Win 11 update from 10 won't let me go back even though windows old is visible

I'm reasonably experienced with upgrading to W11 for family etc, but on two of my computers the in place update halted with green/blue bars on screen.

I left it and eventually it continued, but on both it was saying the firewall wasn't protected properly and wouldn't let me adjust it.
I tried a few command line solutions but with no joy. Now I'm having problems on the desktop (Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10900X CPU @ 3.70GHz 64gb ddr4 ram, Geforce 1050 Ti 4gb gpu) where explorer won't let me navigate back out of a window.

The laptop (Desktop replacement Intel Core i9 Desktop CPU. 64gb ddr4 ram, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics seems OK, but like the desktop failed the last two updates (which I think was where my problems started, as I got the coloured bars again)

The reason I did in place updates was because I have lots of audio programs which will need reactivating/installed etc, so I thought I'd revert the desktop back to W10 (it's been less than 10 days) but I get a message saying this isn't possible as the files are now gone.
However, I can can see Windows Old sitting on my drive.
If there is a way to sort W11 out, or go back to 10 I'd love to know it. Every other other W11 upgrade I've installed have been fine apart from these two.

Does Windows.old has all files and folders?
If it does you can retrieve the old Win 10 installation. You will have to boot from another OS and delete all files and folders (Win 11) BUT not Windows.old and then MOVE all files and folders from Windows.old to C:\

Next time, make a drive image backup before you you begin an upgrade.

2pods said:

two of my computers the in place update halted with green/blue bars on screen...... it continued, but on both it was saying the firewall wasn't protected properly and wouldn't let me adjust it.........
I tried a few command line solutions....... but like the desktop failed the last two updates

Click to expand...

This was a pretty good indication that your machines were not clean going into the upgrade and did not come out of the upgrade clean even though the upgrade finished. You will have to deal with them one at a time.

Regarding the desktop, did you make a system image before doing the upgrade. If so restore the image to get back to 10. Just as one can not depend that an upgrade will always be successful, one can not 100% depend on a successful rollback, despite the presence of window.old. If one is wise, he will always have an image before a major upgrade.

If you did not make an image of 10, I do not think you will be able to rollback. About the only thing I can suggest is to attempt to repair 11. In any event, I certainly suggest you backup your personal files as precaution. (files synced to onedrive should be safe) While it is usually not necessary, in your case I would attempt this repair directly using an iso as the source.
Download iso from here using 3rd option. Download Windows 11

First uninstall any 3rd party AV applications or firewalls and 3rd party apps that alter the GUI. Restart.

1. Mount the Windows 11 ISO

• Right-click the ISO file and select Mount.
• This creates a new virtual drive (e.g., D: or E:) with the contents of the ISO.
• Note the drive letter of the mounted ISO.
• Look in the sources folder. You will have either one of the following 2 files: install.wim or install.esd

2. Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run DISM with the Mounted ISO as the Source

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:D:\sources\install.wim /LimitAccess

(Replace source drive letter if different. If your iso contains install.esd put it in place of install wim in the command.)

Once it completes, restart.
Open cmd prompt as admin again and run sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair

If this does not work, your only other option would be a clean install of 11.

Thanks for replying.
I do have a Macrium back up disk image, and it looks likely I'll just have to bite the bullet and do a clean install, but before I do I'm trying to find out what went wrong with the upgrades.
It's never happened before on any other computer i've upgraded.

Downloading iso as we speak.

Ran iso, rebooted
ran command in elevated mode sfc /scannow
scan results:

"Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

Explorer seems back to normal, but it still giving me the firewall message.
Every time I select it, it opens blank, then quickly disappears
i haven't tried the failed updates yet.

2pods said:

still giving me the firewall message.

Click to expand...

What is exact message? A screenshot would be very helpful.

2pods said:

I'm trying to find out what went wrong with the upgrades.

Click to expand...

Sorry about all the bullets. This is a copy and paste and I don't know how to get rid of them.

• You would need to look at the failure logs to see the cause of your failure. Depending on where in the install the failure occurs, the log can be in multiple places.
• 
  
• If no error message occurs, the following log files are created when an upgrade fails during installation before the computer restarts for the second time. You have to look at these logs to get an idea of what's causing the failure.
• C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\panther\setupact.log
• C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\panther\miglog.xml
• C:\Windows\setupapi.log
• 
  
• [Windows 10:] C:\Windows\Logs\MoSetup\BlueBox.log
• C:\Windows\inf\setupapi.app.log
• C:\Windows\inf\setupapi.dev.log
• C:\Windows\panther\PreGatherPnPList.log
• C:\Windows\panther\PostApplyPnPList.log
• C:\Windows\memory.dmp
• 
  
• The following log files are created when an upgrade fails, and then you restore the desktop:
  C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\panther\setupact.log
• C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\panther\miglog.xml
• C:\$Windows.~BT\sources\panther\setupapi\setupapi.dev.log
• C:\$Windows.~BT\sources\panther\setupapi\setupapi.app.log
• C:\Windows\memory.dmp
• 
  
• The following log files are created when an upgrade fails, and the installation rollback is initiated:
  C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\Rollback\setupact.log
• C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\Rollback\setupact.err
• 
  
• Mine rolled back so I found my particular error in the last 2 logs.
• If logfiles do not give you a direct answer as to what caused the error as they are in Microsoft speak, they give you a place to start.

Do you have an antivirus other than Windows Defender?

Not on this machine.
On another machine I have Malawarebytes, but that's running perfectly (just as well, as that's the everyday email etc one)

There doesn't seem to be any Firewall there.
I'll try and get a few screenshots.

The core isolation isn't working either.
It's complaining about some drivers, but I can uninstall the Line6 and Presonus drivers, but I'm not sure about the "gear" one

I tried installing Malawarebytes to see if it would change anything, but nada.
After installing I get these

Everything else is going.
It was a bog standard in place upgrade, so I'm completely baffled.
I think I have no choice except for a clean install of W11

I was running W10 from a local account, but thought I had better login with my MS account to do the upgrade.
Maybe that's screwed it up ?
If (a big if) I decided to upgrade again for the he** of it, should I just leave my local account as is, and let W11 sort it out ?

As the Windows.old has the \Users\"name" and under "Name" you have all the user files, you can save the files on an external drive.

Why don't you try to boot from a USB drive with live Linux and do the suggestion I gave you on post #2?

Megahertz said:

As the Windows.old has the \Users\"name" and under "Name" you have all the user files, you can save the files on an external drive.

Why don't you try to boot from a USB drive with live Linux and do the suggestion I gave you on post #2?

Click to expand...

I'll probably do that very thing, but I'm trying to find out what went wrong so I don't repeat it.