How to uninstall Windows 8 Consumer Preview

53 Replies

If you have installed Windows 8 consumer preview, didn’t like the interface or some of your drivers aren’t working and would like to uninstall it, then this article is for you. We would explaining in details as how to uninstall Windows 8 consumer preview. Removing Windows 8 Consumer Preview depends on how you installed it.

Case 1: Upgraded from Windows 7

Case 2: Installed on separate partition

If you are comfortable with video, the view this video else follow the steps given below-

Case 1

There is no easy way to downgrade Windows 8 back to a previous version of Windows. You therefore only have a couple of options. If you have a full system backup taken previously then you could restore that. Otherwise, most manufactures provide an option to restore your computer to factory settings (this will remove all your files and programs). A factory reset is usually achieved with a set of discs or a recovery partition. You will need to follow your computer manufacturer’s instructions for your specific computer.

Case 2

If you have installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a separate partition (as detailed in this article) then it is relatively easy to remove it in the following two stages.

Follow the steps below in your old version of Windows e.g. Windows 7 (the version of Windows you want to keep).

Stage 1: Remove Windows 8 Consumer Preview from boot loader

You will need a free piece of software called EasyBCD available here.

Once installed, open the software (you will need to be an administrator). Click ‘Edit Boot Menu’ from the sidebar. Then select the ‘Windows 8 Consumer Preview’ and click ‘Delete’. Next tick the checkbox for your previous version of Windows to load that by default. Now click ‘Save Settings’.

Next, from the sidebar, click ‘BCD Backup/Repair’ and select ‘Re-create/repair boot files’ and then click ‘Perform Action’.

You should now have removed Windows 8 Consumer Preview from the boot loader. It is best to check this has worked by restarting your computer before you continue. If your computer makes no mention of Windows 8 Consumer Preview when starting up then you can move onto stage 2. If your computer still boots with Windows 8 Consumer Preview as an option DO NOT move onto stage 2.

Stage 2: Remove Windows 8 Consumer Preview Partition

Open ‘Create and format hard disk partitions’ (search for it in the start menu). Then select and right hand click on the Windows 8 Partition. (Make sure you definitely have the correct partition selected, double check by looking at the side). Click ‘Delete Volume’ and then click ‘Yes’ to continue. Then right hand click on the free space and click ‘Delete Partition’ and then ‘Yes’ to confirm the delete. You should now see the space labelled ‘unallocated’. Select the Windows drive (usually C) and right hand click ‘Extend Volume’. Click ‘Next’, and assuming you want to take up all the unallocated space click ‘Next’ again and finally click ‘Finish’ to complete the operation. You have now completely removed the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Why did you remove the Windows 8 Consumer Preview? Comment below

sstojanoski

downgrading an OS is just plain ridiculous,
keep everything on another partition, so the OS partition is always ready for formatting
or re-installing
for easier access just make shortcuts on Desktop or the navigation pane or wherever you keep
the shortcuts
so when you’re PC gets slow or you don’t like the new OS just install new one
- Mmiller240
  
  Does it not install any of your programs that were on your previous version?
S.Mukhopadhyay

I want to remove Win8CP b’coz of

1. Restart & shutdown lags (Win7 is still smooth as butter in my system)

2. For the ridiculous Metro UI…[C’mon…70% of systems are laptop.notebook n desktop..n they ‘ll remain alwayz)

3. No Start Menu …they have to bring back this one or-else win8 will me the next ‘successive version of VISTA’

and last bt not the list…..

4. The F****** FISH on the boot screen….I still don’t understand the relation between win8 & the fish…my system isn’t an aquarium.

I was really so excited about win8 cp bt nw i deeply disappointed for the injustice that they have done in this build.
- Diganhal
  
  The reason they have the fish is that it is a Japenese fighting fish called a Betta Fish. I guess it symbolizes the Beta version of Windows by showing a Betta fighting fish. But all in all, I was like you, very dissappointed in everything about Windows 8. It seems very cumbersome and awkward to operate. It takes more mouse clicks to get somewhere than previous versions. It’s trying to be more like a cell phone interface. Blah! I don’t like it
  - http://www.johnwheal.co.uk/ John Wheal
    
    Thanks for sharing the information about the fish.
- Taylor
  
  I LOVE the betta (beta) fish, AND Windows 8 in itself, and I don’t even have a tablet!
- Raquel7404
  
  about the fish: I KNOW!!! WTH is up with the fish????
- Fencelake1
  
  I can only help with the most unimportant part… the fish is a BETA
- Bill Gates
  
  You F***ing people are full of shit.you dont know whats future os ui hold.
  Just like u leraned or use condom. Do u f**kers know anything about development.u guys just do sit infront of the pc and sukin dik.thats what u can do u stupid hotas .first learn how to use computers u miserable little ass hotas.complain too much hahaha then go back to ur living room start watching tv and start putting remote in ur assholes fuker.
- MSFTProgrammer10Minor
  
  Seriously!
  First of all, I do agree that the shutdownstartup is a bit laggy.
  Second of all, HOW DO YOU HATE THE METRO! I liked it until my laptop screen went kaput and I have to use a stupid 800×600 monitor which doesn’t like metro. Also the processor makes it laggy, but STILL! IT’S THE BIGGEST CHANGE.
  Answering your third report, think about dos. NO NOTHING. Then Came 3.1, where still nothing came. NT 4 was the introduction to start menu and internet. Then we all got content with XP, where you got in love with start menu. After 4 major versions, we needed a new change.
  And finally, WHAT?!?!?!?!?!? The betta fish are the best part. Besides, you can get programs to change it. But still, I love the betta (BETA) fish.
  HATER :(
Bob

Windows 8 looks like crap!!!!
I agree, it’s going to be another Vista disaster.
Saafir

I went through step one exactly as suggested, Now I cannot access my computer at all. I wanted to delete windows 8 because I forgot my password, plus all of the other crap the the installation puts you through. Went through step one, removed windows 8 as an option as you instructed after checking the box for windows 7. Selected re-create/repair boot files and clicked perform actions. Now windows 8 is the only thing that comes up, but it comes up for me to log on. Since I forgot my log on password, that is not possible. I have tried to use a number of rescue disks, and tried to re-install both it, and windows 7, but it will not let me do that. Went into bios to make sure that the 1st boot option is cd rom. it is. I cannot access my computer no matter what I tried. I use it for both graduate school and my work. I have data on there that I must have, but I also must be able to use the computer. You said not to got to step 2 if step one did not work, but you failed to give any further instructions on what to do.
- ankurmittal
  
  Hi Saafir you have to select Windows 8 consumer preview instead of Windows 7, I think you have done the opposite way
  - ankurmittal
    
    Anyways do post here I would try my best to help you recover all your data
- http://www.johnwheal.co.uk/ John Wheal
  
  You will need a Windows recovery disc. I must stress again not to delete any partitions.
Gilad

I got Windows 8, and I’m enjoying it. But the only reason why I want to downgrade back to Windows 7 (but I can’t because I don’t have the OS DVD) is because my drivers are now out of date and I can’t play my games!
- Tom
  
  Come on guys !!! Its a beta !!!???
Aboobsa

Windows 7 is Windows Vista more optimized. Windows 8 is still Windows Vista! so… what im spect from Win8 is just that, a even more optimized windows 7.
Tom

Well, who in the world could possibly want to remove it ??? This IS the future ! I got myself a WP7 phone a couple of months ago and it keeps on surprising me with letting me discover new and innovative ways of doing modern communication and information-collecting. I think, when fully developed, Windows 8 will leave the competition far far behind. And Metro isn´t in any way ugly and boring. It´s liberatingly clean and sleek and the fonts are beautiful.

Keep on dazzling me Microsoft !
Kennethkingh

All the haters must not have a touch screen monitor or don’t know the key command short cuts
- MSFTProgrammer10Minor
  
  I’m a total liker, and I got stuck with a STUPID 1990 800×600 monitor. It sucks, because I had all these great metro apps I developed, but they won’t run!
Jay227ify

how do you uninstall it without all that
- http://www.johnwheal.co.uk/ John Wheal
  
  You can’t
Pojomojo

lol start menu is not important, its not needed, probably why it was removed, and it was ugly, glad its gone….stick destktop shortcut on taskbar if u need start menu.
Metro is still good on windows without touch screen its massively useable, even in beta. If u want mail or messaging quickly, infact just about anything if used correctly and no need use windows interface for small tasks, I agree metro is ugly and looks like a windows phone or xbox but u can do everything u could with 7, on windows 8 faster, and if u don’t like metro don’t use it and use the windows 8 interface which is basically windows 7 anyway, so I really don’t get where u r coming from, and due to the app suspension it runs smooth as….. my pc idles much lower on 8, improvement on windows 7 as for shut down /start up, its a massive improvement. so I disagree totally and think u should use it more before shouting ur mouths off, or disable metro but then whats the point, if u don’t like the change to metro just don’t use it………… simple solution.
Solar One

I too jus like many of you to dislike the Windows 8 consumer preview after I installed on my XP laptop, but after a 3 days torture test of the new OS, I have a different opinion about what my first thought was. Beside the Start button is missing, you didn’t really lose that much, you still have the Start screen as your desktop, deep beneath it, I found it extremely useful by just typing a letter and it will bring up whatever programs you have installed in your computer, I was not able to do this with my XP/Vista/or 7, although there are many short cuts available, but the Windows 8 is the easiest for that purpose. Although they said it is designed for the tablet, but I also find it extremely useful to have my emails account & stock market app ready at my finger tip, the interface is somewhat childish, but it is not that bad. Remember you still have your regular desktop background if you want it that way, but imagine by press the Windows Logo key, it will bring you right back to the Start screen, I said it is very clever design. On top of that my 5 years old Compaq laptop with 1GB memory and a 320GB HDD, does run smoothly with no problem whatsoever. Don’t be so harsh on this yet, try play and learn a bit more, you may find it acceptable after all.
Little ol’ me

Can anyone teach me how to restore from a back up? I still have the original upgrade Win discs and back up copies (4 discs). Thanks….
Howard ETM Bowey

If only those around here, who know more than the average user, could just help out, instead of post their sarcastic opinion, it’d be good for all those in need of help… just saying…
Raquel7404

so if when i restart my comp i dont have an option to choose windows 8 or 7 that means that I’m case 1?
- http://www.johnwheal.co.uk/ John Wheal
  
  This is fine so long as it boots into Windows 7 automatically.
http://profile.yahoo.com/MD3AG55A7PVU5T3Z2MQ4I3SLQE UHave2BeKiddingMe-Clueing in t

Will this work with VISTA?
My husband installed Windows 8 and now Office does not work, his printer does not work, he wants rid of it!
- http://www.johnwheal.co.uk/ John Wheal
  
  It depends on how he installed Windows 8. If it was installed allongside Windows Vista then you can follow the steps in this article. If it was upgraded from Windows Vista then I’m sorry to tell you that you are stuck. Your only option would be to factory reset your PC.
Ronald

hated the apps on desktop.
Missed my start menu.
took longer to navigate than win 7
Some programs wouldn’t work.
Steve Ballmer

You F***ing people are full of shit.you dont know whats future os ui hold. Just like u leraned or use condom. Do u f**kers know anything about development.u guys just do sit infront of the pc and sukin dik.thats what u can do u stupid hotas .first learn how to use computers u miserable little ass hotas.complain too much hahaha then go back to ur living room start watching tv and start putting remote in ur assholes fuker.
- RoghW
  
  i aggree.Or if u have dik go buy mac
WowA1MbHD

Might as well be a giant I-phone. Access to too many resources are either hard to, or can’t be found. I think this is designed more for the casual user with a focus on entertainment, media, & social networking. Been around since DOS days, and have thumbs downed ME & Vista. Think 8 will be the next. In constrast, installed Ubuntu (Linux), and just love it. Just saying!
Guest

Lack of options in hardware configuration. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough, but I miss things like control panel and device manager. Overall, it’s a pretty OS, but I will need the power user options as well to make it useful for me.
Aster Pereira

here is my experience…….

i installed windows 8 consumer preview….. it looked great on day 1… on day 2 while i was trying to play a video i noticed that the video was moving in frames and was relatively slower than before…. when i checked the graphic drivers, i noticed that they were windows defaults…my Nvidia drivers were not working and the website said unable to find drivers for your OS…… i do play a lot of online games as well…. but was unable to do so with the new laptop settings…. that was frustrating and i said to myself i hate Windows 8……looking for an approach on how to revert back to Windows 7…..I visited the (John Wheal) link and i followed step 1… took a big risk… i had win 8 installed over win 7 and not on a diff partition… using easy bcd i added Win 7 and removed win 8….. it said WINDOWS 8 CONSUMER PREVIEW has been uninstalled…. system rebooted and it took me to a menu where it said unable to boot win 8.. would you like to boot with win 7…. i hit enter.. surprisingly it loaded WINDOWS 8…. i was amazed and kinda frustrated too…..i rebooted my system over and over and noticed that it boots “showing windows 7; but loads windows 8″….. i took a chance and looked for graphics drivers and this time it found the latest Nvidia drivers for WINDOWS 7 OS – 200 mb in size….. installed it and it works great….. my desktop still has the windows 8 Consumer preview message and the evaluation copy build number…. all the features of windows 8 are working perfectly and i can say “I love the Windows 8 OS”…..
- http://www.johnwheal.co.uk/ John Wheal
  
  I’m glad everything has now worked out ok.
  When you added Windows 7 to the bootloader in theory all you did was change the name of the Windows 8 entry.
  - Aster Pereira
    
    yeah… but thats kinda funny…. i was unable to find any drivers before and now my PC works perfectly with all windwos 7 drivers :-)
- MSFTProgrammer10Minor
  
  OK People. In the title it says CONSUMER PREVIE CONSUMER PREVIEW means BETA. Got That?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!!?! BETA is not supposed to be PERFECT, EVERYTHING IS SUPPORTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fred

The Metro is as far as I can tell only worthwhile if you use all and only Microsoft apps. If you don’t then it doesn’t have your mail, your messages, etc., etc. So it sucks. And the desktop OS is hobbled.
http://twitter.com/istevieblue stevieblue

Windows 8 Consumer Preview is so good that I want to uninstall it from a 50 gig partition and upgrade so that I can use it all the time on a Lenovo X201 tablet. I particularly like the Metro fullscreen browser and resent having to go back to the old style browsers of Windows 7.
Lawrence Clarke

With the installation of Windows 8, my Windows LiveMail (all contacts except ten) do not appear. Also why is the mail now Hot Mail? How do I get the Live Mail back? Can I?
http://www.emoticons-list.com/ Emoticons

New interface of windows 8 is pretty ugly. I dont want this shit on my computer.
katherine montjoy

i really like windows 8. i agree they need to make it easier for laptop and desktop users but i love the interface. however, i am a HUGE customizer and windows 8 doesnt yet support most of my programs.
Pninfo

the intel pro/100 VE netwerk driver werkt niet the netwerk chip word uigeschakeld
Ivan Campagna

Running triple boot, 8 64, 7 64 and xp 32 because my wife hate 7. I have been using Easy BCD latest version for the past two years. From time to time win8 bootloader show up for a fiew seconds before giving up to EBCD bootloader. Yesterday I ended up with no boot at all. After two hours search I found out that a corrupt bios was the cause. Reinstalling bios and some other drivers that got corrupt fixed the problem.
I am still wondering about win 8 bootloader being the cause
Let say that I don’t like this METRO thing for a desktop and that I will stick to 7..
MSFTProgrammer10Minor

Do you know how many negative comments I’ve seen.
READ THE NAME: Windows 8 Consumer Preview. That means beta, for the non-geeks.
Now lets think, BETA MEANS STILL IN WORK!!! ITS JUST FOR THE PEOPLE LIKE ME TO GET THE LATEST AND GREATEST TECH! DO NOT EXPECT IT TO WORK PERFECTLY. JUST CALM DOWN AND SAY “Its just a beta. I shouldn’t expect the best of it.” NOW BEFORE YOU POST THE I HATE IT COMMENT, Remember its JUST A BETA.
Sana1

hahahahahahahahahhahahah mukhopadhyay i love this fucking fish….hahahahaahahha
Two6nine

My biggest gripe is the compatibility issues with some websites like Netflix & Firefox, FAFSA, etc…
David Nesbitt

I took the time to figure out W8. No matter, it is an uncomfortable format for a computer, but looks quite practical for a phone. I am taking it off and reveerting to Vista as this works well in 64-bit and have not had the problems of others. W8 started coming up with chinese characters in different places like Hotmail and some apps and settings. This with all settings on Engliish. Maybe the Final Product will be better. Right now, Win7 looks like my next OS.
Digioiav

Windows8 does not recognise my built in webcam on asus a3ac.
Does not show up in Device Manager. Suggested old drivers will not work.
If I cannot use the webcam – and microsoft cannot provide a driver it forces me to trash
a good computer that is built like a tank.
Kevin

Worked like a charm, thanks!