How to uninstall Windows 8 Developer Preview from your computer [Updated]

If you want to know how to uninstall Windows 8 Developer Preview there are several things you want to know before installing it.

According to Microsoft, you cannot uninstall Windows 8 from a computer that installed on top Windows 7. If you already have installed the operating system in your machine, the only way is to re-install your previous OS is with the installation media, alternatively restore from backup.

Many users may not be happy about this, but keep in mind that Windows 8 is not a finished product just yet, this is only a preview intended for developers, so they can have a glimpse of what is to come, see how Windows 8 works internally, and they can start building applications.

At this stage you are going to find many things that do not work correctly and many other bugs; Microsoft also made this preview release to collect, learn and fix potential problems that may affect users. All this in any way means that a regular user shouldn’t download and test. In my opinion, I think is encouraged to test the new Microsoft’s OS that way they can find and fix the bugs faster, and the final product may also come earlier.

Here are some other notes when installing Windows 8 Developer Preview

Install on:	Windows Developer Preview with developer tools	Windows Developer Preview (32-bit or 64-bit)
Windows 7 and Windows Vista	Clean install only	You can keep accounts, files and settings
Windows XP	Clean install only	You can keep accounts, files and settings

A clean install is supported on all builds. You will only receive the full set of installation options when setup is started in Windows.

Useful Links

Sep. 18, 2011 Update

Steve Sinofsky, Microsoft’s Windows chief, said in a blog post from the official Building Windows 8 site: ”We are seeing in the forums that there is a lot of interest in running the Windows 8 Developer Preview in a virtual environment. Our telemetry systems reported that approximately one-third of the early installations are on virtual machines. We apologize for not giving guidance up front on testing the Windows 8 Developer Preview in virtual machines.”

Oct. 6, 2011 Update — Uninstalling Windows 8 Developer Preview and reinstalling Windows 7

Because you cannot rollback a previous version of Windows, if you still need a little bit of extra help, you can follow these steps to uninstall/remove Windows 8 from your computer and reinstall Windows 7:

Warning: Before your start, make sure to backup any important data inside of the hard drive, because reinstalling Windows will delete anything on your computer’s hard drive.

1 Make sure that your computer is set up to boot from a bootable media — refer to your computer or motherboard’s user manual to do this –, and in this case insert DVD or USB boot drive and reboot with the OS installation files.

2 Press any key when you are asked to start the installation process.

3 When the installation process starts, select your regional settings, click Next, and then click Install Now.

4 Choose the operating system version if you are asked to, click Next; then accept the license terms and click Next.

5 Click the Custom (advanced) to continue with the process.

6 In the step: Where do you want to install Windows? You need to delete both the System and Primary partition. To do this, for each partition, click the Drive options (advanced), and then click Delete and OK.

7 When you delete both of the partitions, you are going to be left with one drive labeled: Disk 0 Unallocated Space. Now click Next and Windows 7 begin install, then just follow the on-screen prompts to create a new account, name the PC, create password, set date and time, and network settings. After the installation is completed you can go ahead and install any other software you need.

Here you’ll find a more detail tutorial on how to install Windows 7 step-by-step

May. 3, 2012 Update

How to uninstall Windows 8 and restore Windows 7 [step-by-step]

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000082884882 Aaron Slater

How do you reinstall Windows 7, then?
- mhweb
  
  Hi Aaron thanks for your comment.
  You’ll have to restore Windows 7 from backup, re-install using the Windows 7 DVD/USB or if your computer has the recovery function from the manufacture you can do it that way too.
  I am already building a step by step guide to install Windows 7 as soon is out you can also check it out.
  Thanks,
irvinhoe

Great article!
- mhweb
  
  Thank you Irvinhoe!
hahu

Very helpful! Thanks a lot.
I have installed Windows 8 parallel to Windows 7, there is a boot manager. I can format the partition where I have installed Windows 8 and I think it should be easy to repair the boot manager of Windows 7 using the OS DVD.
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Danielle Dunnic

i want windows 8 off my computer my boyfriend downloaded it and i hate it i have my cd that my computer came with when i bought i had windows 7 i didnt do a backup or anything what do i need to do my computer is brand new and i have this stupid crap on it i just want it back to the way it was when i bought it
- mhweb
  
  Hi Danielle,
  You could restore your computer the way it was by using the restoration media that came with the computer, or you can use this process, but this an advanced way to do it http://pureinfotech.com/2011/10/10/how-to-uninstall-windows-8-developer-preview-and-restore-windows-7-step-by-step/
  Thanks, I hope this helps.
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Ortega

After uninstall the Win8, my DVD-rom (HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS50 SCSI) is undetectable anymore. but when i try the rom at other computer, it just work fine…i try using other rom that is in good condition on my pc, still dont detect..i try delete upper/lower filter, Microsoft fix it, reinstall the driver, update bios, take out the mobo ( ASUS AM PLUS M2N68) battery, change the sata connection…all just didnt work. What hv you done to me Microsoft. I want my dvd rom back T.T
- mhweb
  
  Hello Ortega,
  Try this, go to Device Manger in Windows, uninstall the device manager, uninstall the drivers, but make sure that you check the box to delete the drivers files from the computer.
  Turn off the computer and install the DVD-Rom in a different port, boot the pc again and install drivers again.
  Also, you can try disconnecting all the peripherals from your pc and only leave the essentials (mouse, keyboard, and monitor), then in the motherboard disconnect everything but the essentials, like CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, and the DVD-Rom. Boot the computer again an see if Windows recognizes the drive again.
  
  Thanks,
  - Ortega
    
    still doesn’t work…in device manager it is listed as “unknown” and under it “CD-ROM Drive” and “?” symbol…i try to update the driver online but it said ‘this device is up to date’ and when i check the properties it said this device is working properly…anyway thank you to mhweb for your concern….
    - mhweb
      
      Not a problem, just make sure that you really delete the CD-Rom drivers of the computer, before reinstalling, because if you don’t Windows will keep using the same device drivers that may be damaged for the reinstall.
      
      Thanks,
mhweb

Usually when uninstalling a device driver in Windows you will get an options that you can check called “Delete the driver software for this device” to erase the driver’s files from your PC.
This will ensure that that when your reinstall the driver it will not use the one that may be corrupted.

Thanks,
mhweb

Rasmus, sadly issues are likely to be expected, that is one of the reasons Microsoft still not supporting reverting back to Windows 7 from Windows 8. Said that, you just go to your computer’s manufacture website and re-download the network card drivers from another computer. Then save the driver into a USB drive, go back to the computer with the problem, insert the USB drive and reinstall the network drivers once again.
Thanks,