Solved Downgrade Windows 11 to 10 Error

Hello everyone,

I can't seem to backtrack from Windows 11 to Windows 10.
I have the windows.old folder but nothing works.
Could you please help me.

attached the files dism

yaceur said:

I can't seem to backtrack from Windows 11 to Windows 10.
I have the windows.old folder but nothing works.
Could you please help me.

Click to expand...

Translation:



It's not just the Windows.old folder that's required, there's also a hidden C:\$windows.~bt folder that's essential. If that has been deleted then you cannot roll back. Windows should automatically delete the folders 10 days after the upgrade. Sometimes it cannot fully delete Windows.old. Has it been more than 10 days?

Microsoft said:

To go back, you'll need to:

• Keep everything in the windows.old and $windows.~bt folders after the upgrade
• Remove any user accounts you added after the upgrade
• Have the USB drive you used to upgrade to Windows (if you used one)

Click to expand...

For my fellow English speakers:


I interpret this to mean that the contents of windows.old have been deleted after 10 days.

You may verify this by checking the size of the windows.old folder.

If I'm correct, and you don't have an image (backup) of your Windows 10 installation, your only way back is with a clean Windows 10 installation.

Thank you for your help i update windows 11 after i have trying rollback and it's working. i go close the ticket

I've not had a single successful roll back when upgrading from 10 to 11 and I've tried it on three different PCs. I honestly don't think the MS roll back actually works. I think it's a gimmick. All were same day roll backs and all failed. So did the installations. Good thing I like making clones. Calling Microsoft solves nothing. They will escalate the issue (assuming you actually get to speak to a real live person) and not bother to get back to you. So my advice to anyone who chooses the MS "upgrade" from 10 to 11 is to clone your Windows 10 first. After the upgrade fails you can do a fresh installation of Windows 11 plus you get to keep your cloned copy of Win 10. You won't be able to use both on the same PC if you manage to use the same activation key on 11.

I imagine clean installing Windows 10 is a lot of work, so I would keep Windows 11, so I have a usable computer, and clean install Windows 10 on a spare disk. I would dual-boot Windows 10 and 11 until I have installed all my applications and copied all my data to Windows 10. I would then remove the Windows 11 disk and use Windows 10. Meanwhile I would try to get familiar with Windows 11 as much as I can, since I will eventually have to use Windows 11. If you don't have a spare SSD, but you have a spare mechanical disk, you can CLONE Windows 11 to the mechanical disk and clean install Windows 10 on the SSD. So eventually you run Windows 10 from SSD and you remove the mechanical disk.