bought Windows 11 s laptop, can I downgrade to Windows 10 home

Yes @lenberman. Read this tutorial

lenberman said:

I bought a new Windows 11 s mode laptop, can I downgrade it to Windows 10 home?

Sure you can.

You should be able to clean install Windows 10 Home, but it is possible pc will be locked to prevent that.

If so, convert W11S to W11H first (free), the clean install W10H.

Switching out of S mode in Windows (microsoft.com)



Why not switch to W11 Home first and try it rather than downgrading anyway?

This is safer as you will less likely run into driver issues. It is not so easy to make an image backup of W11S and if W10 was missing drivers, it will take more effort to recover.

Clean Install Windows 10 if you decide you want 10, but first Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect and make a MR Rescue USB too.

lenberman said:

I bought a new Windows 11 s mode laptop, can I downgrade it to Windows 10 home?

I agree with the other who said you should switch out of S Mode first. Apart from anything else, this will ensure that the digital license for this PC is switched from licensing S Mode on this PC to a digital license for Home.

After that you could do a clean install of 10 Home, but I'd try 11 Home for a while first. I've been using 11 Home on one of my PCs for more than three months now, and it's not really that much different from using 10 Home.

cereberus said:

Sure you can.

You should be able to clean install Windows 10 Home, but it is possible pc will be locked to prevent that........

Any credible confirmed cases of W11 PCs being locked/unable to clean install to 10?

NavyLCDR said:

No.

Thank you. Does sound a bit dictatorial for any PC maker to do that this early in the life of Windows 11.

Windows 10 will be supported until October 2025 for anyone not aware of that fact.

steve108 said:

Thank you. Does sound a bit dictatorial for any PC maker to do that this early in the life of Windows 11.

The digital license may be a restriction. I haven't had my hands on an S Mode machine to test this, but it is entirely plausible that you can't clean install and activate Home until you have switched out of S Mode and upgraded the digital license to Home.

There's no license restriction on 10 vs 11 though. Neither the digital licence or the product key make any distinction, MS now refers to them as being for 'Windows 10/11'.