Force Upgrade Back to Windows 11 After Downgrade

sshark · Jul 14, 2021

I decided to downgrade to Windows 10 after the Windows 10 Dev channel upgraded my PC to Windows 11. However, days later, the Dev channel force updated my Windows 10 to 11. How can I stop it and wait for a new stable version of Windows 10 to arrive?

I understand that to opt-out of the Dev channel I have to wait for a stable version to be available. I reverted back to Windows 10 because I afraid my old PC is not supported and I don't want to re-install again once Windows 11 is released in the near future. Thank you

dna-systems · Jul 14, 2021

If I'm not mistaken, you would need to change your Insider channel level to either Beta or Release Preview after reverting back to Windows 10 again. Dev channel on Windows 10 will upgrade you back to 11 if not changed.

Winuser · Jul 14, 2021

dna-systems said:
If I'm not mistaken, you would need to change your Insider channel level to either Beta or Release Preview after reverting back to Windows 10 again. Dev channel on Windows 10 will upgrade you back to 11 if not changed.

The way I understand it is that one would need to do a clean install to revert back from The Windows 10 Dev builds. I'm not sure if there will be a option to go from the Windows 10 Dev builds to either the Beta or Release builds of Windows 11.

jimbo45 · Jul 14, 2021

Winuser said:
The way I understand it is that one would need to do a clean install to revert back from The Windows 10 Dev builds. I'm not sure if there will be a option to go from the Windows 10 Dev builds to either the Beta or Release builds of Windows 11.

If you took an image of the OS before upgrading - you should be able to revert back to exactly what you had before whatever the Ms thing does. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Winuser · Jul 14, 2021

@sshark, Have you tried using the Pause updates?

Winuser · Jul 14, 2021

jimbo45 said:
If you took an image of the OS before upgrading - you should be able to revert back to exactly what you had before whatever the Ms thing does. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

That would be the easiest way. As we know though a large number of users don't make backup images.

johnlgalt · Jul 14, 2021

dna-systems said:
If I'm not mistaken, you would need to change your Insider channel level to either Beta or Release Preview after reverting back to Windows 10 again. Dev channel on Windows 10 will upgrade you back to 11 if not changed.

That would be it - as long as you're in the Insiders group, if you're on Dev you get Win11, so either change to beta or release or completley disable insiders builds on your machine.

Winuser said:
The way I understand it is that one would need to do a clean install to revert back from The Windows 10 Dev builds. I'm not sure if there will be a option to go from the Windows 10 Dev builds to either the Beta or Release builds of Windows 11.

For right now you can revert, but only to the last build you were running - so if you were on Win10, and have taken 2 win 11 builds in succession, you can only revert to the previous Win11 build. Just like with Insiders since WIn10 started them - you can revert to the last build you have installed before taking the current build.

BunnyJ · Jul 14, 2021

Well.. I had to reinstall Win10 the other day and when I went to go to the insider program my options were Release, Beta and the Dev would take me to Win11. I first opted for the Beta and let it perform all of the updates. Then I went to the Dev channel and I was able to go to 11.

Right now, MS has set up the Dev channel for Win 11 only. It seems they have dumped major changes to 10.

Edit: The reason I opted into the beta first is because I couldn't upgrade to 11 without doing the beta upgrades first. The update to 11 kept failing until I was able to get the beta updates completed. YMMV of course.

johnlgalt · Jul 14, 2021

If you enabled Insiders Preview on a Win 10 install and select release or beta you're not getting Win11 right now. Only by selecting Dev will you actually get Win11.

And the channel is not a measure of major versus minor changes, never has been. Dev are the least stable, Beta more stable than Dev, and Release more stable than either. Stability and usability is whath te channels focus on.

Yes, tongue in cheek aside (as some would argue nothing they make is stable) Win11 is far more unstable than Win10, hence the Dev builds (for now).

sshark · Jul 14, 2021

Winuser said:
@sshark, Have you tried using the Pause updates?

I didn't try that but if I remember correctly, I can only delay updates for a week or so.

sshark · Jul 14, 2021

Winuser said:
That would be the easiest way. As we know though a large number of users don't make backup images.

yup. I am part of the large number of users who didn't make a backup image

BunnyJ · Jul 14, 2021

sshark said:
I didn't try that but if I remember correctly, I can only delay updates for a week or so.

I just checked and it is one week.

sshark · Jul 14, 2021

dna-systems said:
If I'm not mistaken, you would need to change your Insider channel level to either Beta or Release Preview after reverting back to Windows 10 again. Dev channel on Windows 10 will upgrade you back to 11 if not changed.

No, I can't change to anything even before I upgraded to W11 or after I reverted back to W10. Once I swtiched to Dev Channel, my PC is stuck in this channel until a stable version of W10 is released. Also, I have to explicitly switch back to the Stable channel. Then, I am out of the Dev Channel. Btw, this is theoretical because a new stable W10 is not released yet

Winuser · Jul 14, 2021

johnlgalt said:
That would be it - as long as you're in the Insiders group, if you're on Dev you get Win11, so either change to beta or release or completley disable insiders builds on your machine.

For right now you can revert, but only to the last build you were running - so if you were on Win10, and have taken 2 win 11 builds in succession, you can only revert to the previous Win11 build. Just like with Insiders since WIn10 started them - you can revert to the last build you have installed before taking the current build.

Even if the Windows 10 Dev user doesn't use the Windows Update the Windows 10 Dev build will update to Windows 11 automatically. So the roll back would still be the Dev build. One would have to not be using the Dev build and update using a ISO file.

sshark · Jul 14, 2021

Winuser said:
Even if the Windows 10 Dev user doesn't use the Windows Update the Windows 10 Dev build will update to Windows 11 automatically. So the roll back would still be the Dev build. One would have to not be using the Dev build and update using a ISO file.

Reinstalling W10 is what I want to avoid. I don't mind using W11 if it supports my PC

Winuser · Jul 14, 2021

sshark said:
I didn't try that but if I remember correctly, I can only delay updates for a week or so.

Can you reselect it when the week is over?

Winuser · Jul 14, 2021

sshark said:
yup. I am part of the large number of users who didn't make a backup image

I do suggest you start making backups. If nothing else at least make backups of any files or folders you don't want to lose.

Winuser · Jul 14, 2021

sshark said:
Reinstalling W10 is what I want to avoid. I don't mind using W11 if it supports my PC

If your computer is anything like my computer it takes days to setup a clean install. I just went through this setting up my new desktop. Some programs it's just a matter of reinstalling and some programs I have to remember to deactivate them. I had one program that from what I understand can only be reinstalled on the same computer. I did contact them and the Tech was nice and deactivated it so I could install it.

sshark · Jul 14, 2021

Winuser said:
If your computer is anything like my computer it takes days to setup a clean install. I just went through this setting up my new desktop. Some programs it's just a matter of reinstalling and some programs I have to remember to deactivate them. I had one program that from what I understand can only be reinstalled on the same computer. I did contact them and the Tech was nice and deactivated it so I could install it.

Fortunately, I didn't have such software. Most of them are off the shelf or open source. Mostly , software developer tools :)

johnlgalt · Jul 14, 2021

Winuser said:
Even if the Windows 10 Dev user doesn't use the Windows Update the Windows 10 Dev build will update to Windows 11 automatically. So the roll back would still be the Dev build. One would have to not be using the Dev build and update using a ISO file.

Assuming it was a Dev build before.

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