How long do I have to uninstall Windows 11
With the arrival of Windows 8 and 10, Microsoft enabled a special feature that allows users to uninstall any new version of the operating system, such as Windows 11, go back and continue using the PC as it was before the update. Initially, Windows allowed us to go back up to a month after installing the update. However, this has changed some time ago.
As with each of the new versions of Windows 10, if we regret having installed Windows 11 and want to go back, we will have 10 days to do so. During these first 10 days, Microsoft keeps a copy of our old operating system in a folder called “Windows.old.” In the event that something does not go well, or we do not like it, we can revert all the changes, keeping our data, to return to Windows 10.
The only condition to be able to revert the update is to have installed it less than those 10 days ago. But, in addition, we must not have deleted the necessary folders from the hard drive to revert these changes, especially the one from windows.old. When we are sure that we are not going to go back, we can delete the previous system backup and we will be able to free up to 32 GB of space on the hard disk, something that never hurts.
Extend the time to uninstall Windows 11
Depending on the use we make of our computer, it is likely that with 10 days we will not have enough time to check if Windows 11 meets our needs or if, on the contrary, we have not just adapted to the new design and want to return. Fortunately, we can extend this period so that instead of being 10 days, it is 20, 30, 40 or whatever we want, in theory there is no limit. To modify the maximum time we have to go back to windows 10 From Windows 11, we must write the following command from CMD with administrator permissions and where XX represents the number of days we want to have to test Windows 11.
DISM /Online /Set-OSUninstallWindow /Value:XX
How to go back to Windows 10
If we want to uninstall Windows 11 from our computer to return to Windows 10, we can do it in different ways, as we show you below.
Since Windows 11
This process is very similar to what we probably already know from Windows 10. The first thing we must do is make sure that, indeed, no more than 10 days have passed since we installed the new version of the operating system. Otherwise, the option to go back to the previous version of Windows will be disabled.
To carry out this task, what we must do is open the Windows 11 Settings menu using the Windows + I keyboard shortcut, and we will go directly to the “windows update«.
Once here, we will enter the section of «Advanced Options» from Windows Update by clicking the button below.
Within this panel we will find a large number of options related to Windows updates. Far from going into details of each one of them, the section that interests us is that of «Recovery«. We click on it and we will enter these options.
Here we will have everything we need to be able to recover our PC in case it does not work correctly. Among all the options that we will find, we will be able to see a call «Return«. This is the one that will allow us to uninstall Windows 11 and return to Windows 10 in case the new version does not work correctly.
We click on the button, and it will appear a very simple setup wizard, which we must follow until the end. In the first point, it will ask us why we want to leave Windows 11 and go back to the previous version of the operating system.
We are also going to find the possibility of looking for updates in Windows Update before continuing. This step is because, if we have encountered a problem, it is easy that there is already an update that corrects it. And, in that case, we could continue using this OS.
If we want to move on, we thank him and move on. We will now see two notices from Microsoft before continuing with the process. The first of them is that we still have to reinstall some programs after performing this task. And the second is that all the changes that we have made since we installed Windows 11 will be lost (it does not affect the data).
A reminder that we need to remember the password never hurts.
And finally, we come to the end of the wizard. By clicking on “Return to Windows 10”, the system will prepare to uninstall the latest version of Windows, revert all the changes and leave our PC as it was.
This process can take several minutes. As long, or even longer, than the installation of Windows 11 took. And, while it is being carried out, we will not be able to do anything with the PC.
When it is finished, the PC will restart, it will start again and, when we log in, we will see that we can continue using our beloved Windows 10 again.
Install Windows 10 from scratch
Another method, slower but that will eliminate any trace of our Windows 11 computer, is to create a Windows 10 installation drive, start the PC with this drive and install Windows 10 from scratch by previously formatting the drive where Windows 11 is located. This It is a process that will take us much longer than if we uninstall from Windows 11, however, it is the best option if we want to avoid any type of problems that our equipment may present after going back to a previous version, since, although the process successful, anything in the process can fail and make your computer unstable.
What to do after going back
Most likely, we will not have to do anything special once we have completed the restoration process. What Windows will do is delete the current installation of Windows 11 and reuse Windows 10, saved in “backup” mode within the Windows.old folder.
In most cases, all programs and all settings will be as is. Only the settings that are specific to Windows 11 will be gone. However, we need to take a quick look at these settings. In the event that one of them had a conflict and has been reversed, we can adjust it again to our liking. The same happens with the programs that we had installed on the PC. Although it is most likely that all of them are there, Windows may have deleted some to avoid possible conflicts, and in that case we will have to reinstall it.
Finally, it is advisable Check for new updates on Windows Update so that if there is a new patch for our OS we can install it. And, by the way, we can search for and download new drivers in case there are new versions so that our Windows 10 can work in the best possible way.
Now we have our Windows 10 back up to date. And we will be able to continue using this operating system without problems until 2025, the date on which, finally, it will stop having support.