Getting back to Windows.old

[doritogaming]

Alright so let me explain exactly what has happened. I bought and built my brand new gaming PC, and of course needed Windows. From a trusted website, I bought a $60 Windows Home OEM key. After typing in the key and downloading Windows, it told me I needed to restart. I restarted, and being ignorant I was unaware that I needed to boot from my hard drive this time to activate Windows. Instead, I typed in the key again (being confused) and it told me it was going to move my old Windows into a windows.old folder. I didn't really know what that meant, so I continued anyway. The next time I did it I remembered I needed to boot from the hard drive after downloading, so I did that. Two days into having this, I'm now getting annoying little watermarks on my screen saying "Activate Windows". I believe this is because I typed in the key multiple times and downloaded it multiple times. Is there a chance I can get to windows.old and boot from there? That has the ORIGINAL key, and these messages are very annoying. It also restricts me from personalizing my PC, and I don't want to have wasted $60 to a simple mistake. Thank you for your help in advance.

 

[basroil]

1) You must purchase Windows keys from authorized resellers, anything else is likely fake/illegal
2) You must activate using a Windows 10 key. You cannot upgrade for free unless you had already activated before 7/29/2016
3) Your original OS key is useless for Win 10 activation unless 2) was met, you need to put in the new key.
4) Watermark and personalization restriction are due to using an unactivated version. Simply activate and you will gain full functionality.
5) If you really want to revert you can simply press Windows+a, click "settings", click on "update&security" and then find "revert". That will uninstall Windows 10 and leave you with your old OS.

If you want additional help, you will need to tell us exactly what product the key was for (i.e. Windows 10 Home OEM) and where you bought it from.

 

[avajonshon]

Alright so let me explain exactly what has happened. I bought and built my brand new gaming PC, and of course needed Windows. From a trusted website, I bought a $60 Windows Home OEM key. After typing in the key and downloading Windows, it told me I needed to restart. I restarted, and being ignorant I was unaware that I needed to boot from my hard drive this time to activate Windows. Instead, I typed in the key again (being confused) and it told me it was going to move my old Windows into a windows.old folder. I didn't really know what that meant, so I continued anyway. The next time I did it I remembered I needed to boot from the hard drive after downloading, so I did that. Two days into having this, I'm now getting annoying little watermarks on my screen saying "Activate Windows". I believe this is because I typed in the key multiple times and downloaded it multiple times. Is there a chance I can get to windows.old and boot from there? That has the ORIGINAL key, and these messages are very annoying. It also restricts me from personalizing my PC, and I don't want to have wasted $60 to a simple mistake. Thank you for your help in advance.

You have had upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 for more than a weekdays now, but the new OS might not be meeting your expectation and just not going your way. You might don’t like new start menu or believe that Cortana is not suitable for you. If you are facing these issues then it might be right time to go back to previous version of OS, Windows 8.1 or 7. You can follow this linked article.