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WARNING: upgrade to WIN10, then rollback to WIn7,8 causes big (Known)


jeffw_00

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So I upgraded to WIN10 to secure my license, and then reverted to Win7. After a day I noticed scheduled tasks weren't working. I open the Task Scheduler and it complains that dozens of system tasks as well as all of mine, are corrupted. This means my OS isn't properly configured (since some of the system tasks are important)

 

I search the web

 

(googling "revert to windows 7 task scheduler") and discover this is a well-known, and difficult-to-fix problem.

 

So now I have 5 PCs to go fix :-{

 

/j

 

----------------------------------

 

Be warned - Microsoft doesn't want you to downgrade. It's a trick :-{

 

Microsoft clearly advertises that "If you don't like Windows 10, you can roll back to your old OS easy-peasy", except that they majorly screwed it up for Windows 7. Most people don't use the Task Scheduler for their own stuff, so they'll never notice that, after the rollback, it's 100% broken. However, certain system tasks will fail to run, and that will cause odd and mysterious problems for people. The fix cited is very straightforward, you have to simply rebuild the tasks portion of the registry from the XML files within the tasks file within Windows. My guess is that Microsoft simply FORGOT to do this in their auto-rollback. Until recently, almost no one did the rollback, because most people upgraded because, well, their intent was to move to Windows 10. However, this month, Microsoft has created an situation where many people will upgrade to lock in their free license, and then immediately rollback, if for no other reason that they just don't want to deal with an upgrade right now. Those people, by and large, are -screwed- right now. Their systems will get flakey, they won't know why, and most likely even if they think it was due to the upgrade/rollback, they won't assume that upgrading again is the right fix (they might fear it will cause more issues). Some will roll back to a backup and punt the free license (making it even harder for Microsoft to get them to upgrade in the future), but lots of IT hours are about to get spent because Microsoft did a sloppy job.

 

[i don't know why the last work "issues" got chomped off the right end of the topic title - my apologies]

Edited by jeffw_00
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Yes - I had a full backup available pre-upgrade, but I tried the "revert" within Win10 to keep my license. (otherwise, what was the point? :-})

Edited by jeffw_00
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Yikes!

Be warned - Microsoft doesn't want you to downgrade. It's a trick :-{

 

The problem with proprietry OSes seems to be human nature, or more accurately, 'businessman nature'. It's a cut-throat market out there...

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Fortunately I don't have any Mission Critical stuff so I just stuck with Windows 10. Once I got rid of the Start screen and menu tiles and shut down all the telemetry with Spybot anti-beacon, Win 10 has been quite tolerable.

I don't use any Microsoft apps, browsers, search engines, security suites, office software, email, cloud storage, photo programs, video and music players - it's just an O/S for me.

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I'd say my boot times are faster than with Windows 7 - but it's not really a shutdown/startup with Windows 10 - only a hibernation. To get a true boot you need to restart. One of my "clients" kept having problems with Norton because she didn't restart.

I've been running well with ESET although the upgrade to Windows 10 borked Bitdefender so I had to uninstall / reinstall an update. I later changed to ESET. My backup is AOMEI Backupper and it's been fine.

I'm not 100% sure but I think a Windows update may have messed up my Laptop's BIOS - the cooling fan suddenly started running at 100% - but a BIOS upgrade fixed it.

However all O/S upgrades can be problematic - just try one of the rolling release Linux distros with an AMD GCN 1.0 or 1.1 video card. :bangin:

Edited by raymac46
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Thanks raymac46, but let's not hijack the post. Microsoft clearly advertises that "If you don't like Windows 10, you can roll back to your old OS easy-peasy", except that they majorly screwed it up for Windows 7. Most people don't use the Task Scheduler for their own stuff, so they'll never notice that, after the rollback, it's 100% broken. However, certain system tasks will fail to run, and that will cause odd and mysterious problems for people. The fix cited is very straightforward, you have to simply rebuild the tasks portion of the registry from the XML files within the tasks file within Windows. My guess is that Microsoft simply FORGOT to do this in their auto-rollback. Until recently, almost no one did the rollback, because most people upgraded because, well, their intent was to move to Windows 10. However, this month, Microsoft has created an situation where many people will upgrade to lock in their free license, and then immediately rollback, if for no other reason that they just don't want to deal with an upgrade right now. Those people, by and large, are -screwed- right now. Their systems will get flakey, they won't know why, and most likely even if they think it was due to the upgrade/rollback, they won't assume that upgrading again is the right fix (they might fear it will cause more issues). Some will roll back to a backup and punt the free license (making it even harder for Microsoft to get them to upgrade in the future), but lots of IT hours are about to get spent because Microsoft did a sloppy job.

Edited by jeffw_00
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It's cool. sorry! It's just that this seems like it may mushroom into a big deal and I don't want to dilute the message. :-}

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It looks like the fix you quoted does a great job of repairing the Task Scheduler file and Registry links. Worth noting in case someone I know runs into the same problems.

Edited by raymac46
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