Can I go back to Windows 8.1 from Windows 10 after 30 days?

I live in a rural area and have satellite internet service with a data cap.  Windows 10 seems to be a data hog and is using up all of my data.  Is it possible to revert back to Windows 8.1 (Windows 7 on my husband's laptop) after 30 days?

I believe I can restore both laptops to factory settings, but if I do that I will probably have lots of updates that will blow through my 30 GB of data/month very quickly.  

I've used over 10 GB of data in the last 3 days for Windows 10 updates.  I have tried to stop them but they keep downloading.  When I don't download updates, my PC's won't work properly.  

I'm very frustrated.  When my laptops were using Windows 8.1 and 7 I only used about 2/3 of my monthly data allowance.  Windows 10 seems to be the culprit for exceeding my data allowance every month now.

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

If your factory reset partition is intact you can do a factory reset but you would lose all your installed programs after purchase and you would need to back up all your personal data. 

Windows 10 has a setting called Metered Connection that is supposed to reduce your bandwidth.

This page offers some hints on reducing your data usage.

http://www.howtogeek.com/249254/how-to-stop-windows-10-from-using-so-much-data/

  First off, I hope this makes you aware of the need to make full system backups to an external hard drive.  That would allow you to go back any time you wish or might need to.  

  Next I'd point out that Windows 10 uses cumulative updates so that you only need to install the latest one to get Windows up to date.  You can download from http://www.catalog.microsoft.com using Internet Explorer (note that you can ONLY do this with IE.) The latest update is KB3189866 which is 431 MB for the 64 bit version of Windows and 255 MB for the 32 bit version.  Bear in mind that you can only set metered connections for WiFi, not cable connected network access unless you patch the registry.  What you could do would be to take a flash drive to some place where you can do the download free, then install it on your system at home.

 Finally I point out that not only does Windows 10 download a good bit, it also uses telemetry to upload a lot.  There are about 6 or 7 DOZEN categories of this under Settings -> Privacy that you can turn off and save a whole lot of bandwidth.

 Good luck.

If you are interested in increasing your privacy and reducing upload data loads, you might enjoy this video on Youtube. At first the introduction seems a bit amateurish, but give it a minute and he gets into some serious stuff. I think this guy knows what he is talking about.

If your factory reset partition is intact you can do a factory reset but you would lose all your installed programs after purchase and you would need to back up all your personal data. 

 

Windows 10 has a setting called Metered Connection that is supposed to reduce your bandwidth.

 

This page offers some hints on reducing your data usage.

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/249254/how-to-stop-windows-10-from-using-so-much-data/

Thanks for the info.  I use the Metered Connection setting and it doesn't help much.  I reviewed the info on the link and I already do most of that.  

  First off, I hope this makes you aware of the need to make full system backups to an external hard drive.  That would allow you to go back any time you wish or might need to.  

 

  Next I'd point out that Windows 10 uses cumulative updates so that you only need to install the latest one to get Windows up to date.  You can download from http://www.catalog.microsoft.com using Internet Explorer (note that you can ONLY do this with IE.) The latest update is KB3189866 which is 431 MB for the 64 bit version of Windows and 255 MB for the 32 bit version.  Bear in mind that you can only set metered connections for WiFi, not cable connected network access unless you patch the registry.  What you could do would be to take a flash drive to some place where you can do the download free, then install it on your system at home.

 

 Finally I point out that not only does Windows 10 download a good bit, it also uses telemetry to upload a lot.  There are about 6 or 7 DOZEN categories of this under Settings -> Privacy that you can turn off and save a whole lot of bandwidth.

 

 Good luck.

Windows 10 seems to download and install updates without asking which ones I want.  I can't seem to find a setting that allows me to choose only the ones that I want.    Also, I went into the Privacy settings a while back and turned off many background apps.  It did not help much.  

The latest Windows 10 update was huge and it updated on both my laptop and my husbands and has used almost 20 GB of data in a week.  I was using a metered wifi connection.  I don't see how I could have prevented that update.  Am I missing something.

Windows 10 will not allow you to choose which updates to download and starting in October Windows 7 and 8 will have rollup updates where you will not be able to choose which updates to download. You can download separate monthly security updates from the Windows Update Catalog but this is also a rollup package where all security updates will be bundled.

Windows 10 does not allow one to avoid updates. You can delay them but eventually they will be downloaded. Each major update will require downloads of approx 3GB or more. There will be one more update in 2016 and possibly two in 2017. It seems your best option would be to do a factory reset if you want to avoid using your bandwidth which would require you to backup your data and reinstall your programs. Another option, because your computer came pre-installed with Windows 8, is to do a clean install using the Media Creation tool. Because your key is embedded in firmware, Windows 8.1 will self-activate when online. This would also require you to backup your data and reinstall your programs.

If you only use the computer for basic browsing and email along with some work processing then think about using another OS along with Windows 10. You could dual boot a linux distro and avoid the bandwidth problems. For people migrating from Windows you may be better off with Linux Mint Cinnamon if your computer has at least 2GB or RAM. At boot you would choose between booting Windows 10 or Linux Mint. You could disable the internet on Windows 10 and run what programs you need that does not have a linux equivalent and for browsing/email boot Linux Mint. I can guarantee your internet usage would be much less using linux Mint over Windows 10. Going to a dual boot would require some steps to be taken such as disabling SecureBoot and disabling fastboot fast start in the Windows 10 settings.

Edited by JohnC_21, 24 September 2016 - 06:00 PM.

 

If you only use the computer for basic browsing and email along with some work processing then think about using another OS along with Windows 10. You could dual boot a linux distro and avoid the bandwidth problems.

Exactly what I was thinking John!

Something's clearly wrong here, and it's not likely Windows 10.  I've had Windows 10 on several machines in my household now for months.  All have full system health telemetry (pretty much all upload) on and I have everything else set as I like it.  Collectively, including streaming of video, I don't come near to 20GB of data in a month, let alone a week.  In looking at my data usage in the Network & Internet settings for the last month the grand total is 16.33 GB, and my machine doesn't get light use, but constant use.

The kind of usage you're seeing is a big, honkin' red flag and you'd be wise to employ some sort of network watcher software, e.g. Glasswire, to monitor just what's using that much bandwidth.  I'm almost willing to bet my life savings that is isn't a normally functioning installation of Windows 10.  Something else is up here.

Also, unless something's wrong or Microsoft changed something very recently,  if you are using a WiFi connection marked as metered no Windows updates should ever load over that specific connection.  That's a major purpose of the metered connection.

Edited by britechguy, 24 September 2016 - 06:04 PM.