Windows
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To uninstall Windows 8 and restore Windows 7 is not a straightforward process, but it is not impossible; follow the step-by-step from this Pureinfotech article to rollback Windows 7.

As many of you know Windows 8 Developer Preview uninstall is not supported by Microsoft at this time, however if you are not afraid, you can manually restore Windows 7 after you install Windows 8. But I have to warn you, there must be a reason why uninstalling Windows 8 is not yet supported. This step-by-step process, which I am about to describe worked for me, and I hope it works for anyone that has been effected and needs the help, but proceed with caution at your own risk.

In my opinion, one mistake that Microsoft did with the release of this preview release of Windows was to not show an alert to users, saying that if they upgrade, they cannot go back to the previous version of Windows when they start the installation process — even though, if you were following all the Windows 8 Developer Preview presentations, Microsoft many, many times said that you cannot go back to a previous version of Windows, and if you are planning to test the new operating system, you should try it in a spare machine to experience the full capabilities of the operating system or you should use a virtual machine. Also in the download page, at the bottom, the company noted that you cannot uninstall the Windows Developer Preview –.

But if you were affected by upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 8 Developers preview instead of doing a custom install, and you want to go back, you should know that not everything is lost just yet, this tutorial is going to guide you through step-by-step to restore Windows 7. Keep reading to learn more:

Uninstall Windows 8 and restore Windows 7

Important: Before you start, make sure you backup all of your important data and have in hand the installation media for any program that you may want to reinstall later — this is just in case something doesn’t go as expected, because there is a reason for Microsoft not to support this process at this time.

1  First, while in Windows 8 Developer Preview, go to Computer, in the Hard Disk Drives area, double-click Local Disk C:, and determine whether the Windows.OLD folder exists.

Important: If the Windows.OLD folder does not exist, you cannot continue with this process to restore the previous Windows installation to this computer.

2  Right-click the Windows.OLD folder, and click Properties to determine whether the Windows.OLD folder is smaller that the free space available in the Local Disk C:.

Note: If the Windows.OLD folder is twice the large of the free available space in the Local Disk C:, you may not be able to restore Windows 7.

3  Next, insert the Windows 7 DVD or USB bootable drive in your computer, restart and when you are asked, press any key to start the installation process.

4  In the Install Windows box, select your settings for language, time, etc., and then click Next.  

5  In the next step click Repair your computer in the bottom-left corner of the window.

Windows 7 - Repair your computer

6  Now, in the System Recovery Options window, click Windows 8 Developer Preview operating system, and then click Next.

System Recovery Options - Searching for Windows installations

7  In the System Recovery Options window, click Command Prompt – The command prompt is the tool you are going to use to restore Windows 7.

You may start in X:\Sources>, you need to enter the drive letter where Windows 8 is installed, it should be in C: but this wasn’t my case, I actually had to test letter-by-letter, until I landed in the correct drive letter, which for me was D:. -How did I know that it was D:? Because each time I tried different letters I got the message: The system cannot find the drive specified. Then when I successfully landed on D:, I typed the command dir and all the Windows 8 installation files, plus the Windows.OLD were there. 

Uninstall Windows 8 - Windows 7 Command Prompt

8  Type the following commands at the command prompt:

Type the following and press Enter:

ren Windows Windows.8

Type the following and press Enter:

ren “Program Files” “Program Files.8″

Type the following and press Enter:

ren “Users” “Users.8″

Uninstall Windows 8 - Windows 7 Command Prompt - REN Command

9  Copy the contents or move the contents of the Windows.OLD folder:

Type the following and press Enter:

move /y D:\windows.old\windows D:\

Type the following and press Enter:

move /y “D:\windows.old\program files” D:\

Type the following and press Enter:

move /y D:\windows.old\users D:\
Important: Change D:\ in the command described above with the drive letter that applies to your drive where Windows 8 is installed.

Uninstall Windows 8 - Windows 7 Command Prompt - Move

10  Go to the Windows 7 installation media drive. This step is a little bit tricky, at the beginning I thought that X:\ was the drive letter for the Windows 7 installation media, but it turned out that it wasn’t, you’ll need to scan once again, like in step 8, for the drive letter of the CD/DVD-ROM drive, in my case was E:\. You’ll know if it is the CD/DVD-ROM drive, because when you type the command dir you’ll see these files and folders: boot, bootmgr, setup.ext, sources, upgrade, etc.

12  Now you need to restore the boot sector for the previous Windows installation.

Type the following command and press Enter:

boot\bootsect /nt60 D:
Important: Replace D: with drive letter where Windows 8 Developer Preview is installed.

Uninstall Windows 8 - Windows 7 Command Prompt - Fix boot

13  Last type Exit to close the command prompt and click Restart. Don’t forget to remove the Windows 7 DVD or USB bootable drive from your computer. And now you are done, you just uninstall Windows 8 Developer Preview and restore Windows 7.

Windows 7 restored

If everything went well, but you forgot to backup some of the files, you may find them in the renamed folders, open the Run command and type: C:\Users.8 to find documents and files, and C:\Windows.8 to find the previous installation files of Windows 8. Also note that applications installed while you had Windows 8 may stop working after the process.

Now that you are back to Windows 7 you can just be done, but if you want to tweak the system a little bit more, you can remove the Windows Developer Preview entry from the boot menu. To do this, go to Start , type and open the Run command, type msconfig, navigate to the Boot tab, select Windows Developer Preview (recovered) (C:\Windows.8), click Delete, Apply and then OK. 

Windows 7 msconfig

Now, if you would like to reclaim the space used by the installation of Windows 8, you’ll need to repeat steps 3 to 6. If you get the message that there are some problems found, just click Cancel — in the next step we’ll make that go away –, then click Command Prompt and type the following:

rd windows.old /s /q
rd windows.8 /s /q
rd “program files.8″ /s /q
rd users.8 /s /q
rd /$windows.~bt /s /q
exit

Now click Restart to finish

I noticed that after you do this, Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, and Windows Media Player pinned links might break, but don’t worry these applications still in your system, just remove the blank pinned links, open the applications and pinned them back to the taskbar, if you need to.

Remove Windows 8 installation

Last, if you didn’t like to see the label Windows Developer Preview (C:\Windows): Current OS; Default OS, as the label for Windows 7 in the msconfig, you can easy change this back to the label Windows 7 by downloading and installing an application called EasyBCD. Launch the application, click Edit Boot Menu, select Windows Developer Preview, click Rename and type Windows 7, and finally click Save Settings.

EasyBCD - Edit Boot Menu in Windows 7

I hope this helps to anyone that encounter themselves in this situation where uninstall Windows 8 Developer Preview and restore Windows 7 is necessary. Just remember to never install or upgrade to an operating system that has not been officially released and doesn’t have any official support.

Be the first to leave a comment or leave questions about how to uninstall Windows 8. 

 
 
 
 
By Pit on October 10, 2011Email the author  Twitter  Tip us!
 
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  • Amit

    That works thanks a lot buddy i really apreciate ur effort

    • mhweb

      Awesome! Thank you for the kind words, I am glad it worked for you.

    • Wd786

       Great, Thanks

  • http://twitter.com/naveen_kazak Naveen K R

    Some real stuff left to do uh? I am just not confident enough to do this, but what the hell! I will try this now! :D And I hope this works for me too.

    Between, this is an amazing explanation, step by step. Thanks mate!

    • mhweb

      Thank you so much!

  • Alchael

    I will try this method that you posted. Thank you so much for taking the trouble to post this. What a helpful person you are. Blessed art thou mate. :)

    • mhweb

      I appreciate you comment,
      Thanks,

  • Deadmau5_15

    Ok i folowed all the steps and got blue screen Of death

  • Deadmau5_15

    so ya im basicaly stuck. i did all the steps and restarted… everything boots normaly the i get the BOD and the only option is to repair which takes me to the develeper preview trying to repair. my laptop is unusable right now.HELP

    • mhweb

      Hi Deadmau5, If you can, see if you can get any more information from the Blue Screen of Death. Here are some pointers read the second line which is going to give you some indication to what has failed, also towards the bottom you’ll find Technical information: see what is there what what file is having the problem.
      After you have an idea what caused the problem, you can restart your computer in safe mode (press F8 when booting up) and reinstall any drivers that may be causing the problem or try to file any other problem.

      I hope this helps you at least start looking for a solution to your problem.
      Thanks,

      • Deadmau5_15

        well it says “A process or thread crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been termanated”
        and when i press F8 on boot it doesnt do anything.

        • mhweb

          What does it say under Technical Information: *** Stop:…

          • Deadmau5_15

            stop:0x000000F4(0×00000003,0×95590668,0x955907D4,0x81E60D60)

          • mhweb

            See if you can get to System Recovery options with the Windows 7 media, go the Command Prompt, and the switch from X:Sources to the drive where you have installed Windows 7 e.g. D: Once there type chkdsk /r, then bootrec /fixboot and restart. I hope this helps you out a little bit.
            Thanks,

          • Deadmau5_15

            That did nothing really i still got a blue screen but with different words

            STOP:0x000000F4(0×00000003,0xA6606AC0,OxA6606C2C.0x81E1DD60)

  • Bg-san

    I have done it to day. It worked fine till the end. I ran in a minor problem at step 12 were to restore the boot sector. The command wasn’t recognized at the roots of my drive. I had to go to map Boot and run there the         bootsect /nt60 D:
    Thanks,

    • mhweb

      Bg-san thank you for your comment, I am glad it worked, and thank you for the feedback, this may also help someone else.

      Thanks,

  • http://www.facebook.com/mohammad.cherbatji Mohammad von Cher

    hi this seems realy helpfull man but i have a problem ya see after i saved all my personal files i formatted the drive C: whichs the main drive for me. then i tried installing win7 and the system wount let me i keep getting the same error when i pick any off the partitions (setup is unable to create a new system partiton or locate an existing system partition. see the log files for more information.). and i also tried doing the same with windows vista and the same problem aswel.
    i would realy appriciate it if you could help me thanks mate

    • mhweb

      I don’t know if this is a laptop or a full desktop either way, try disconnecting any peripheral that is not needed and only leave connected keyboard, mouse and monitor, unplug the power and remove battery if this is a laptop. If you can and carefully disconnect the hard drive and reconnect properly once again. Plug the power back on. Now try to boot again with the Windows 7 DVD and see what happens.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1147989325 Daniel Vieira

    I followed all the steps but when I asked the I type cmd and Windows ren”windows.8 ”he saidspecified file not found …

    please help- me.

    • mhweb

      Hi Daniel,
      While in step 7 type the dir command and the Windows directory doesn’t come up, you need to manually search for the drive where Windows installed (see the step 7 for more details). Look at the image in step 7 for reference.
      Thanks,

  • http://twitter.com/Danlgraph Danl’graph

    hi,

    Step 9 = when I put:.”move /y D:windows.oldwindows D:” he told me access denied why?

    • mhweb

      Hi there, just to make sure, did you boot the computer with the Windows 7 installation media (example: DVD or usd flash drive)?

      Let me know the circumstances you are getting this message, that way I can try to help more and I know that we are in the same page.
      Thanks,

      • http://twitter.com/Danlgraph Danl’graph

        yes absolutely I start with the dvd w7 Then I followed step by step until the 9 and when I put ”move / y D:  Windows.old  windows D: ” it said access denied! and move / y “D:  Windows.old  Program Files” D:  access denied

  • Christopher Gior..

    Everytime I type in move /y D:windows.oldwindows D: it says Access denied. Any solutions? Please help!! Im freaking out!!! When I try to login back in it wont let me!!

    • mhweb

      Hello Christopher,
      Please let me know the circumstances in which this happened, are you trying this in the command prompt within Windows? Because you should be doing this from the Windows Recover Environment when you boot from the Windows 7 DVD.
      Let me know what you’ve done, so I can try to help you better.
      Thanks,

      • Anonymous

        I dont think my previous reply worked so I am going to reply again, Yes I am using the windows recovery disc command prompt, not the command prompt within windows. And by the way, is there is any way to reverse the effects of step 8, and go back to windows developer preview, making my computer semi usable? Because if this doesnt work I would like to do that.

        • mhweb

          Hello Christopher! If you didn’t delete anything and you didn’t go beyond step 8, you could just type:
          ren Windows.8 Windows
          ren “Program Files.8” “Program Files″
          ren “Users.8” “Users″

          I hope this help. Also just a general tip, always create a full backup of your computer before modifying anything in your computer — http://pureinfotech.com/2010/10/08/how-to-create-and-restore-a-system-image-full-backup-in-windows-7/

          For the access denied problem you could be having to issues in the drive, you can try checking the hard drive for errors with the command chkdsk /r and try once again step 9.
          Thanks,

  • Ashkan

    Hi,

    Just one addition to this.. You also need to move in the same way the folder “ProgramData”, if you are using the 64 bit of the windows . Before you can do that, you have to set the attribute of the both folder:

    attrib -H -R d:ProgramData /S /D 
    and 
    attrib -H -R d:windows.oldProgramData /S /D

    Ashkan.

    • mhweb

      Ashkan thanks for the additional information!

  • Amr Koptan

    Dear Poster
    thanks for the information, it worked for me but i lost all the programs inside the “Program Files x86″ Floder as i’m running on a 64-bit version, is there something missing ?? coz i realized that i deleted extra 20GB from my hard drive

    • mhweb

      Amr thank you for your comment. Some unpredictable things will always happens and more for a process that still not supported by Microsoft. There shouldn’t be a reason for you to lose the Program Files x86 folder unless during the process you accidentally deleted it or renamed it.
      You could try restoring the folder if you had a backup in place before you started the process or you could restore the full backup and try again to see if this time the same thing happens again.

      Thanks,

  • Phil Huang

    Thank you so much for your great help. It works great.  I just have one minor comment while following all the step.
    In step 12, type below instead as shown on the screenshot.  Put only the drive letter (ex. D: insted of D:)

    bootbootsect /nt60 D:

    • mhweb

      Phil thank you for your comment and for your input, I just fixed it that way everyone can type the command right the first time.
      I am glad it helped you.
      Thanks again,

  • NewComer

    Works Gr8, but i can’t find any files under Desktop->Libraries folder. How i can recover that files ? many files missing on desktop too. I found interesting too as files which was on desktop of Windows 8 is not in windows 7 and some files/shortcuts which was not there in windows8  is back in windows 7. and when outlook starts, it says usersuserappDataLocalMicrosoftOutlookOutlook.pst file not found while i’m sure that i has copied Users folder and my user name too came fine in windows.

    Any ways to recover those files ?

    • mhweb

      Hello NewComer thank you for your comment! Unfortunately if you have files in the Windows 8 libraries they are not going to show up under the Windows 7 libraries, because in the process you have rename the Users folder from Windows 8 to Users.8 and then you brought back the Windows 7 Users folder, and inside this folder is where all the users documents are located.
      You could open the Run command and (if you didn’t delete the folder yet) type C:Users.8 and press Enter, there you may be able to find all files that you created while in Windows 8 (e.g. Outlook, Docs, etc) and move them over to the Windows 7 libraries.
      As I mentioned in the article some shortcuts are expected to not work, but you should be able to re-recreate them manually, as I have found some broken shortcuts myself.
      Ultimately you could restore missing files from the backup that you may have created before starting this process.

      Thanks,

  • mhweb

    Hello,

    Since restoring Windows 7 from Windows 8 it is not yet an option officially supported by Microsoft. It is unpredictable the results when you are doing this process, backing up the whole system, using an spare computer, or a virtual machine will be best to test Windows 8. Said that, you can give a try going to Turn Windows features on or off in Windows 7 and see if the feature Games is checked, if it is, uncheck it and click OK to turn it off/disable, reboot if necessary. Then go back to Turn Windows features on or off and check Games and click OK to re-enable once again Games. See if that solve the problem.
    Always remember to backup before making changes to your system! http://pureinfotech.com/2010/10/08/how-to-create-and-restore-a-system-image-full-backup-in-windows-7/

    Thanks,

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001338155540 Haley Li

    I installed Windows 8 but I don’t have the old Windows 7 DVD anymore, is there any other way?

    • mhweb

      See if you can access and view the Windows.old folder from the command prompt.
      If for sure the Windows.old isn’t there, I wouldn’t recommend you doing this.
      The only thing I would recommend you is to wait for Windows 8 Beta that is due before the end of February and hoping that you can upgrade Windows 8 Developer Preview. Windows 8 Beta is more than likely that is going to come with the utility to uninstall.

  • Princeps Hendricus

    Hi

    Well my problem is, that I need microsoft Office for my school and it didn’t came with win 8. I had it in win 7. I could get used to win 8 but I need office to use it in my school. Otherwise I need to rollback to win 7 or something. Also It seems that the resolution is messed up with win 8, I have 2 resolution to choose from, but It still seems like its too wide or something. About rollin back to win 7, I have a laptop with no CD drive and I’m not sure if I could get offical win 7 from usb but I still have windows.old folder with the size of 30gb. 

  • Eric Rauch

    Thank You Sooooooo Much.

  • Eric Rauch

    Thank You Sooooooo Much

  • Tlock111

    Brilliant. just used your steps and PERFECT..back to windows 7

    • mhweb

      Quick question did you use it with Developer Preview or Consumer Preview?
      Thanks,

  • Warriorinarmor

    I was able to restore the system, thanks to your instructions. But am not able to login to windows7 using my password. It gives me a error message which says “HRESULT 0x8007ffff”. This is the only user account associated with the system.

    • mhweb

      Hello Warriorinarmor, thank you for your comment!
      Try this: Restart the computer on safe mode (using F8 when the computer starts), then try to log in and if you do, change the password to anything else but the one you’ve been using until now.

      Remember uninstalling Windows 8 still not a supported feature, so issues are expected!

      Thanks, I hope this works : )

      • Warriorinarmor

        Hello,
        Thanks for your reply. :) i am unable to login to safe mode, the only option i can see is “normal startup” and “system repair”. When i type in bootrec /scanos it says 0 operating system installed.

  • Mateus Paes C. C..

    I dont see the option Repair Your Computer… 
    What’s going on? Someone let me out of this Windows 8 nightmare!

  • http://twitter.com/vallejoman David Vallejo

    Darn you Windows 8!

  • mhweb

    Hello Lost,
    Because this feature still not supported by Microsoft issues are expected. Said that, get into your computer BIOS and there might be a setting to turn the PS/2 ports on / off.
    Also you can start you PC and plug a different keyboard and or mouse, and see if Windows 7 install the new peripherals.

    Try this first and let me know if it worked.
    Thanks,

  • mhweb

    I am glad it did!
    Thanks Vivio for your comment.

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  • Justick

    I have the Consumer Preview Version Eval Copy Build 8250 and had Win 7 64 bit running on the machine are there any major difference in the restore process?  I understand just about all of what you printed just wanted to make sure I had ALL the steps for the 64bit reinstall

    • mhweb

      Hello Justick,
      Short answer, Microsoft is not yet supporting to restore from Windows 8 to a previous version of Windows. However I have published a workaround that it could help you to do this process, but it can be a little tricky if you don’t follow the steps correctly. http://pureinfotech.com/2011/10/10/how-to-uninstall-windows-8-developer-preview-and-restore-windows-7-step-by-step/

      Best way to restore to a previous version of Windows is a clean install of the operating system, after backing up your important data, of course.

      Thanks,

      PS: Until Microsoft adds support to restore previous versions of Windows, I cannot be certain on how different the restore process can be. For sure it should be equal or easier.

  • John

    Thank You. Win 8 is great for the right machine but my tc1100 tablet lost it power setting and would not set the same as win7. Machine kept freezing up and lost pen functions.
    Thaks for the help

    • mhweb

      I am glad it helped!
      Thanks,

  • Pecile

    I can’t seem to delete the windows 8 folder (ie. Windows.8, Users.8)
    Anyone else have this problem?

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  • mhweb

    Go to the Device Manager in Windows and see if you have any alerts on your devices. You can try uninstalling and deleting the USB adapter drivers and reinstall them once again, using the drivers’ cd or drivers from the USB manufacture website.

    I hope this helps, thanks,

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000166293842 Dagz Prieto

    I don’t have win 7 cd installation but I have the windows.old. This is a netbook and it really got slows when I installed the windows 8.

    • mhweb

      You’ll need the Windows 7 DVD to boot your computer into the recovery mode. See if you can download and create an installation media with this version of Windows 7 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc442495 and see if you can continue with the require steps.

      Thanks,

  • Scrumpage

    You are my hero.  I had this installed for a very short time and was not pleased.  Thank you for making it possible for me to revert back.

    • mhweb

      Scrumpage, thank you so much for your comment!
      And I am glad it worked.

    • Stefan Darmanin

      Did you get windows 7 and all your files back? Please tell me because windows 8 is killing me :(

  • Milagros

    what could i do if i don’t have the Windows 7 DVD? my little brother intall windows 8 on his computer and now hi doesnt know how to uninstall!. i saw his computer and it has the forder Windows.old with a size of 4.38 GB … you know if there is another option to uninstalla W8 , without the W7 DVD ??? please help me!

  • Sdnr_1

    Help me…
    When in the System Recovery Options window, i click Windows Developer Preview operating system, and then click Next, i get a message that ‘This version of system recovery options is not compatible with…’ and i am not able to reach the window where we can run command prompt.

    • mhweb

      Can you click Cancel or what other links or buttons are available? Click any of them until you are able to reach the menu and run the command prompt.

      Thanks,

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  • mhweb

    Hello Laitanyadinkins, when you say “configure systems timeline” are you referring to Windows Restore Point? If this is what you mean. This is not going to get Windows 7 back.

    You’ll need to follow the steps in this guide to accomplish that.

    Thanks,

  • mhweb

    Hello Scott, this will work in Windows 8 Consumer Preview as well. You could try downloading Windows 7 Trial version ISO from Microsoft, burning it to a DVD and use it to boot your system and access recovery tools http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc442495

    Thanks,

    • Scott

       I just realized that I’ll be getting back my laptop with Win 7 on it soon.  Could I use that computer to create a usb win 7 drive and then boot from that flash drive to my netbook?  How much space should I have on that said flash drive?

  • Tbonanno16

    THANK YOU!  This article saved my life last night. One thing I had to do- rename the windows esd folder as well- then reboot with install DVD. Instead of going to the command window just select the first option (I was VERY tired so I am not sure what that one is named)  but basically it does the repair so the OS can boot.  That puts the bootloader screen back to the old one and allowed me to select win 7 again- I have XP on another partition and the windows 8 bootloader only recognized that as a previous operating system for some reason. 

    Great jo and thank you again!

  • mhweb

    Hello Traceboi!
    What I would do first is to troubleshoot why Windows is not seeing the DVD drive and card reader. Look into the Device Manager and see there is any problems showing up. Visit your computer’s manufacture website and download the latest driver you can find for drives.
    Alternatively, if you have another computer, try to switch the DVD drive and install it in the computer you are having the problem.

    Last, if Windows not seeing the drives or the computer’s bios is not seeing the drives? If the problem is Windows, you’ll be better off doing a clean install of Windows 7 by just booting up from the DVD drive.

    See if all this helps!
    Thanks,