MS: Want Windows 11? You Have 10 Days to Decide

Microsoft appears to have cut the period during which users who upgrade to Windows 11 can change their minds and roll back to Windows 10. They'll now have just 10 days to roll back without much hassle.

Upgrading to Windows 11 seems to have proven a relatively straightforward process for most users, or at least those with the option to do so. Microsoft is rolling out upgrade availability starting with those machines it assesses as least likely to experience problems, though some will never officially be able to run a fully supported Windows 11.

Whether to cover cases where Windows 11 doesn't work well, or simply to encourage people to give it a "risk-free" trial, Microsoft has also made it reasonably simple to revert back to Windows 10.

Go Back With Just a Few Clicks

Users simply need to open the Start Menu and select System -> Recovery -> Go Back. From there they click a selection to say why they are reverting and then the machine should reboot straight into Windows 10. (Source: winbuzzer.com)

The problem is that this is a time-limited option. With previous upgrades such as the one to Windows 10, users had 30 days to take advantage of this simple "downgrade". With Windows 11, the option is only available for 10 days.

After this period, the only way to go back to Windows 10 is a completely fresh installation, which also means reinstalling software and files. That's a perfectly feasible process with a good backup in place, but certainly much more troublesome and time-consuming that the straightforward downgrade.

10 Day Deadline

The time limit itself appears somewhat arbitrary but, as ZDNet's David Gewirtz speculates, makes sense given the longer somebody uses Windows 11, the more likely it is that updates, patches and new drivers make a simple reversion to Windows 10 too tricky. (Source: zdnet.com)

The issue is more the reduction to 10 days and whether that's enough time to truly make an informed decision about whether the benefits of the new system outweigh any glitches or the user simply doesn't like the new changes.

What's Your Opinion?

Were you aware of the "simple downgrade" option? Is 10 days long enough to make up your mind whether to stick with a new version of Windows? Would you be comfortable doing a fresh installation of Windows if necessary?