How to restore a previous version of Windows after reinstallation. How to revert a file to a previous version. How to revert to a previous version of Windows

After a failed plan to transfer 1 billion users from low-end versions to Windows 10 (despite the aggressive promotion, they switched three times less), Microsoft is launching a new offensive on all fronts.

In early August, a massive Windows 10 Anniversary update was released that adds a number of new features and interface changes, as well as HoloLens support and new Cortana features.

But what if you were tempted and installed the top ten for free, but you absolutely didn’t like it, it’s unstable, or you just changed your mind to inform Microsoft about everyone?

Especially for you, we will tell you how to uninstall Windows 10 and return to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

How to downgrade Windows 10 to Windows 7 or 8.1?

Without reinstalling, you can roll back the "ten" to the previous version. only if you installed it as an update to an existing system.

To rollback Windows 10, go to Start Menu - Settings - Update & Security - Recovery.


We open "Start", we find "Parameters"

Selecting "Update and Security"

We find the item "Recovery"

In place of the red rectangle, there should be a "Return to Windows 7" or "Return to Windows 8.1" option.
In our case, it is not there, because more than a month has passed since the update

In the window that opens, select "Return to Windows 7" or "Return toWindows 8.1 "- depending on which version of the operating system was installed before. Then click the "Get Started" button.

In this case, the system will require an explanation of why Windows 10 did not suit you. Tell Microsoft what you think of it (joke!)

Then just follow the instructions of the installer; after restarting, the computer will return to the previous version of Windows.

Why can't I find the "Return to Windows 7" button?

This can happen for two reasons:

• More than a month has passed since the update. After this period, the system deletes the files of the previous version of Windows.
• You erased files from the previous version using Disk Cleanup, or manually deleted the folder "C: \\ Windows.old"

I deleted it, can I do something?

You can still get rid of Windows 10, but you'll have to reinstall Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 from scratch. Download the images of the installation disk for the required operating system from the Microsoft website (Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 image).

Please note that for this you will need license key... For Windows 7, look for a sticker that confirms the authenticity of your copy of the operating system. On laptops, this sticker can be on the bottom panel, under the battery, or even on the power supply.

It's even easier with Windows 8 or 8.1. The key may not be needed at all - it is often sewn into the hardware, and during installation the system will find it itself.

Don't forget to do before installing the operating system.

When is it worth doing rollback windows 10?

You may just not like the "ten", and this reason may be enough to return to the previous version.

However, the transition to a new operating system always carries with it a certain risk. There are millions of unpredictable conflicts between programs, devices, and Windows 10 that can cause your computer to become unstable.

It's good that antivirus solutions are compatible with Windows 10 and other modern OS :)

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 so without a trace.

The thing is that in Windows7, even after reinstall Windows, the previous version is backed up in the folder Windows. old ... This folder is located on the C: drive and by itself is incapable, it cannot be active, that is, the system boots from windows folders, but files, packages and programs of the old operating system remain in Windows. old. So how do you restore the system from this folder?

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

Next, we do everything, strictly observing this manual

1. Click Start, and then select Computer;
2. In the View submenu, select the Details item.
3. In the "Free space" column, carefully examine, examine your local disk (C :) in the " hard drives» .
4. Double click in the area hard drives, local disk (C :), and then check if the Windows.old folder has been deleted (many people delete it after installing the system so as not to clog the hard disk).
   If the Windows.old folder is not available, then further actions not worth doing, as they will be meaningless.
   Next, right-click the bear on the Windows.old folder. We look at the properties of the folder and make sure that it is smaller than the amount of free disk space (C :).
   

   Note. If the Windows.old folder is at least twice the amount of free space on local disk (C :) then restore the previous windows version will fail.
   Next, we start the environment windows recovery.

5. Insert installation disk from Windows7 to DVD drive and give the command to restart the computer.
6. When the message "" is displayed, select everything that you need in the further operation of the system, namely: currency, time, language, but all this is in installed system can be customized. After all this, click the "Next" button.
7. In the appeared window “ Installing Windows "Press the button" Repair your computer».
8. 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.
9. Further in the appeared window “ System recovery options"Display the command line, namely, select the command" Command line».
   After all these manipulations, a command prompt window will open. Further in command line you will enter the commands that are described below. Further steps are intended to move the Windows7 folders to new folder Win7.

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

Important! Press the ENTER key after each command.

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 a sample.

In the next step, 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, you may receive a message: "The system cannot find the specified file.

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

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

We 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 has a different letter, then use that letter in the command.

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

D: ootootsect / nt52 c:

If the previous operating room windows system was Windows Vistathen enter the following:

Enter the following commands and press the ENTER key 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 in the command line and press the "ENTER" key:

The File History utility in Windows gets its name from its ability to restore older versions of a file. This feature is part of all backup programs, although it is often referred to as "Restore". Although the idea is the same: from the backup archive, you remove old version file. The File History function simplifies this process and the work with files in general.

In order to return an old version of a file from a backup disk, you need to follow these steps.

• If you want to replace the current version with a new one: select Recover and then Replace file in Destination Application. The current file is replaced by the backup.
• In order to save both the current version and the restored backup, you must click "Restore" and select "Restore to". Select the target folder for the recovered file.
• To view the archived copy: click "Open". The file has not been recovered, but you can view its contents to see if it contains the information you need.

4. Then click to close the Properties window when done. If there are no previous versions, you will see the message “No previous versions available after step 2. This means that the file is new and has not been copied, that the file has not changed, or that backup copy of this file does not exist. The File History utility is not a replacement for recovering a file from the Recycle Bin; if you delete a file, you need to restore it from the Trash.

File history only works with files in the folders that you selected when configuring the utility.

Video: How to Recover Unsaved or Damaged Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint Document

Many IT professionals use, or at least know about, Windows restore points to restore the operating system to a previous state after a major failure. But did you know that in (and to some extent in Vista) System Restore has been enhanced to track and save previous versions of changed files?

In other words, in addition to quickly recovering the system in the event of a failure, you can now recover and separate filesif they were accidentally deleted, damaged, or if you just need to quickly undo all changes made to the file.

While file recovery is great windows function 7, oddly enough, few people know about it and few people use it. In this article, I will go into more detail about this technology and explain how it works.

Briefly about previous versions

Although I advertise previous versions of the files as new function, In fact this is not true. This technology is rooted in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, where it was implemented as. When installing a shadow copy client shared folders (Shadow Copies of Shared Folders) on a Windows XP computer connected to a server under windows management Server 2003, restoring previous versions of files was possible in Windows XP as well. The main innovation in Windows 7 is that this feature is now fully available as part of a single operating system and does not require a connection to the server.

I also mentioned that older versions of the files are supported to some extent in Vista. More precisely, in Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate. In Home Basic versions, Home Premium and Starter this feature is not available. In Windows 7, it is present in all editions.

How it works

As you know, to create restore points, the operating system constantly monitors any significant changes, which include the installation of new applications, hardware, drivers, system updates or security patches through the Center windows updates... When such changes are detected, the system automatically creates a restore point, which, in essence, is a snapshot of the system state, including important system files, including certain parts of the registry. At the same time, snapshots of all data files stored on the hard disk are taken.

However, making major changes to the operating system isn't the only reason to create a restore point. By default, Windows 7 automatically creates a restore point once a day, and in addition, you can create such a snapshot yourself at any time.

In addition, when creating backups using the Backup and Restore tool ( Backup and Restore) Windows 7 automatically tracks them and allows you to restore previous versions of files not only from restore points, but also from backups.

To use the restore previous versions function, click on the file right click mouse and select in context menu the option "Restore Previous Versions" (Fig. A).

Figure A. The option "Restore Previous Version" is available in the context menu of any file in Windows 7.

The file properties window will open with the "Previous Versions" tab (Fig. B). As you can see, in my example, the file is included in both the restore points and the backup, so I can choose any option to restore it to its previous version, depending on which date I'm interested in.

Figure B. Using the Backup and Restore tool, you can restore older versions of files not only from recovery points, but also from backups.

As you can see, there are three buttons on the Previous Versions tab: Open, Copy, and Restore. To check if this is the version of the file you want, you can select it in the list and click "Open". This will open the file for viewing in the appropriate application - in my case, it's Word.

The Copy button invokes a standard copy dialog like the Copy To command and allows you to restore a file to a different folder. Note that the "Open" and "Copy" commands are available only for files saved in the recovery point and do not work for backed up files. The "Restore" button allows you to restore the file to the exact state it was in when the restore point or backup was created.

What to consider

It should be borne in mind that previous versions of a file from restore points will only be available if changes have been made to the file since the last restore point was created. If the file has not changed since then, a message will appear on the Previous Versions tab: There are no previous versions available (Figure C).

Figure C. If the file has not changed since the last restore point was created, the following message will appear.

However, this does not mean that the previous version of the file was not saved to the restore point. If you just open and save the current file, the previous version will immediately appear on the Previous Versions tab.

If a file has not changed for several months, new versions of it will not be saved every time a restore point is created.

File recovery

Now that you have an idea of \u200b\u200bhow the restore legacy feature works, let's see how to use it. Let's say I unintentionally irrevocably deleted word document (fig. D), and then realized his mistake. Since the file is gone, there is nothing to right-click on. Instead, you must open the Previous Versions tab for the folder where the deleted file was stored (Figure E).

Figure D. I accidentally deleted a Word document.

Figure E. To recover a permanently deleted file, open the Previous Versions tab for the folder in which it was stored.

To make sure that this folder is saved desired file, I click the "Open" button. The folder opens, and in it is the file you are looking for. Now I can open it in Word and see the content. After making sure that this is the file I want, I close Word, close the folder, and return to the Previous Versions tab. I click the "Restore" button. The dialog box shown in Fig. F. If I click the "Restore" button in it, the file will be restored to its original folder.

Figure F. Before restoring the file, the system prompts you to confirm the operation.

Although the warning in the dialog box is worded as if the restore replaces the entire contents of the folder, in fact, only the deleted file will be restored. There were several other files in my folder, for example, and they remained intact after the restore.

What do you think?

Did you know about the existence of the file restore functionality in Windows 7? If not, will you be using this feature now? And if you have already, what are your impressions? Share your opinion in the comments!

Materials

Previous versions Are either copies of files and folders created by Windows Backup or copies of files and folders that Windows automatically saves as part of a restore point.

Previous versions can be used to recover accidentally changed, deleted, or damaged files and folders. Depending on the type of file or folder, you can open, save to another location, or restore previous version.

How previous versions are created

Previous versions are automatically saved as part of a restore point. When system protection is enabled, Windows automatically creates previous versions of files and folders that have changed since the last restore point was created. Restore points are usually created once a day.

If the disk is partitioned or the computer has multiple hard disks, you should enable system protection for the other partitions or disks. Previous versions are also created by Windows Archiving when backing up files.

Note: If the file was changed several times during one day, only latest version at the time the restore point or backup is created, it is retained as the previous version.

How to restore previous versions of a file and folder

Right-click the file or folder and choose .

A list of available previous versions of the file or folder appears. The list will contain the files saved during the backup (if you are using windows backup) and restore points.

Note: To restore a previous version of a file or folder that you added to the library, right-click the file or folder in the location where you saved it, not in the library. For example, to restore a previous version of an image, added to the image library, but in the folder My drawings, right click the folder My drawings and select Restore previous versions.

How a recovery point differs from a backup

If you restore a previous version from a restore point, the file is downloaded on the computer, so nothing else needs to be done.

To restore a previous version of a file or folder from a backup, after selecting the previous version and clicking the Restore button, Windows opens the File Restore Wizard and then follows the steps in the wizard.

The disk or media on which the backup is stored must be accessible in order to restore items from the backup.

Why are there no previous versions of some files

Possible reasons:

• The file has not been modified. Previous versions are only available for files that have changed.
• A restore point or backup was not created after the file was modified.
• The drive containing these files may not have system protection enabled. If system protection is not enabled, Windows cannot create previous versions.

Can recover deleted file or folder

If you accidentally deleted or renamed a file or folder, you can restore a previous version of a file or folderbut you need to know the location where they are stored.

To recover a deleted or renamed file or folder, follow these steps:

prompt: If you do not remember the name of the file or folder or its location, enter part of the name in the search box in the Computer folder.