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How to upgrade back to 8.1(?)

TheGleaner
By TheGleaner
in Windows
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Is there a way to upgrade back to 8.1 from 10 or is the only way to do this is a clean install? or can i just grab a spare hard drive and swap out my windows 10 drive with that one and be able to use both- like dual booting but i would just have to swap drives when ever i wanted to use 10, or would i run into activation issues there?

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That's a downgrade... But you can download it from Microsoft, although it'll ask your for your 8.1 Key

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considering how 10 runs on my laptop, it would be an upgrade, so where would one find the key on a laptop that got the "free upgrade"?

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Click start > then the Settings cog > Updates & Security > Recovery > Go back to an earlier build.

 

Think you only have so much time to do this though so it might not be available depending on when you upgraded.

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already tried that, it force upgraded me way back in the malware popup mess

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If the laptop came with 8.1, the key is most likely stored in your BIOS.  You should not need it, but the last time I re-installed 8.1 on my laptop I used ReadWriteEverything to extract the key and wrote it down just to be sure.

 

Here's how to (if the guide still works, that is) :

 

https://superuser.com/questions/513904/how-to-extract-win-8-oem-key-embedded-in-the-bios#593795

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so, uh, could i just use a separate drive or do i have to wipe my current drive?

 

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1 hour ago, TheGleaner said:

Is there a way to upgrade back to 8.1 from 10 or is the only way to do this is a clean install? or can i just grab a spare hard drive and swap out my windows 10 drive with that one and be able to use both- like dual booting but i would just have to swap drives when ever i wanted to use 10, or would i run into activation issues there?

If your posting a question please adjust your topic with a question mark .... :|

It confuses other new members the intention of your post.

 

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3 hours ago, Captain Chaos said:

If the laptop came with 8.1, the key is most likely stored in your BIOS.  You should not need it, but the last time I re-installed 8.1 on my laptop I used ReadWriteEverything to extract the key and wrote it down just to be sure.

 

Here's how to (if the guide still works, that is) :

 

https://superuser.com/questions/513904/how-to-extract-win-8-oem-key-embedded-in-the-bios#593795

Thanks that worked! now i just have the question on the drives...

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