Windows 7 to 8 back to 7?

Hi, we have a fairly new, very pricey, custom desktop computer. It came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, but when we purchased you could get the Windows 8 upgrade for only $15, which we did. We upgraded a few weeks ago and absolutely hate the UI of Windows 8. To top that off, we clicked something that said "refresh your PC"... well, it erased drivers and all sorts of other programs, without any warning. So, we are now wondering if we can just reinstall the Windows 7 now. Is this do-able??

Thanks for any help. Sorry if this has been covered already.

ETA: Just realized there is a Desktop Review Forum, so I have posted this question there.

 

Well, to still answer your question, you can certainly reinstall Windows 7, no problem. All you need is your Windows 7 disc and it'll have generic drivers to run your hardware until you go get the drivers specific to the parts in your computer (graphics drivers, winred/wireless internet drivers, etc).

 

As the other poster said as long as you have the recovery cd/dvd you can restore your Windows7 back but if not you can always order then through the manufacture to get them. And also check your F10 recovery for the D: drive where the restore partition that holds the image that can restore your PC back to factory install when you bought it.

 

Why don't keep win 8? Like the people hate win 7 and love XP . You need to follow new tech . You can not still use bicycle while you have motor!
I up with 8 now never back to 7 .Even got pay for it !

 

You will get used to Windows 8. When I got it, I hated it, but now I'm used to it. It's basically Windows 7 in a new shell. It's almost the same. Windows 8 is faster at some points, but there are also disadvantages. E.g. when you want to go to safe mode, it is very complicated in Windows 8 for some reason.

 

You must be mistaken. You might want to double check those numbers.

 

There's the word

why should one have to get used to windows 8? Simple question windows 7 does and will run a majority of software that had some issues with vista plus windows 8 is more towards tablet and touchscreen of which I doubt the OP has to begin with. So let's not let your own likes cloud the judgement and help the OP go back to something they are familiar with and able to use and then when the time comes they will make the choice themselves to go windows 8 or not. All those eye candies of W8 does one no good and give very little value in return. Latest polling shows W8 isn't viewed favorably so that should give one pause and ask some simple questions.

 

Eh... "Some UI changes and slightly-tweaked under the hood" equaltes to "Holy crap, drop everything and upgrade!"? Anyway, I think you meant to say "Like people hated Windows Vista and kept XP"...

Your opinion is nice and all I suppose, but if it works, there's no need ot fix it (for example, XP still gets security updates until early 2014, 7 until 2020(?)). If you ask me, 8 is only good for touchscreen-only devices (which may have a keyboard attachment) such as tablets or smartphones (in the case of WP8). I love WP7.5 on my phone, but would I want the same interface on a non-touchscreen computer, or a computer with touchscreen capability? Nope, just nope. I'd like to keep more than one windows open at a time, thank you very much .

 

I think it's more like "upgrading" to a Corvette from an F150 (when you live on a farm :-D)... Also, bikes are still good for you, even without a motor.

 

That's surprising. 99% of the time it feels exactly the same as Win 7. The charms bar gets annoying a little occasionally and without a third party start menu its a tiny bit annoying launching apps only using one hand. But its way too much work to downgrade just because of that.

 

Bad analogy.
People who have cars/motors still use bicycles on a regular basis - actually, even during periods when I had unrestricted access to faster transportation such as cars, I still used my bicycle because I found it to be a nice workout for one thing (still do) and it beats sitting in hot weather in a closed moving box (car).
A motor and a car can have different uses... not necessarily usable all the time, especially if you like being active regularly.

I hadn't used Windows 8 yet, so I cannot say anything conclusive about it... however, from viewing the usage of the UI by others, I found it to be confusing, and unnecessarily annoying (not to mention aesthetically relatively un-appealing).
To top it off, potential software incompatibility is what worries me and its not something I care to experience right now.
Windows 7 x64 seems to serve my needs just fine as is - and Windows 8 for all intense and purposes has some 'under the hood' fixes that I don't find necessarily important for the time being (nor do I think they offer large speed increases that I would notice in the first place - again, once the OS matured enough, perhaps I might consider trying it, but for now, I don't really see the point - might as well skip it since Windows 9 will probably be on its way soon and then I will evaluate its potential to see what it has to offer).

Just because something is 'new' doesn't mean its automatically better (at least that's the case with monetary based economics) or necessarily 'right for you'.
I agree people should adopt new technologies, but since Windows 8 doesn't really offer anything groundbreaking, I think skipping it is just fine.

 

If you spent money on Windows 8 then use it, if not, stay with Windows 7. There is no reason to spent money on an upgrade because, as I have already have mentioned, they are basically the same OS! However, there are some new features in Windows 8 that I like. E.g. the improved task manager and the much faster boot time. Therefore, if you have Windows 8 just install it, - it won't take a long time in order to get used to it.

 

Tell that to all the people who keep buying electric bicycles/scooters.

 

Everybody has different wants/needs. Welcome to the free market.

Electric bikes and scooters are good for when you want to travel further than you can with a bike and traveling by public transport is an option, but not long enough to justify a car. Or if you're driving a one of those within easy bike/walking range, you're just being lazy...

 

No your comparing Apples to Oranges and of which has no relationship or whatever to the discussion. How about making a reliable comparison to the discussion at hand of which then would offer meaningful solution instead?

 

That would be all in good but if they got hoodwinked thinking it was better then that reason is not so good. I go on the bases of that they were sold a bill of good and only to find out what surprise was instore for them. Whatever the case is if they feel the need to stay with W7 after the experience with W8 they they by all means should get our support to go back to W7 and not priorities our needs or wants as though it was there's. And there it goes again the word:

I find this disturbing but fail to look at what they are asking for help with and wanting to go back to something they want to use not have to re-educate themselves on of which they can do at another time and then make the transition to W8 if they should choose to do so. And I remind people all those tweaks you do to W8 to make it look like W7 why do that in the first place if that was such a good O/S? That is the ironic point they talk about liking W8 but talk about changing it to look like W7 makes you take a pause and think why??? Also all those tweaks one does to make it look like W7 trust me all M$ has to do is relase a security or hotfix and all those tweaks will be gone or blasted away with a M$ update. So don't think for a moment M$ hasn't thought about this-they don't like people messing with their O/S.

 

Wow, I appreciate all the responses!

I guess that one of the reasons we really don't like W8 is that it is geared toward touch screens and tablets. We have our tower PC hooked up to our 60" TV, so it will never be used on a touch screen. The layout is confusing and built more like a smart phone than a PC - at least no PC we're used to. Neither of us had seen W8 installed on anything before we upgraded... in retrospect this was the biggest error. We should have maybe gone to a computer store and had someone show us a computer running the OS.

Thanks for all the help and opinions. At least now we know it can be done!

ETA: I should also say that another big drawback of W8 is programs not being compatible.

 

That is the best worst kept secret from the interiors of M$.