I want to revert back to 8.1 but I'm not sure how

[qeaterk]

I've been having problems with windows 10 lately and wanted to revert back to 8.1 but I've had windows 10 for more than 31 days and cant revert back easily. I have reinstalled windows before with a recovery thing that was on my d drive when I bought my laptop but for some reason when I go to d drive its empty but If I check how much space it has it's almost full. I looked into reinstalling windows 8.1 with the iso from microsoft and the only way I found my product key was through belarac and I'm confused if that product key is for windows 10 or 8.1. Sorry if I don't make sense I'm confused as hell..

So for short: I want to revert back to windows 8.1 from 10.

 

[Colif]

What problems are you having with 10?

is PC a brand name or custom? If brand name, it might have sticker on it showing product key or it could be in the BIOS

If custom, the key in your win 10 install isn't the same as you would have in win 8. All win 10 installs have a dumby product key showing, as the real one is stored on Microsoft servers. I know it doesn't show those details on the Microsoft account as I just looked

I don't know if Microsoft would tell you, you could go here and click on Account help - https://account.microsoft.com/

You can't use roll back to previous windows as its over 31 days, fresh install would be only option.

 

[little_me]

If you want to find out old win 8.1 key with belarc while on windows 10, you need to look for internet explorer license key.
Don't ask me why it's stored there but it is.

As far as I know, reinstalling 8.1 from boot iso or USB should still work.

As far as windows 10 product key goes, you could just skip it when installing since it'd already been activated once and thus will be reactivated automatically provided there are no hardware changes. (pretty much tied to motherboard)

 

[qeaterk]

If you want to find out old win 8.1 key with belarc while on windows 10, you need to look for internet explorer license key.
Don't ask me why it's stored there but it is.

As far as I know, reinstalling 8.1 from boot iso or USB should still work.

As far as windows 10 product key goes, you could just skip it when installing since it'd already been activated once and thus will be reactivated automatically provided there are no hardware changes. (pretty much tied to motherboard)

ok I'll try it now then, thanks

 

[qeaterk]

umm, are you sure that it's internet explorer license key? I can't find that.
I want to have it just to be safe

 

[qeaterk]

and I'm still confused why I can't use the recovery drive even though it seems like it's still there I just can't see it

 

[little_me]

For me, it's listed as internet explorer license key in Belarc.
I had 8.1, upgraded to 10, I know my old 8.1 license key, I've compared them, they match each other exactly.

If belarc doesn't list internet explorer license key, it is possible that computer doesn't know the old 8.1 key anymore. Reasons for this might be reset and/or clean install of windows 10 after the upgrade.

Since it is a laptop, it is possible that the license key has been inputted to hardware bios. (also commonly sticker in the bottom but those tend to wear down with age) If it's in BIOS, you can either see it in said bios or.. not. Even if not, it could still be readable by windows installation.
Although, I can understand wanting to be sure before doing changes that are harder to undo.
Edit: I Don't have said license information in bios but I can see that I don't have them with HWinfo under motherboard-smbios dmi-system as:
Product Serial Number: To be filled by O.E.M.
SKU Number: To be filled by O.E.M.
Family: To be filled by O.E.M.


The old recovery drive was quite likely going to work only on/for old windows 8.1 and will no longer work with win10. The drive is full even if it shows as empty might be due to you not having changed the default "hide protected files" and "hide system files" settings in folder view options. They tend to hide a lot of things from view.
For a reason that in normal cases, you wouldn't need to poke around in them.

 

[qeaterk]

is there any way to check if the key I found is for windows 8.1?

 

[little_me]

As far as I know, without knowing your 8.1 key.. no?`
If it's inputted to hardware bios/such, and laptop came with 8.1, I'm pretty sure it'd be said 8.1 key.
If it's listed as that internet explorer key while you are in windows 10, I'm pretty sure it's the old 8.1 key (since that matches things with both my desktop and laptop which were upgraded from 8.1 to 10)
but 100% certain? no

 

[qeaterk]

ok I'm confused, so my laptop came with win 8.1 and then I installed 10 and now want to revert. I googled how to find windows 8.1 key with bios and found a key with RW-EVERYTHING but when I ctrl + f it in belarac it didnt even have results. Is there a site where I can put the key in and it will show if it's for 8.1 or 10 or something?

 

[little_me]

I'm quite certain that only sites that offer to check if your key is windows 10 or 8.1 would be the "give us your key, we will resell it and cause you problems in future" kind.

Also Belarc doesn't necessarily see everything so the key you found through bios could be the one you want. Or not, there is no 100% certain way to tell.

 

[qeaterk]

well to late now if I get my key stolen lol

 

[qeaterk]

I checked it with a program and it says that it's a windows 8.1 key so I guess Ill try reinstalling the windows now ill tell what happened after

 

[qeaterk]

I encountered a few problems along the way but I got through them and I'm back to windows 8.1, finally..