Downgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 7

[desimcgrady]

Hello everyone, I have run into a road bump and wanted to see if anyone here would be able to help me.

So I originally got my Windows 7 Product key from Oklahoma University online resources which I no longer have access to.

I wrote it down and saved it on a file on my hard drive, but my external hard drive has been long gone

Before installing Windows 10 TP I forgot to pull the product key and now that I want to downgrade I need to have my product key to even download windows 7.

I installed windows 10 as an upgrade with all my files still on my computer it was not a clean install so... would I still be able to pull the product key or am I just out of luck?

 

[AddRAM]

Did windows 10 create a windows.old folder, you could look in there, if not you`re out of luck.

Where do you think you`re gonna download windows from with that key ?

You should never have installed/upgraded (for lack of a better word) over windows 7 with Windows 10, it`s only a preview.

The Technical preview should only be installed on a separate drive or a Virtual machine.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

My guess is that you are out of luck, but that would not stop me from attempting to fish out the Win 7 key and see how far I got with it at your download site. There's tools out there that try to show you various Product Keys.

What can it hurt? It wouldn't cost anything but time. If you can't find it in an hour, consider it a lesson learned and move on.

I'm assuming Win 10 has no type of magical "restore to previous state" function.

 

[gregrocker]

Go to Start>All Apps>Settings>Recovery. There should be a setting like this to roll back to Windows 7 then audit your Product Key with a keyfinder:



If not check for C:\Windows.old folder which also contains the old install. There is a way to decrypt the file containing the Product Key. Someone will find it for you.