Sadly you can’t JBR once W7 has gone it’s gone forwever 
That’s another thing.
The infamous Windows Anniversary update, which is probably what you’re talking about, Meg.
Not only did it take ages, but it also undid many of my settings too.
I do believe that, if MS are going to bring out a replacement for the perfectly good W7 (and the not very good W8), they should test it out thoroughly well before issuing it to the public and manufacturers, and not expect the aforesaid to find out all the bugs for them.
I’m not surprised. It used to be possible, I know for a fact. However, in the knowledge that MS are as dictatorial as the EU, I suppose it was to be expected that they’d remove that ‘safety belt’ after a time.
I think you can go back to W8.1 Muddy 
my sister’s laptop upgraded to W 10, she must have accidentally clicked on the upgrade option , I nearly did .
She got her grandson to go back to 8.1.
I never had W8 Meg and I updated to W10 nearly a year now so I think I’m stuck with it now .
Looks like it then Muddy 
You really need to go onto the Dell website and look up your machine by it’s number.
You might want to have a look here:-
If a notebook was purchased with W7 installed, and running,
then I would expect the maintenance partition to have W7 in there.
If so, a factory reset would put the machine back to the way it left the shop.
Needless to say, it would be necessary to get all the data & Programs off, before doing this, as they would be lost.
Hard to test software like that JBR, as they have a problem trying every pc, every laptop, every driver, every software package at every possible combination
It would take longer than Brexit!
What works (reasonably well) is running an “Insider Programme” and getting automatic feedback from the field as users take the level up.
I think you’ll find that they all use that technique.
But wouldn’t Windows 10 automatically install itself?
It did with my old laptop when I turned it on. One minute, Windows 7; the next time I looked, Windows 10.
What right does Microsoft have to do such things?
I hear what you say but, if you got back to 7 or 8 you would probably want to turn off automatic updates.
I hear MS do trigger an automatic upgrade to W10 but I think it will not happen if updates are turned off in W7 or W8.
Probably a quick search, on the web , asking “how to I prevent w7 being automatically upgraded to W10?” would tell us.
I’d have a look but I’m off to bed having had a hard day at the golf course!
That’s because you’re a sap who had windows updates enabled instead of realising that “if it ain’t broke, there’s no need to fix it”
The right of exploiting silly saps who are caught in the Matrix. Really, if you’re not gonna wake up and see the world how it really is, then Microsoft, and a great many other conglomerates, are going to do you over, again and again and again. Smart Meters anyone?
Too late now, although I can live with W10.
However, I did disable Windows Update on my main laptop via Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services some time ago.
So far, it remains disabled, although I read somewhere that it can be overridden after a time. I shall keep an eye on it.
My beef is that we have paid for Windows, be it in purchasing a disc or paying for a computer with the OS pre-installed.
I believe that it should be made widely known that, having paid for software, we are then subject to the whims of the producer of the software.
I wonder whether one day a government body, along the lines of OFCOM, might challenge this unwarranted control.
What a charming gentleman you are, Realist.
This is absolutely the key Tedc and those with any sense about them already had windows updates totally disabled a long time ago and so never suffered the bully boy MS rollout of W10.
There was a specific update that contained all the nefarious W10 update content and programmes. People who had updates enabled got that down their broadband line and then it was game over for them unless they took some specific actions.
Any PC or laptop that came pre-installed with Windows 7/8 will have a restore partition on it. If your machine has been Windows 10’d and you realise your mistake then you will have to complete restore the machine back to its delivery setting by doing a restore from that partition. Should be easy to do but naturally you’ll be going back in time a long way. Back up all your important stuff before you do it.
Before you do it, switch off your broadband router. You don’t want the machine to connect to the internet at any stage until you have Windows 7/8 completely installed and have taken steps to disable stuff.
Once installed, you need to go to the Windows Update option in Control Panel and configure that to NEVER do updates ever! Do not select any other option (like download and let me decide), select NEVER.
You absolutely 100% MUST sever any ability for MS to update your machine. If you don’t they will find a way to mess with your machine and take control from you.
It is early days for W10 but in time people will realise the folly in going there. With W10 you don’t have control, you may have limited control right now, but in time I predict that such control will reduce considerably and MS will be able to totally force updates on you whether you want them or not. With Win 7/8 YOU are the master, YOU are in control. YOU can decide not to let MS anywhere near your machine.
W10 will become less of an operating system as such and more of a platform to sell you apps, much like a smart phone. That imo is the whole point of what they did. They forced as many people as they could and as quickly as they could onto their new O/S whilst people sleeping. They’ve created the foundation on which to wrest control from you the end user.
It is getting harder and harder to get hold of genuine copies of Win 7 and just about every laptop for sale now comes pre-installed with W10.
I’ve emailed a large retailer of laptops recently and pleaded (begged) them to load W7 onto a brand new laptop for me. They flatly refuse, they just can’t do it.
It’s not easy to do it yourself. The problem is one of compatibility of hardware with software (as always!). A new machine might not work well with a load of old W7 software and associated device drivers. So people who have tried to do this have had to manually go searching for individual drivers for just about everything to try and make the machine work. It’s apparently hard work and fraught with problems.
Even if you get hold of a legit copy of W7 I’m not sure you can register it anymore with MS as its now out of support.
I count myself thankful that all my laptops and netbooks are W7 and came pre-loaded as W7. I always disable windows updates (and updates of all software packages) as soon as I first get a machine. I stay in control. If I want a particular new version of something then I can choose to download it. Until then, nothing comes down automatically.
I know It’s important though imo. People have blindly allowed their machines to be automatically updated for years for various reasons but most of them boil down to:
- They haven’t the faintest idea what any of the updates are
- They haven’t the faintest idea what any of the updates do
- They have no idea what impact any update will have to existing software on their machine
- They fall for the “campaign of fear” that is put out about security holes and updates that patch those holes thinking they will be somehow safe and secure. Nevertheless they still get malware and viruses.
- It’s all just too techy so they say “sod it” and just let the updates run through
I’ve run W7 for many years and have always had Windows Updates totally disabled from the outset. I have never suffered any security leak or malware or virus. I’ve never had a need for any specific MS update. Nothing I have done has required one and the lack of MS updates hasn’t inconvenienced me at all.
The kind of people that put their faith in companies like MS and just let them put anything and everything onto their machine, are imo the kind of people who in the coming years will happily allow the NHS to vaccinate them repeatedly for all manner of things without really bothering to find out what’s in the vaccine or whether they really need it. Saps.
I think I have mentioned before that I have an old laptop which runs an illegal copy of Windows 7. I hasten to add that I feel no guilt for having done that, and explained the reason which I consider perfectly valid.
Anyway, the point is that it runs perfectly, except for a small text message at the bottom of the screen reminding me that it is illegal! What’s more, Microsoft seem to make no attempt to apply ‘updates’!
Of course, if the sky does fall down and Microsoft takes over the world in the way you describe, there’s always Linux!
JB I used to have a PC that said that , I think it was because it was my sons old one and he wiped it and reinstalled windows before passing it on to me . He was only supposed to use the reinstall disc on a limited number of PCs and he exceeded the number. He did something in the end to get rid of the little message saying it was illegal not sure what .
I read some time ago that one consequence of having an illegal Windows installation was that the desktop background, whatever option was set, would turn completely black.
This hasn’t happened on mine.
I continue to use it occasionally as a backup and have found no problems whatsoever.