Windows 10 keeps on upgrading its existing versions to newer Builds with regular monthly cumulative updates. This includes either security or non-security patches. However, what it does on a broader picture is to increase the current Build number of the operating system. What if you want to switch back and install Older Versions of Windows 10 on your PC? Well, in this article, we discuss an easy workaround to do the same.
Rufus is an open-source bootable media that allows you to download prior releases of Windows 10 by Microsoft. Although this is applicable to Windows 10 OS, you may use this tool to install older versions for Linux and UEFI as well. After the latest upgrade of this utility, this even allows downloading earlier versions of Windows 10 or 8.1. Let’s explore an easy way to do so –
Download and Install Older Windows 10 Releases
To download and install Older Versions of Windows 10, use the steps –
- At first, you need to visit Rufus’ official website and tap over the links available under the Download section.
Note: Though you may click any of the options listed there, we suggest opting for Rufus 3.8 Portable as this doesn’t require any installation on your device. Again, there won’t be any issue moving this file from one place to another.
- After the download completes, plug-in an empty USB drive.
- Now, locate its setup file, make a right-click and select “Run as Administrator“.
- When the Rufus window launches, this will auto-select the USB drive and will display the same under “Device“.
- Under Boot selection, select Disk or ISO image and head over to the adjacent drop-down menu.
- Choose Download, wait for a while then click over this button. See the Snapshot below –
- This will take a few seconds as Rufus is running a download script to search over its database.
- Once it finishes searching, select Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 using the drop-down menu and hit Continue.
- Next, choose the older versions of Windows 10 that you want to install on your PC.
- Now, click Continue again to proceed further.
- Similarly, select Edition, Language, and Architecture thereafter press the Download button.
Note: You may choose to download the iso image using a browser as well. All you need is to mark the checkbox as shown below then tap Download.
- Your System will either redirect you to download the iso image over the default web browser or start downloading the necessary files from its servers.
- When the percentage displays 100% under the Status bar, it implies that you are now ready with either ISO or bootable image (whichever you opted for in the above step).
In case you downloaded Windows 10 older version as an ISO file, you need to make it bootable first. Assuming you did create a bootable image on your USB flash drive, attach it to one of your PC’s ports, and restart the computer.
Press the function key (f6, f19, f10, f12), Esc, or Del to access the boot menu. Select your PenDrive and wait for Windows to extract the downloaded files. You may now follow the on-screen instructions to begin installing an old version of Windows 10/8.1/7 on your PC.
I hope you find this article useful and easy to follow upon.
