How To Uninstall Windows 8
Posted September 16, 2011 – 3:58 pm in: Windows 8 GuidesSo you have decided to remove Windows 8 from your PC but you are not sure how to uninstall Windows 8. If you are running Windows 8 in dual boot with Windows 7, you will be able to safely remove Windows 8 from your computer.
NOTE: All data on Windows 8 partition will be erased while removing Windows 8. Backup your data on Windows 8 partition before starting the procedure.
Scenario 1: You installed Windows 8 in dual boot with Windows 7 or Vista on a separate partition
If you have installed Windows 8 in dual boot Windows 7 on a separate partition by following our dual boot Windows 8 with Windows 7 guide, uninstalling Windows 8 is pretty easy. Just follow the simple procedure given below to completely remove Windows 8 from your PC.
Step 1: Switch on the PC and boot into Windows 7 desktop. Download a small free tool named EasyBCD from here and install the application. We are using this tool to remove the Windows 8 entry from Windows Boot Manager. Though we can always use System Configuration Utility to remove this boot entry, we are using the EasyBCD to be on the safe side.
Step 2: Run EasyBCD application. If you are prompted with User Account Control (UAC) dialog, click Yes.
Step 3: In the EasyBCD application window, on the left pane, click on the Edit Boot Menu button to see all existing boot menu entries. Here, you can see Windows 8 or Windows Developer Preview entry.
Step 4: Select the Windows 8 or Windows Developer Preview entry, click Delete button. Click Yes for the confirmation prompt. EasyBCD will immediately remove the Windows 8 entry from the boot menu. Click Save Settings and exit the application.
Step 5: As you have installed Windows 8 on a separate partition, you may want to format the partition to reclaim the disk space. To format the drive, open Computer (My Computer), right-click on the Windows 8 drive and click Format.
Select the File System as NTFS and click Start button to format your Windows 8 drive. Once completed, you will see Format Complete message.
Step 6: You have just removed Windows 8 from your PC. Reboot the PC to see Windows 7 boot entry.
Scenario 2: You installed Windows 8 after formatting (or deleting) the Windows 7 installation
As you have installed Windows 8 after formatting the Windows 7 partition, you have to use Windows 7/Vista/XP installation media to remove or uninstall Windows 8. Boot using XP/Vista/Windows 7 installation media, format the Windows 8 partition, and then install your copy of Windows. Follow our how to install Windows 7 or Windows 8 from USB flash drive guide to quickly install Windows 7 on your computer.
Scenario 3: You installed Windows 8 on a computer that didn’t have an operating system
In this case, you have to use Windows 7 or earlier versions of Windows installation media to format the Windows 8 partition and then install other versions of Windows.
Scenario 4: You upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8
The Developer Preview build of Windows 8 neither supports upgrade from Windows 7 nor allows downgrade. So, if you are running Windows 8 Developer Preview, you can’t downgrade to Windows 7. Will update this guide once Microsoft adds an option to downgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 7.
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36 Comments
Is the released win 8 build build support Windows To Go
can i install it to the usb drives
Hi,
Thanks for a useful guide. Would it be possible using the same tool to simply set W7 as the default on boot, I would still like to keep W8, but I would like it to boot W7 by default.
PM
Yes, you can use EasyBCD to set Windows 7 as default OS. You can even set Windows 7 as default in System Config tool (msconfig).
after removing windows 8 from boot menu with easy BCD i cant format my drive and get my space back. what can i do, plz help? cant delete partition either.
thnx for this !
Sabas,
Are you getting any error? Please explain a bit more
hiiii i did not found windows 8 or windows developer… i found windows 7 so what i can do to unistall it cuz when i unistalled from panneau de configiration ! its not working so what i can do
hey ,
can anybody help me with this ?
i “upgraded” my w7 to W8 but i really don’t like this .
is there no way i can downgrade again ?
@ tim jong
You can downgrade from Windows 8 Consumer Preview to Windows 7. You need to do a clean install of Windows 7 again.
i didn’t made partition and i just install it~
u guys got any guide for how to uninstall window 8 ??
please reply me~
T^T
need help here~
i upgraded my w7 to w8, but now i want w7 back. I got the recovery disk, but can’t use it without recovery manager. but the manager cant be installed in w8, so what can i do to get my w7 back?
Hi, I’m having problems with the last part. When I try to format the partition where Windows 8 is it shows me a message saying that another program or process is using the partition.
@admin help please! i do have two options, but they Are both Windows 8, and Are both named “Windows 7″! and i can’t use recovery discs. plz, just plz help me!
@ Clara Stavad
Can you please provide more details? You have installed Windows 8 in dual with Windows 7 but the boot menu is displaying both as Windows 8, right?
I have a dual-boot win7 & 8 consumer preview. When I open the program,it gives me “Error Opening BCD Registry
The boot configuration data store could not be opened.
The system cannot find the file specified. When I chose to show protected system files in Folder Options, I entered the folder Boot and found it empty. Could you please provide me some help?
Tried to uninstall windows 8 consumer preview,it deleted my recovery section on my hard drive,microsoft suggested purchase windows 7 again.laptop 4 months old came with windows pre-installed.
@ lex
Can you explain what did you exactly do as just following the above procedure will not delete the recovery section.
I Have a probleme. It is only appears me Windows 8. Maybe when i download windows 8, windows 7 homepremium has deleted automaticly. What can i do now?
I install windows 8 on Local Disk C in dual boot with windows 7 on same Disk. How can I uninstall windows 8 from Local disk C. And if I format Local Disk C my windows 7 will delete automatically…What can I do?? Please help me!!
Thanks for your tips.
I have same problem like Apostolos.. what should I do? Please help us…
guysss!!!i already found a simple trick on how to convert back any windows 8 version to older windows os..just follow my step
1st: make sure u have 2 usb flash drive and for the 1st usb install in it windows 7 or any older version of os bootable and the other one your current windows 8 bootable in it..let say currently u use win 8 release preview then install the win 8 rp in the 2nd flash drive.
2nd : as u all know microsoft already cancel the use of bios option at the start of windows..this is why u cant simply convert back to any older os..the trick is just load ur current win 8 RP then go to my computer from the start screen insert ur usb flash drive with the Win 8 OS in it..attempting to install it over again from there.
3rd : just follow the installation process insert the licence key that is provided by microsoft to proceed and wait for the windows 8 unpacking their file..after that ur windows will automatically restart in order to complete the installation now this is where the tricks works..=)
4th : wait until it automatically restart ur computer and then u will eventually see that ur bios option is enable at the start of the screen quickly press F9 or F12 depend on ur computer configuration to enter the change boot device order menu and select usb boot..then take out ur usb flash drive with win 8 in it and insert the flash drive with win 7 in it..then click ok
then u guys know the rest…thanks to me
well I don’t have windows 7 part of the menu. so if I delete windows 8 right now will it affect my computer. because I only have windows 8 in the menu.
If you have only Windows 8 installed on your PC, you can use Windows 7 DVD or USB to format the Windows 8 drive and then do a clean install of Windows 7. Don’t forget to move your important files from your Windows 8 drive before formatting the drive.
unistall windoz, and install a free OS.
Hi… I did a system backup before installing Windows 8 preview onto my external hard disk.
After installing win8 i can see the folder windows.old in the /c drive…
The windowsimagebackup folder and the other file do exoest on my External drive.. How do i go back to windows 7 using these resources.
I have win 7,i installed win 8 preview a few months ago. I didn’t know how to dual boot, so win 8 is my main o s. how can I uninstall win 8, or what will happen when I try to install the full version of win 8. can you help ?
If you are using Windows 8 Release Candidate (RC) you can easily upgrade to Windows 8 final (RTM). And if you want to uninstall your current Windows 8, you need your Windows 7 DVD or Windows 8 DVD to format the drive and install Windows.
What about those of us that bought a windows 8 computer (it came with windows 8 on it) then we bought windows 7 pro and want to delete windows 8 and install 7.
Windows 8 will not let me do that, as soon as i try to reinstall over the windows 8 partition it wont allow it.
PLEASE HELP @@@@@@
“Step 1: Switch on the PC and boot into Windows 7 desktop …”.
And how does one “boot into Windows 7″ after turning on the pc/laptop?
I just bought a new computer yesterday that came with Windows 8 and I already hate it. I’d like to switch to XP and have an installation disk (albeit a CDR from my work), but as has been mentioned, Windows 8 won’t boot from a disk. Or if I wait until I can explore the disk files and use the Setup.exe for XP, Windows 8 gives me a compatibility error message. Since the computer is new and I haven’t transferred any of my backed up files on to it, I’m more than happy to reformat the hard drive, thus wiping out Win8, and starting over again with XP, but how do I do that?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Shame…shame…SHAME on Microsoft for creating Windows 8! It’s looks like it’s for preschoolers with all of those “Blocks”. What a failed attempt, so many people hate it! And now have to spend so much time and often money just to remove it. I have the same problem, have a very nice i7 processor, samsung laptop but has windows Hate/ aka 8.
I don’t know if 7 will even make me happy. The last os I liked was XP, even 2000 or ME. I hate not having the usual start up screen and found a fix for that on Stardock, if you Google ” what happened to start up screen on windows 8, it will bring you to Stardock and you can get that part back. This is the only thing keeping me from reinventing my laptop into a very expensive foot warmer. Microsoft, you’re getting dense in your old age. I may end up with a Mac for the first time in my life…
PS it’s like they purposely don’t want anyone going back to something comfortable and familiar, that works well with many printers and wifi systems, XP. They supposedly buried it months ago and for no good reason put it out to pasture where Tech support is concerned….
… I wonder if it Windows 8 and soon 9 have to do with Homeland Security measures… And really paying attention to what people are looking at on the Information Highway…
install “windows 8″ is the worst experience as a computer user , I wish I can find out how to uninstall it….
GOD I hate Windows after years of Apple… my kids wanted a windows computer and I have had nothing but crap… even this doesnt help… I am going to have to ring back for the fourth time… GOD I hate microsoft!!!
HEY MICROSOFT: you ever hear the phrase “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”? If you want to keep me as a customer…you need to do better than Win 8. I do not want my desktop to look like my cell phone. As stated earlier by Kurt, the “big block” design of the start screen looks like it is for 1st graders and not teens and adults.
Win 8 is a flop just as Vista was. This really is enough for me to buy a MAC. My new slogan “I hate Windows 8″!! That would make a great bumper sticker!
Hi I have only Windows 8 os. I want to change or format this os to windows 7. how can I format? please give me a suggestion.
Many Windows 8 users are now thinking about windows 8 uninstall. The operating system is good only for touch screen devices. For desktop computers and laptops Windows 7 is the best. Without a touch screen device one cannot enjoy the Windows 8 user experience.