Microsoft has updated its downgrade policy, and users who installed the Windows 10 Anniversary Update should know that they will only have 10 days to downgrade to an earlier version or build.
Previously, Microsoft offered its users 31 full days to test out the latest OS and roll back if they didn't like it. Now, users have significantly less time to make up their minds.
The company explained in a statement that the new policy is part of the Anniversary Update. It makes no difference if users have upgraded from Windows 7, Windows 8 or an earlier variant of Windows 10: once the Anniversary Update is successfully installed on your machine, you get only 10 days to test it and back out instead of the previously extended period of 31 days.
"This new 10-day behavior is for all upgrades and updates to the Anniversary Update," Microsoft notes.
However, the company explains the reasoning behind what some might see as a sneaky way to forcing people to stick with the latest OS.
Microsoft points out that a vast majority of those who rolled back to previous Windows versions did so within the first days of trying out the new OS. The company adds that the setting was changed to 10 days so that users quickly get back the storage space that is used by the previous copies of the OS.
It is little news that Microsoft is collecting multiple telemetry data from Windows 10 systems. Such data is analyzed by coders, who can tweak the OS so that features that are rarely used get eliminated and focus can be targeted toward more user-accessed areas.
The same type of telemetric data showed Microsoft that most users reverted to older operating systems within days of installing Windows 10. This meant that the 31-day period was simply too long, so the company decided to trim it out.
It remains to be seen if this change in policy will keep more users using Windows 10 or will enrage the PC community even further. PC owners complained multiple times about the aggressive push Microsoft did to land Windows 10 on their rigs. Should you want to downgrade from the latest OS, here is a neat guide on how to roll back from Windows 10.
On the bright side, shifting the timeframe will allow users to recover between 3 and 5 GB of storage space on their HDDs, which would otherwise be occupied by the previous operating system.
It may not seem like much for those of us who have TB-level storage units, but for a lot of low-storage devices, that quantity can make or break a Windows experience.
How was your experience with Windows 10 so far? Let us know in the comments section below.
