Leaving Windows 11 Dev Channel

[Jack]

Please tell me someone knows a way to leave the Dev channel without wiping all the data off their hard drive. These updates have been repeatedly wrecking my PC's functionality and I've had enough, but unfortunately I seem to be stuck here until I'm willing to throw all my data away. I have 3tb of storage and there's no way I can back it all up without a serious financial investment.

 

[rfsmith7]

You need to do a clean install of Windows 11 to revert to the standard channel. There is no other way. Ideally you need to set up your system so that the Windows C drive contains just the OS, and all your data is on a separate drive or partition. Then the re-install just replaces the OS.

 

[Jack]

Okay so what if I get a new drive specifically for the OS, download the production version of Windows 11 onto that, and make it my boot drive. Will my apps and files on my previous C drive still be usable?

 

[Grizzly]

No, they will not be usable as they are on a different Windows version.

 

[Jack]

Sorry to bring back the dead but I have returned to the idea of leaving the dev channel. So will data that is not on my boot drive also be unrecoverable? Or can I save all my data to a secondary drive and reinstall, and have it be as I left it?

 

[Bighorn]

I hadn't noticed this thread [not following as I had left Win10 IP just as Win11 came out] but saw on the News widget a couple days ago that the IP is changing and apparently will require some reinstalling.

But as to user data, it was warned when I got into the Win10 IP not to use it on the only computer or a production computer so it was stressed for users to make backup copies of anything they didn't want to lose.

 

[Bighorn]

Here's the article I mentioned that talks about changes to the IP:

Microsoft slowly but surely admits it was wrong about the Windows 11 taskbar

 

[Bighorn]

Update: got this in an E-Mail just this AM:

Microsoft's Windows Insider program changes include new Canary Channel

Now you can check out future Windows features on more stable builds or look at the state of how the Microsoft OS is developing.

www.techrepublic.com

 

[Jack]

Okay, that's really interesting and all, but it doesn't answer my question. Can I copy my data to my non-boot drive, do a clean install of Windows to leave the dev channel, and come back to all that data still being there?

 

[Bighorn]

You do have to copy any data you want to save, that exists nowhere else, onto other media then do a clean install of the RTM/Released version of Windows. The boot drive will be wiped out, lose everything on it, at least it was for me when I left Win10 Pro. That's an implied part of the warning not to use the IP on a production or only computer.