Revert OS from W10 to W8.1

Man69 · Nov 23, 2019

"Most of the time, you won’t really need a recovery drive or system repair disc. If Windows fails to start normally twice in a row, it automatically boots from your recovery partition on the third restart, and then loads the advanced startup options. ..."

The above was extracted from an article. If the original OS of a computer was W8.1,and there was a recovery image in the hidden partition, but the computer has been reinstalled with W10, and the W10 boots well.

Can I use this method to revert the OS from W10 to W8.1?

How do I make the computer to fail boot twice?

x BlueRobot · Nov 23, 2019

Why do you want to revert back to an older operating system?

Man69 · Nov 23, 2019

x BlueRobot said:
Why do you want to revert back to an older operating system?

The original OS in my laptop is W8.1, there is a recovery image in the hidden partition and I have made a recovery drive. Three days ago I installed W10 version 1909 in laptop, but the display was dim and dull, so I intended to revert the OS.

I tried using the recovery options in W10 and in the recovery drive to revert the OS, but all failed because options in both methods only allowed me to reset/repair W10, there was no access to the hidden partition or to the recovery image in the recovery drive.

x BlueRobot · Nov 24, 2019

Man69 said:
but the display was dim and dull, so I intended to revert the OS.

That won't be due to Windows 10. Have you checked the power settings for your laptop?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027067/windows-10-how-to-adjust-power-and-sleep-settings

There should be an option under your power plans about dimming the display.

Man69 · Nov 24, 2019

x BlueRobot said:
That won't be due to Windows 10. Have you checked the power settings for your laptop?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027067/windows-10-how-to-adjust-power-and-sleep-settings

There should be an option under your power plans about dimming the display.

The brightness control of W10 V.1909 has changed, brightness cannot be adjusted by the F keys, but by a slider instead, the brightness settings in the power plan has disappeared, I updated the display driver and set the brightness to 100%, but the display still dim and dull.

I have a desktop and a 10+ years laptop also updated to W10 V.1909 but no similar problem noted, I think it is related to compatibility.

SleepyDude · Nov 24, 2019

Hi,

Please post the brand and model of the machine.

How did you install W10 version 1909? It was offered by Windows Update?

Man69 · Nov 24, 2019

I used the Media Creation Tool to down load the .iso file then used the Universal USB Installer to create a bootable USB.

What I wish to know most is how to revert the OS. The recovery drive seems useful only when the installed Windows is same as the Windows in the recovery drive.

Sysnative Windows Update · Nov 25, 2019

Hi!

You have a limited time (10 days) to do so and only if it was an upgrade.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027936/windows-10-go-back-to-windows-7-or-windows-81

Man69 · Nov 25, 2019

I reverted the OS to W8.1.

Opened BIOS, disabled the boot process, then exit, the boot failed, repeated one more time, a message appeared, followed the message to press F4, then the build-in recovery process started.

Thank you for your efforts.

jcgriff2 · Nov 25, 2019

You didn't happen to create W8.1 Recovery DVD(s) from the hidden recovery partition (per the owner's manual) before upgrading to Windows 10, did you?

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

Man69 · Nov 25, 2019

Amendments to post #9

I repeated the process two times, the laptop also failed to boot in the second attempt, in the third attempt, it booted from the recovery partition and the recovery display appeared.

Man69 · Nov 25, 2019

jcgriff2 said:
You didn't happen to create W8.1 Recovery DVD(s) from the hidden recovery partition (per the owner's manual) before upgrading to Windows 10, did you?

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

No. I have the W8.1 recovery drive.

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