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Need to downgrade from Windows 10 back to Windows 8
I have an XPS8500 that originally came loaded with Windows 8. I recently updated to Windows 10 and now my PC will no longer boot. In fact, the PC sort of boots but not Windows. I managed to talk briefly with a Dell tech support guy who told me this was a known problem and that I need to downgrade back to Windows 8. However, the only place I have found to do this requires me to enter a product key. Yet, I don't have a product key as I understand that these are now imbedded in the BIOS and, thus, are no longer necessary to be manually entered by a user such as myself. This is all fine when the PC boots and works as expected. But since mine doesn't fully boot, I am unable to "easily" install windows 8. My understanding (based on info from Dell tech guy) is that I need to create a bootable USB key copy. Booting my PC via this USB key will then verify the product key and allow for installation of Windows 8. But I have not been successful in finding this copy of Windows 8 that I can put on a USB key without having to provide a product key. Can anyone help either with that or to redirect my efforts?Thanks in advance for any help.
Anonymous
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October 21st, 2015 04:00
Hi,
Thank you for writing to us!
Kindly use the following link which will give you a fair idea of how to downgrade from win 10 to win 8
www.howtogeek.com/.../how-to-uninstall-windows-10-and-downgrade-to-windows-7-or-8.1
Kindly let us know if there are any other issues.
Thanks
Robin
Philip_Yip
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October 21st, 2015 06:00
Follow my instructions here:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-windows-8-1-retail-and-oem-iso/
Note Windows 8.1 UEFI BIOS Embedded SLP keys are Edition specific. See the notes on determining your Edition when Windows cannot boot.
wingman1961
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October 23rd, 2015 10:00
Thanks you very much for your answer and information. However,this does not work. These methods assume I have a PC that is currently working (booting) and from which I can go on the web to do these things and downgrade to Windows 8. But my PC no longer boots Windows. One of the methods described does in fact suggest the creation of a bootable media. But, for some reason, I can only create it (or simply copy it?) using my only working PC which is Vista. So an error message explains I need to do this from a Windows 7 PC (which I don't understand and which is of no help to me). My Laptop at work luckily is on Windows 7 and so I tried to create the boot media on that. Again, I was unsuccessful. It starts to download and stops saying downloading was unsuccessful, without providing any reason whatsoever. Any other suggestions? Worst case, can I buy a bootable media device that will install Windows 8 and see that a product key does exists in the BIOS?
wingman1961
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October 23rd, 2015 11:00
Thank you! I had run by those instructions also at some point. But I saw somewhere that, since my product key is in the BIOS, it is very important that I install the same OS and version of OS as is licensed for my PC (based on info in BIOS). My PC had Windows 8 on it (not Windows 8.1). Certainly would appreciate any other suggestions you might have.
Philip_Yip
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October 23rd, 2015 14:00
Microsoft made initial mistakes with the deployment of Windows 8.1 where it rejected Windows 8 keys and vice versa.
They amended this mistake with the Windows 8.1 with Update 1 .isos which I link to. These .isos accept both Windows 8 Edition and Windows 8.1 Edition product keys providing the Edition of the .iso matches.