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Possible Duplicate:
How do I uninstall Windows 8 Consumer Preview?

Looking for information on how to uninstall Windows 8.

I cannot even get into my BIOS or Boot menu, the first screen displayed when the laptop powers on is the Windows 8 screen. The previous install was Windows 7, but I did not create any restore points and deleted the recovery partition before I installed Windows 8(woops).

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4 Answers 4

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Try mashing a bunch of buttons right after you start the computer. Usually the hotkey to get into the BIOS is something like F2, F1, Del, or Esc...just keep pushing those buttons until you get into the BIOS. Then you can set the BIOS to boot from a CD or USB flash drive before the hard drive.

If you want to install Windows 7 again, you're going to need some sort of installation media. Do you have an install CD? If not, you're going to need one. You'll also need a valid product key. (If you don't know what your product key is, try looking for a sticker on the outside of the computer case).

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You can not uninstall Windows 8.

However, if you are lucky, there is a folder Windows.old on your system drive. If it is, you may boot from any other source (USB, LiveCD, or Windows recover console from your Windows install DVD) and move all folders from Windows.old to the root of the drive. Of course, you must rename current folders in the root (e.g. Windows -> Windows.1, etc.)

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  • I am just about back with Win 7, I'm not sure how exactly - it could be to do with the way I had Windows setup but I mounted a Windows 7 ISO to a USB key using the microsoft tool. Then booted Windows 8, inserted the USB key and the Windows 7 setup screen popped up. Clicked Install now and tried to reinstall, I let this go as far as it could but I don't think it worked, I then tried the repair option. I rebooted after taking out the USB key and it gave me the option to boot into Windows 7. I cannot be more specific about what I did, but after beginning with this method I am back with Win 7.
    – k1f1
    Aug 17, 2012 at 20:17
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Disclaimer: I have not tried this.

Try to use the recovery console in when booting Windows 8. This can be accessed by keep pressing the space button during boot to make Windows Boot Manager's menu show up. Then press F8 and select recover my system. Open command prompt, insert Windows 7 DVD.

Now, try run C:. Then do dir. If you see sources and setup.exe, run cd sources, and setup.exe. Windows 7 installation screen should pop up, and go from there. If you don't see the two files, then do D:, E:, etc., until you see the files.

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Bios will be inaccessible due to the fact W8 does a form of hibernation on shutdown, it does not really shut down completely anymore, you have to force a full shutdown, then you can access the bios and other functions such as F8 etc, the information is buried in this long article.

to revert back to the Windows 7 shutdown/cold boot behavior, or since that’s likely a fairly infrequent thing, you can use the new /full switch on shutdown.exe. From a cmd prompt, run: shutdown /s /full / t 0 to invoke an immediate full shutdown. Also, choosing Restart from the UI will do a full shutdown, followed by a cold boot.

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