Is it possible to return the old version of Android after updating? Restoring an old working driver: rolling back to a previous version How to return to a previous version of windows 7

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Data-lazy-type="image" data-src="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/android.png" alt="android" width="300" height="206"> !} Sometimes it is useful to know how to roll back the Android firmware to the previous version. This operating system receives updates regularly. For example, Android 4.4.4 KitKat could have been upgraded to version 5.0.1 Lollipop at one time.

Thanks to updates, the system becomes more secure, since developers are always striving to find and fix vulnerabilities. In addition, after the improvement, Android receives a new graphical interface, as a result of which it acquires a more stylish and modern appearance.

Why do you need a rollback?

Changes sometimes concern not only functionality and visual design. Some applications that were actually usable in the previous version of the system may not be supported after installing the update, which is why the user begins to think about how to uninstall the new version of Android.

If there are concerns that switching to another version of the operating system may remove support for a particular application that was actively used by the previous system, then it would be wiser to wait until an official update for this program becomes available. If the user has updated the system, but for some subjective reasons is dissatisfied with the improvement and wants to return to the previous version, then he needs to perform a system rollback and remove the new software environment.

Next we will tell you how to return the old version of Android after updating. The Nexus 5 phone will be used as an example since it is officially supported by Google and has its own Factory image file and bootloader that can be unlocked by restoring an older version. When performing this operation, the user will face the risk of losing important data being deleted.

The user must act at his own risk. Performing the following steps may damage your mobile device beyond repair after unsuccessful firmware update.

Read also: How to enable Android superuser root rights

Preparing to perform a rollback

Nexus devices are very convenient for performing rollbacks. All you need to do is save your personal files, go to the developer page on Google and download any factory image ever released for the device. Then you should flash it via ADB data-lazy-type="image" data-src="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/14722200366071-300x225.jpg" alt="nexus" width="300" height="225" srcset="" data-srcset="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/14722200366071-300x225..jpg 350w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"> !} (Android Debugging Bridge).

This example uses a Nexus 5 phone with Android 5.0 installed, which should be replaced with version 4.4.4 (you need to find this firmware on Android and download it to save it in an accessible location). If you need to roll back another device, you should search for suitable images for it using the Google search engine.

So, how to restore the firmware on Android? In addition to the Factory image, you should download a few more files to your PC. You will need the Android SDK application necessary for flashing the firmware. In addition to the SDK manager, you also need a standalone SDK file. To use this software you will need the latest Java environment. During the SDK installation process, you will need to specify where Java is installed.

After installation is complete, go to the SDK manager to select Tools, Platform-tools, Android Support Library, Google USB Driver and install them. Now you need to go to where the Nexus 5 Factory image was previously saved. You should extract the contents of this file to the Platform-tools folder. From this point on, you can assume that all preconditions have been met and begin the procedure of rolling back the mobile device.

Process of reverting to a previous version

It is necessary to perform the following steps sequentially:

go to the settings of your mobile device, scroll down the page and find the section with the build number;
Click on the build number until a notification appears that developer mode has been successfully enabled;
a new section “Developer Options” will appear in the settings, there you need to scroll down and enable “USB Debugging”;
Connect the device to your computer using a USB cable and make sure that the computer recognizes it.

How to restore Windows7 using the Windows.old folder. (step-by-step instruction).

It often happens that after a forced reinstallation of the system or some, often unconscious, manipulations, all information and all programs that are installed on the drive (C:) disappear without a trace. But not everyone knows that they do not disappear without a trace.

The whole point is that in Windows7, even after reinstalling Windows, the previous version is reserved in the folder Windows. old. This folder is located on drive C: and in itself is not functional, cannot be active, that is, the system boots from the Windows folder, but files, packs and programs of the previous operating system remain in Windows. old . So how can you restore the system from this folder?

Before starting the recovery, find out whether there is a Windows.old folder on the drive (C:) and whether there is enough free space on your hard drive to install the operating system.

Next, we carry out everything, strictly following this manual.

Click Start, and then select Computer;
In the View submenu, select Details.
In the “Free Space” column, carefully examine your local drive (C:) in the “hard drives” area.
Double-click in the hard drive area, local drive (C:), and then check to see if the Windows.old folder has been deleted (many people delete it after installing the system so as not to clog up the hard drive).
If the Windows.old folder is not available, then you should not perform further actions, as they will be meaningless.
Next, right-click on the Windows.old folder. We look at the properties of the folder and make sure that it is smaller in size than the amount of free space on the disk (C:).
Note. If the Windows.old folder is at least twice the amount of free space located on the local disk (C:), then it will not be possible to restore the previous version of Windows.
Next, launch the Windows Recovery Environment.
Insert the Windows 7 installation disc into the DVD drive and give the command to restart the computer.
When the message “” appears, select everything that you will need in the further operation of the system, namely: currency, time, language, but all this can be configured in the installed system. After all this, click the “Next” button.
In the “Windows Installation” window that appears, click the “ Restore your computer».
In the “” window that appears, select the version of the operating system that you want to restore, namely Windows7. After all this, click the “Next” button.
Next in the window that appears “ System Recovery Options"Open the command line, namely, select the command " Command line».
After all these manipulations, a command line window will open. Next, on the command line, you will enter the commands that are described below. The following steps are intended to move the Windows7 folders to a new Win7 folder.

Note. When you enter one or more commands at the command prompt and press ENTER, the following message may appear:

"The system cannot find the file specified."

If such a message appears, then follow these steps, proceed to the next step in this section, and enter the command at the command prompt.

Important! After each command, press the "ENTER" key.

And so, we enter:

Move Windows Win7Windows

Move "Program Files" "Win7Program Files"

Move Users Win7Users

Attrib -h -s -r ProgramData

Move ProgramData Win7ProgramData

Rd "Documents and Settings"

Important! We observe all separating marks and spaces in the strictest order with the sample.

In the next step, we move the entire contents of the folder " Windows.old ».

Note. When you enter one or several commands in the command line and press the “ENTER” key, the following message may appear: "The system cannot find the file specified".

If this happens, then enter the following commands on the command line.

Important! After each command, press the “ENTER” key, and also do not forget to observe punctuation marks.

Enter the following commands:

move /y c:Windows.oldWindows c:

move /y "c:Windows.oldProgram Files" c:

move /y c:Windows.oldProgramData c:

move /y c:Windows.oldUsers c:

move /y "c:Windows.oldDocuments and Settings" c:

In the following commands (D:) represents the DVD drive. If the DVD drive on your computer is designated by a different letter, then use that letter in the command.

Type the following command and press ENTER if the previous operating system was Windows, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Microsoft Windows 2000.

D:ootootsect/nt52 c:

If the previous Windows operating system was Windows Vista, then enter the following:

Type the following commands and press ENTER after each command:

Attrib -h -s -r boot.ini.saved

Copy boot.ini.saved boot.ini

After all these steps, close the command prompt window, and then restart your computer.

After rebooting, enter the following command at the command prompt and press ENTER:

Read about what data is stored in the Windows.old folder and how to recover it from there. How to delete the Windows.old folder to free up disk space. Have you upgraded from Windows 7 or 8 to the new Windows 10? Has a Windows.old folder appeared on your computer and is it taking up a lot of space? You can delete it, but not in the same way as you delete regular folders.

The Windows.old folder is not new to Windows 10. But before Windows 10, this folder could be seen if you purchased a new version of Windows and installed it by updating the previous version.

Content:

What is the Windows.old folder?

This folder appears when you upgrade from one version of Windows to a newer version, starting with Windows Vista. The Windows.old folder contains all the files and data from the previous version of Windows that was installed before the upgrade. It can be used to revert (roll back) to a previous version of Windows in case the new version does not work. To recover data after reinstalling Windows.

If you need to find a special file that was not copied correctly when updating Windows, you can also rummage through the Windows.old folder and find it.

Essentially, the Windows.old folder contains the old version of Windows. From Windows system files to installed programs, from user account settings to simple files, everything is here. The new version of Windows keeps this information in case you want to go back to the old version of Windows or if you need to find a file.

But, don't hesitate too long. Windows will automatically delete the Windows.old folder to free up disk space after a month.

How to return to a previous version of Windows?

From Windows 10, going back to Windows 7 or 8.1 is very easy. After installing Windows 10, you can simply open the Settings application, select Update & Security, and click Recovery. In this section we will see the option Return to Windows 7 or 8.1, depending on which version of Windows you upgraded from.

After we click the “Start” button, Windows will restore the previous version of the operating system using the Windows.old folder as a source.

Before Windows 10, this could also be done. Here, for example, are instructions from the official Microsoft website on how to restore Windows 7 to a previous version of Windows using the Windows.old folder. With Windows 10 everything is much simpler.

But again, as noted in Windows Settings, this feature is only available for a month after upgrading to Windows 10. After a month, Windows will automatically delete the Windows.old folder in order to free up disk space. So you have a month to decide whether you want to continue using the new version of the system or not and evaluate whether all the files you need were copied correctly.

How to recover individual files from the Windows.old folder

If you need to restore individual files from an old Windows installation, you can restore them from the Windows.old folder. To do this, you just need to open the Windows.old folder in File Explorer: C:\Windows.old. Your personal files will be located in the C:\Windows.old\Users\USERNAME folder.

But keep in mind that even on the official Microsoft website it is indicated that, if desired, you can restore all files or (Attention!) some of them from the Windows.old folder. To prevent data loss, Microsoft strongly recommends that you back up your files and settings to an external drive before restoring, reverting, updating, or reinstalling Windows.

That is, there is a risk of data loss when updating Windows and/or returning from Windows 10 to the previous version. Moreover, Microsoft does not provide for the recovery of data lost in this way using standard Windows tools.

In such a case, the only option for data recovery may be third-party software. If, when updating or restoring Windows, any data or files are lost, regardless of their type or extension, scan drive C: using Hetman Partition Recovery from Hetman Software, and restore them to a convenient location or storage medium.

How to delete the Windows.old folder to free up disk space

The Windows.old folder can take up quite a lot of disk space. At best it will be 12 GB. But its volume can reach 20 GB or even more. It all depends on the size of your previous version of Windows.

Try to delete the Windows.old folder in the same way as any other folder, and you will receive an error message. You can work around the error message by changing the permissions of the Windows.old folder. But this is the wrong way to delete this folder.

To remove the Windows.old folder, you can use the Windows Disk Cleanup tool or a third-party program. On Windows 10, open the Start menu, search for Disk Cleanup and launch the application. You can also open this application by right-clicking in the “This PC” folder on drive C, selecting “Properties” from the pop-up menu, then clicking the “Disk Cleanup” button.

Click the “Clean up system files” button. “Previous versions of Windows” will also appear in the list of files to delete, and Disk Cleanup will show how much space these files take up. Select this option and click Clean up disk, the old version of Windows will be removed. This function can also be used to clean the system disk from other unnecessary files.

By deleting the Windows.old folder you do not risk anything. If you are satisfied with the new version of Windows and have no desire to return to the old version of the operating system, and are also sure that all the files you need have been copied from the Windows.old folder, you can safely delete it.

Windows will still automatically delete the Windows.old folder a month after the update. All computers that have upgraded to Windows 10 will still be able to use the space occupied by the Windows.old folder, even if their users are unaware of the folder and are unaware of its existence or the ability to use Disk Cleanup.

In some cases, you may need to restore your Windows 7 computer to a previous installation of Windows. This article will walk you through the steps to manually revert your computer to a previous version of Windows.

Note. To do this, you need to use the Command Prompt to enter certain commands to rename and move folders between different versions of Windows.

To resolve this issue, follow the steps listed below to restore a previous version of Windows using the Windows.OLD folder on your computer.

Advice: It may be easier to follow the steps if you print the article first.

Step 1: Determine whether the Windows.old folder exists and whether there is sufficient free space on your Windows hard drive

Determine if the Windows.old folder is less than the free space available for local disk (C:) in step 1.2.

Note If the Windows.old folder is twice the amount of free space available for local disk (C:), you may not be able to restore the previous version of Windows.

Step 2: Launch Windows Recovery Environment

Insert the Windows 7 installation disc into the drive and restart your computer.
Press the key when prompted to restart the system from disk.
In the window " Windows installation» select language, time, currency, keyboard input method or other input method and press the button Further.
In the window " Windows installation» click the button Restore your computer.
In the window, select the version of the Windows 7 operating system that needs to be restored and click the button Further.
In the window System Recovery Options select Command line.

A Command Prompt window will open and display Command Prompt. The command line is where you enter the commands described in the following steps.

Step 3: Move Windows 7 Folders to New Win7 Folder

Note

When you receive this message, go to the next step in this section and enter the command in the next step.

Move Windows Win7\Windows

Move "Program Files" "Win7\Program Files"

Move Users Win7\Users

Attrib –h –s –r ProgramData

Move ProgramData Win7\ProgramData

Rd "Documents and Settings"

Step 4: Copy or move the contents of the Windows.old folder

Note If you follow the instructions below and enter one or more commands at the command prompt and press ENTER, you may receive the following message:

The system cannot find the specified file.

If this message appears, go to the next step in this section and enter the next step command.

Type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each command:

move /y c:\Windows.old\Windows c:\

move /y "c:\Windows.old\Program Files" c:\

move /y c:\Windows.old\ProgramData c:\

move /y c:\Windows.old\Users c:\

move /y "c:\Windows.old\Documents and Settings" c:\

Step 5: Restore the boot sector to a previous Windows installation

Type one of the following commands at the command prompt, depending on your specific situation.

Note In the following commands D: Represents DVDs. If DVD drives are represented by a different letter on your computer, such as E:, use that letter in the command.

If your previous Windows installation is Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Microsoft Windows 2000
D:\boot\bootsect/nt52 c:
If the previous Windows installation is Windows Vista
Type the following command and press Enter:
D:\boot\bootsect/nt60 c:

Step 6: Restore the Boot.ini file to a previous installation of Windows, Windows XP, or Windows 2000

Note Only if the previous installation was Windows XP or Windows 2000, follow these steps.

Type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each command.

Users who upgraded to Windows 10 have the option of returning to their previous operating system.

The so-called process Rollback is simple and can be done in just a few mouse clicks.

Windows 10 rollback conditions

Just as with the update, there is no need to perform a classic reinstallation - just follow a few steps to roll back Windows 10.

During the system update process, the Windows.old directory is created, into which the data of the current system is copied and which serves as a backup copy.

Thirty days after installation, this directory will be deleted by the system automatically. .

Deleting the Windows.old directory implies the impossibility of performing a rollback.

Note! The ability to roll back to Windows 7 or 8 is valid only for 30 calendar days after the update and provided that the user did not delete Windows.old.

Before you begin the return process, we recommend that you back up all important data to any available external drive or storage service.

How to downgrade Windows 10 to Windows 8.1/7

The sequence of actions when rolling back to Windows 7 is no different from the sequence of actions for the eighth version. The current system will automatically install the OS version that was installed previously.

So let's get started:

Step 1. Go to the “Start” menu, “Settings” submenu.

Step 2. In the “Settings” menu, go to the “Update and Security” submenu.

Step 3. In the “Recovery” submenu, select “Return to Windows X”, where X is the version of the operating system that was before the update. In our case, this is Windows 7. Click “Start”.

Step 4. We select the reason why the rollback is being performed, describe the essence of the situation in the “Tell me in more detail” field and click “Next”.

If you upgraded to Windows 10 and found that it wasn't working for you or encountered other problems, the most common of which at this point in time are related to graphics card drivers and other hardware, you can return to the previous version of the OS and downgrade from Windows 10. There are several ways to do this.

After the update, all the files of your old operating system are stored in the Windows.old folder, which previously sometimes had to be deleted manually, but this time it will be automatically deleted after a month (that is, if you updated more than a month ago, you will not be able to delete Windows 10) . The system also has a function for rolling back after an update, which is easy to use for any novice user.

Please note that if you deleted the above folder manually, the method described below to return to Windows 8.1 or 7 will not work. A possible course of action in this case, if you have a manufacturer's recovery image, is to reset the computer to its original state (other options are described in the last section of the instructions).

Rollback from Windows 10 to previous OS

To use the feature, click on the notification icon on the right side of the taskbar and click “All settings”.

In the settings window that opens, select “Update and Security”, and then “Recovery”.

The last step is to click the "Get Started" button under the "Back to Windows 8.1" or "Back to Windows 7" section. At the same time, you will be asked to indicate the reason for the rollback (choose any), after which Windows 10 will be removed, and you will return to your previous version of the OS, with all programs and user files (that is, this is not a reset to the manufacturer’s recovery image).

Some users who decided to remove Windows 10 and return Windows 7 or 8 encountered a situation where, despite the presence of the Windows.old folder, the rollback still does not occur - sometimes there is simply no required item in Settings, sometimes for some reason errors occur during the rollback.

In this case, you can try the Neosmart Windows 10 Rollback Utility, built on the basis of their Easy Recovery product. The utility is a bootable ISO image (200 MB), when you boot from it (having previously written it to a disk or flash drive), you will see a recovery menu in which:

You can burn the image to disk with any disk burning program, and to create a bootable flash drive, the developer offers its own utility, Easy USB Creator Lite, available on their website neosmart.net/UsbCreator/ however, in the VirusTotal utility it gives two warnings (which, in general, is not scary; usually in such quantities there are false positives). However, if you are afraid, you can burn the image to a flash drive or (in the latter case, select the field for Grub4DOS images).

Also, when using the utility, it creates a backup copy of the current Windows 10 system. So, if something goes wrong, you can use it to return “everything as it was.”

You can download Windows 10 Rollback Utility from the official page https://neosmart.net/Win10Rollback/ (when downloading, you are asked to enter your e-mail and name, but there is no verification).

Manually reinstalling Windows 10 on Windows 7 and 8 (or 8.1)

If none of the methods helped you, and less than 30 days have passed since upgrading to Windows 10, then you can do the following:

Perform a factory reset with automatic reinstallation of Windows 7 and Windows 8 if you have a hidden recovery image saved on your computer or laptop. More details: (also suitable for branded PCs and all-in-one PCs with a pre-installed OS).
Perform a clean installation of the system yourself if you know its key or it is in UEFI (for devices with 8 and higher). You can view the key “hardwired” into the UEFI (BIOS) using the ShowKeyPlus program in the OEM-key section (I wrote more in the article). At the same time, if to reinstall you need to download the original image of Windows in the desired edition (Home, Professional, For one language, etc.), then you can do it like this: .

In general, I would recommend staying on Windows 10 - of course, the system is not perfect, but it is clearly better than 8 on the day it was released. And to solve certain problems that may arise at this stage, you should search for options on the Internet, and at the same time go to the official websites of computer and equipment manufacturers to find drivers for Windows 10.

The release of a new operating system is always accompanied by a lot of problems. This could be a lack of compatibility with drivers for computer components or certain applications. Some users simply did not like the Windows 10 operating system due to its new design and the presence of a lot of changes in terms of functionality compared to previous versions of the software. If the new operating system from Microsoft does not suit the computer user in terms of functionality, there are several ways to switch from Windows 10 to Windows 7 or Windows 8. This can be done using standard system tools and using third-party applications.

How to restore Windows 7 or Windows 8 after installing Windows 10 using system tools

When installing a new version of the operating system, there is a precaution left on the computer that you can use if you need to return to a previous version of Windows. However, it is saved only in a situation where the operating system was updated without formatting the hard drive.

To use the Windows.Old folder to restore Windows 7 or 8 after upgrading to Windows 10, you must do the following:

Attention: If during the update process the Windows.Old folder was damaged and did not save backup information to restore the operating system, this menu item may not be available.

With the method described above for rolling back from Windows 10 to earlier versions of the operating system, the user has the opportunity to save all of his programs, as well as existing files, during recovery.

In a situation where it was not possible to recover in this way (due to the absence of an item in the menu or for another reason), we recommend trying system recovery using third-party software, which is described below in the instructions.

Rolling back a system from Windows 10 to Windows 7 or Windows 8 using third-party software

When the operating system settings do not include a restore option to a previous version of Windows, but the Windows.Old folder is saved, you can use specialized utilities that, in some cases, can solve the problem. The most famous program that allows you to restore Windows 7 or Windows 8 after installing Windows 10 is Neosmart Windows 10 Rollback Utility. It weighs just over 200 megabytes and is an image that must be burned to a CD/DVD or flash drive to create recovery media.

The easiest way to record the Neosmart Windows 10 Rollback Utility program is to use a special utility also developed by Neosmart, which is called USB Creator. All the programs mentioned above are available on the official website of the developers in free trial versions, which will be enough to return from Windows 10 to the version of the operating system saved in Windows.Old. Please note that you can also use other applications to record or flash drive, for example, the well-known UltraISO program.

Once the utility is recorded, you can begin the recovery procedure. To do this, go to the BIOS and set the boot process from the media on which the utility is recorded. After that, restart your computer and select Automated Repair on the first screen that opens. Next you will see all the systems that you can return to. To start the recovery procedure, click on Roll Back.

Attention: The Neosmart Windows 10 Rollback Utility application automatically saves the current version of Windows 10 during a system rollback in case there are problems with the installation.

How to get Windows 7 or Windows 8 back after installing Windows 10 with full formatting

If you completely removed the previous version of the operating system from your computer and installed Windows 10 on a clean hard drive, you can try to restore Windows 7 or Windows 8 using the remaining system tools or license keys.

On laptops there is almost always a separate partition on the hard drive, which is the system partition, and the system recovery image is stored on it. Depending on the model of laptop or computer, this tool may work differently, but it allows you to install the version of the operating system that was originally on the hard drive.

The second way to restore Windows 7 or Windows 8 is to download a system image from the Internet. You can download an image of any version of Windows on the Microsoft website. Next, you need to burn it to a flash drive or DVD and install it. A problem during the installation process will arise with the lack of a license key, but if you are using a laptop or computer on which Windows was originally installed, you can obtain the necessary ones in advance.

Please note that Microsoft gives users 30 days to downgrade from Windows 10 to an earlier version of the operating system using an OEM key. After 30 days it is no longer valid and is “attached” to Windows 10.

As you know, after the release of Windows 10, Microsoft offered to switch to it completely free of charge and even without a boot disk or flash drive. To do this, you just had to click on the corresponding icon that appeared in the lower right corner. Many people immediately jumped at the opportunity to try out Microsoft's innovations. But the point is that not everyone liked them.

That is why this article will tell you in detail how to restore a previous version of Windows. This process can be divided into several stages and carried out using various methods, even radical ones. Therefore, it is better to get instructions, so to speak, and do everything according to them in order to avoid irreversible consequences.

Rollback through the system

Perhaps few people know, but after upgrading to Windows 10, you are given exactly one calendar month to cancel and return everything back. Right now we will consider the option when, after installing the OS, you did not like it, and the permissible rollback period has not expired.

Many people probably noticed that as soon as Windows 10 appeared before their eyes, a folder called Windows.old appeared on the hard drive, or more precisely on the C drive. Familiar people are aware of why it is needed, and we will now enlighten those who do not know.

So to speak, just in case, the operating system saves its previous version just in order to return, if necessary. This older version remains in the Windows.old folder. It is stored there for exactly a month. That is why it was said above that a rollback from Windows 10 to Windows 7 can be carried out if the deadline has not expired. How to do this?

Now let's move on directly to how to restore a previous version of Windows:

There should be a desktop in front of you. Press Win+I at the same time. The Settings section will open.

We need the fourth line on the list - “Recovery”.

Now before your eyes there are various variations of further actions. We are only interested in the “Return to Windows 7” item.

Feel free to click the “Start” button. After this, you will be asked why you decided to restore the previous version of the OS.

Specify any option to choose from and move on. The possible consequences of a rollback and recommendations will be shown before your eyes. Ignore.

All you have to do is wait for the progress to complete, and after some time, Windows 7 will be your main OS.

As you can see, restoring a previous version of Windows is not such a difficult matter. However, now the simplest scenario has been presented, and it is also possible that an attempt to restore a previous version of Windows may not go well. Therefore, we move on to the next method.

Recovery using an image

The method that will now be presented is extremely rarely used, but not because it is not effective, but because it is little known. Still, it’s worth mentioning, since this is another way you can restore a previous version of Windows. It’s hard to say how long it lasts, it all depends on how you prepared, but everything is in order.

It is worth mentioning right away that we will now consider rolling back from Windows 10 to Windows 7, although this method is also suitable for other versions of operating systems. And the main thing you need to know is that recording the image must be done while you still have Windows 7: