Forum Discussion

lukenotduke's avatar
lukenotduke
Copper Contributor
Jun 24, 2025

Moving down insider flights without clean install

I switched to the windows 11 canary channel thinking it'd be the most bleeding edge. It is, but not for an end user like me. Needless to say, I want to move back to the dev or beta channel. It seems I can't do this without a clean install of windows, one which doesn't keep settings, apps or even files. Is there any way to do what I want keeping even just my files?

Update management

2 Replies

  • lukenotduke's avatar
    lukenotduke
    Copper Contributor
    Jun 25, 2025

    Yeah, sadly, it's been FAR more than 10 days. I suppose the best option would just be to use a cloud backup tool. Well, thanks anyway.

  • ThomasKing's avatar
    ThomasKing
    Iron Contributor
    Jun 25, 2025

    Go to Settings > Windows Update > Recovery. If the option "Go back to the previous version of Windows" is available, you can click it.
    Note: This option is usually only available for up to 10 days after upgrading.