

I corrected my previous post because it had a typo in the xml... You could hold out for subsequent Office updates and hope that one of them restores functionality. But it's more likely to require an update on the Jaws side. Using the Office Deployment Tool isn't as simple as download and double click, but not too hard really. Is your license for Office 2016 ProPlus? Here is a step by step.

- Uninstall Office from Programs and Features
- Create a new folder on your desktop called "O365"
- Download the Office Deployment Tool Download Office 2016 Deployment Tool from Official Microsoft Download Center
- Run the file you downloaded and when it prompts to browse for folder, point it to "O365" on you desktop.
- You will now have two files in the folder, "setup.exe" and "configuration.xml".
- Right click on "configuration.xml" and select Edit, then delete all the existing text.
- Replace it with the XML text in my previous post. (e.g. copy/paste the 8 lines that are in <> brackets).
- Save and close "configuration.xml"
- Start a new Notepad document and copy/paste the below command into it:

%~dp0setup.exe /configure %~dp0configuration.xml

- Save the file in your "O365" folder and name it "O365.bat"
- Right click "O365.bat" and select Run as administrator
- If done correctly Office should begin downloading and installing.

 

Ok thanks I'll have to decide if I want to tackle that or not. I'm not sure what a ProPlusRetail license is but I just have the regular Office 365 license (Version16.0.6965.2058).

I have come across some people saying you could uninstall your 2016 version and install the 2013 version so maybe that's still an option.

I am finding since my Office 365 updated on my PC that hyperlinks now don't work in my own Outlook anymore. Don't know if this is a bug or a new security setting but it sucks!

 

I don't have a full understanding of all the different activation schemes. But when I install using the described method, my Product Information says Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus. My assumption is that you would be able to activate successfully with your subscription.



Your version16.0.6965.2058 is the Current Channel release. You can see in my screenshot I installed version 16.0.6741.2048, the Deferred Channel. I happened to find a tool that will compile the xml into a traditional executable Office Click-To-Run Configuration XML Editor. I made one if you want to try it - just download and run as administrator: Office365ProPlus-Deferred.exe

Here are instructions for going back to Office 2013: Reinstall Office 2013 after an Office 2016 upgrade - Office Support