Downgrade OS

[krzysztoff]

Hi i bought laptop with preinstaled Windows 10 Home x64. Im not very happy of using this software and i start thinking about changing it to Windows 8.1 Pro but im affraid that i will have problem with drivers and some of things can stop working properly. Does anybody try it and can tell my is it safe and how you do this

[WAWood]

krzystoff

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the problem you're up against is that Microsoft only supplies drivers with the most basic functionality, and what you really need for FULL functionality is the specialized drivers written for the specific hardware found in your HP PC -- and unfortunately, there are no HP Win10 drivers for your PC.

HP only guarantees Win10 compatibility for machines made after August, 2013. HP is no longer producing drivers for the older machines.

This means that your PC is most likely NEVER going to be fully functional under Win10 because the drivers it needs for full functionality simply do not exist!

That said, it MIGHT work under Win10, but there are problems if you FORCE Win10 onto it.

While Microsoft tells you that there is no risk in the Win10 Upgrade, because they let you believe that you can always revert back to your original OS and setup within 30 days, the ugly fact of the matter is that the Win10 GoBack function has proven to be unreliable -- and when it fails, it can leave machines in a corrupted state -- which doesn't always happen, but it does happen often enough to be a problem and you won't get any warning in advance that it is going to trash your PC!

If that is not bad enough, the Win10 Upgrade is know to corrupt the Recovery partition stored there by the OEM that built the original machine. This pretty much guarantees that no HP Recovery is going to work: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Video-Display-and-Touch/HP-Recovery-Manager-Blocked-After-Windo...

This means that RESET no longer works on your laptop after doing the Win10 Upgrade.

So, if you are  DETERMINED to install Win10 on this PC, at least prepare for the worst by creating an image backup on an external drive or large USB stick.

I personally prefer to use third-party Recovery solutions as they tend to be both more flexible and more reliable than any built-in solutions.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR)
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 10 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

Good Luck

[krzysztoff]

I bought HP Pavilion - 15-au193sa laptop it comes with preinstaled win10 and all drivers on HP support website are for win10. My problem is i don't want use that os. I want to instal win 8.1 pro but im affraid that some of hardware will stop working properly

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

OK, understand.

But you also need to understand that the license that came with the PC is not downgradeable to Win8x.  You will have to purchase a license from Microsoft to activate Win8x.

If you follow the instructions I left you about performing an image backup, you can try the downgrade with no risk -- because if the results aren't good, you can always restore your PC to Win10 using the backup.

You can certainly TRY installing the Win8.1 drivers on Win10 equipment -- but there's no guarantee they will work.

[krzysztoff]

I think i will use bilt in recovery if something will go wrong but anyway thank you for your help