Re-enable windows 10 after a windows 7 downgrade

handyguy · 23 Apr 2016

Hi,
Due to a few driver issues i tried a downgrade to win7. I loaded a win7 install disk and did a custom install. Booted ok, but i have decided it's not worth the effort to re-install all my old programs, so i want to revert back to windows 10.
The win7 install placed the Win10 files in the standard windows.old file.
MS has this article for reinstalling the windows.old:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/kb/971760

Wondering if that's all there is to it (although step5 of restoring the MBR is not specific for windows 10)
Has anyone else done this, or have any suggestions?
Thanks!

AndreTen · 23 Apr 2016

I would download Win 10 ISO from MS, if you didn't make a copy of it and install clean version.
Activation shouldn't be a problem, since you already activated Windows 10 on this machine.

handyguy · 23 Apr 2016

thanks for the idea, but that would also require a re-install of all software, which i was trying to avoid.

AndreTen · 23 Apr 2016

That's true.
I didn't go that way yet (usually just from 10 back to 7), so hopefully somebody who did will confirm this is correct path.

Good luck!

Edit: And why don't you make usual upgrade?

handyguy · 24 Apr 2016

Well, i renamed the windows.old files, rebooted, and...
Win10 mostly came up, but the start button no longer works, and outlook also does not work, otherwise the other 75% works. To bad MS doesn't support this reversion.