those passwords to log in to the original accounts. If you changed the password while in Windows 10 (local account), you need your old password, not your new one. If you created a new account while in Windows 10, you have to delete it before reverting to the earlier version of Windows.2 Make a backup.Before you change any operating system, it’s a good idea to make a full system backup. Many people recommend Acronis for the job, but Windows 10 has a good system image program that is identical to the Windows 7 version. However, the program is hard to find. To get to the system image program, in the Windows 10 search box, type Windows Backup, press Enter, and click Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7). Then, click Create a System Image (on the left) and follow the directions.
3 Run the reset. Click the Start icon and then the Settings icon.Click Update & Security, and then click Recovery. You see an entry to Go Back to Windows 7 or Go Back to Windows 8.1, depending on the version of Windows from whence you came.Click the Get Started button for Back to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, depending on the version of Windows from whence you came.If asked why you are going back, choose a reason and click or tap Next (see Figure 2-1).FIGURE 2-1: When you roll back to Windows 7 or 8.1, you are asked why you want to go back.If you don’t see the Get Started button and are using an administrator account, you’ve likely fallen victim to one of the many gotchas that surround the upgrade. See the next part of this section, but don’t get your hopes up.
4 Revert to Windows 7 or Windows 8.Finally, click Go back to Windows 7 or Go back to Windows 8, and your PC reboots and starts the rollback process. During this time, you see the message: “Restore your previous version of Windows.” After a while (many minutes, sometimes hours), you arrive back at the Windows 7 (or 8.1) login screen.
5 Click the user you want to use and enter the password.You’re ready to go with your old Windows version.
On the other hand, changes made to your regular files while working in Windows 10 — edits made to Office documents, for example, or to new files created while working with Windows 10 — may or may not make it back to Windows 7. I had no problems with files stored in My Documents; edits made to those documents persisted when Windows 10 rolled back to Windows 7. But files stored in other locations (specifically, in the \Public\Documents folder or on the desktop) didn’t always make it back: Sometimes, Word documents created in Windows 10 disappeared when rolling back to Windows 7, even though they were on the desktop or in the Public Documents folder.
Important lesson: Back up your data files before you revert to an earlier version of Windows.
If you can’t get Windows to roll back and detest Windows 10, you’re up against a tough choice. The only option I’ve found that works reliably is to reinstall the original version of Windows from scratch. On some machines, the old recovery partition still exists. You can bring back your old version of Windows by going through the standard recovery partition technique (which varies from manufacturer to manufacturer), commonly called a factory restore. More frequently, you get to start all over with a fresh install of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
A Brief History of Windows 10
So you’ve decided to stick with Windows 10? Good.
Pardon me while I rant for a bit.
Microsoft darn near killed Windows — and most of the PC industry — with the abomination that was Windows 8. Granted, there were other forces at work — the ascendancy of mobile computing, touchscreens, faster cheaper and smaller hardware, better Apple devices, Android, and other competition — but to my mind, the number one factor in the demise of Windows was Windows 8.
Windows 8.1, which arrived a nail-biting year after Windows 8, improved the situation a bit, primarily by not forcing people to boot to the tiled Metro Start screen.
The team inside Microsoft that brought us the wonderful forced Windows 8 Metro experience was also responsible, earlier, for the Office ribbon. Many of us old-timers grumbled about the ribbon, saying Microsoft should at least present an alternative for using the older menu interface. It never happened. Office 2007 shipped with an early ribbon, and subsequent versions have been even more ribbon-ified since. Here’s the key point: Office 2007 sold like hotcakes, despite the ribbon, and it’s been selling in the multi-billion-dollar range ever since. As a result, the Office interface team figured they knew what consumers wanted, and old-timers were just pounding their canes and waggling toothless gums.
The entire Office 2007 management team was transplanted, almost intact, to the Windows 8 effort. They saw an opportunity to transform the Windows interface, and they took it, over the strenuous objections of many of us in the peanut gallery. I’m convinced they figured it would play out like the Office ribbon. It didn’t. Windows 8 is, arguably, the largest software disaster in Microsoft’s history.
Essentially all the Windows 8 management team — including some very talented and experienced people — left Microsoft shortly after that operating system shipped. With a thud. Their boss, Steve Ballmer, left Microsoft too. Ballmer’s still the largest individual shareholder in Microsoft, with 333,000,000 shares at last count, worth $31 billion and change.
In their place, we’re seeing a new generation of managers taking care of Windows. The current head of the Windows effort, Joe Belfiore, oversaw the PC/Tablet/Phone department in the Operating Systems Group at Microsoft. Before Windows 10, he led program management for the Windows Phone team and the effort to create the Metro design language that we hated so much, the disliked Live Tiles, and the much-ignored Cortana.
That said, Microsoft’s traditional PC market has sunk into a funk, and it appears to be on a slow ride into the sunset. Or it may just turn belly up and sink, anchored with mounds of iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, Galaxy Tabs, and Chromebooks. Or maybe, just maybe, Windows 10 will breathe some life back into the 35-year-old veteran. Yes, Windows 1.0 shipped in November 1985.
However things play out, at least we have an (admittedly highly modified) Start menu to work with, as shown in Figure 2-2.
