Although there is still almost half a year until Windows 11 reaches us, we can already try the new functions and features that this new operating system will bring us, which are not few. Thanks to the Insider program, any user interested in taking the first steps in the new Windows 11 can do so by updating their PC, free of charge, and helping Microsoft to debug the new version of the OS. However, we must be careful, because if we relax, there will be no turning back .
As we told you last week, as with any other Windows 10 update, Microsoft only gives us 10 days to test the operating system and, if we have problems, go back. This time may be insufficient to be able to have a contact with the many improvements, aesthetic novelties and optimizations that the new 11 brings us, and therefore, many users are finding that, when trying to go back, to Windows 10, already They cannot, because they have run out of time.
In the first versions of Windows 10, Microsoft gave us a month to go back if an update did not go well. However, since a long time, the time range is only 10 days. And this one cannot be expanded. Although, if we resort to a little trick, we can test the new operating system much better, and go back when we get tired of its errors without problems.
Create a hard drive image: an essential step
What Microsoft does to allow us to go back if an update does not work well is to save a copy of the old OS on the hard disk in a folder called “Windows.old” . After the 10-day trial period, this folder is automatically deleted to prevent the return to Windows 10. However, there is another way to save our system as we have it so that we can go back whenever we want, it does not matter if it is one day later or two months later.
The only thing we will need for this purpose is to create an image of our hard drive and save it on the PC. For this we can use one of the many programs that we can find on the net. Some of the best known are Norton Ghost, Acronis True Imager, Macrium Reflect or Paragon Backup & Recovery Free. Any of them will allow us to save a literal image of our PC and, when we get tired of Windows 11, restore it to leave our PC as it was just at the time of making the image.
Unlike the Windows restoration process, restoring an image from the hard disk leaves the disk as it was in the process of creating the image, avoiding all kinds of failures and errors. However, we must bear in mind that everything we have done or saved while using Windows 11 will disappear, so we must save it before restoring the image.
We shouldn’t underestimate virtual machines when testing Windows 11
Is it really necessary to physically install Windows 11 on our PC? The truth is that, although where we can best test the new OS is installed on our main hard drive, there are other alternatives to test it much more comfortable and secure: virtual machines.
A virtual machine is a kind of computer generated by a program, such as VirtualBox or VMware, on which we can install any operating system. Everything we do inside this virtual PC does not affect our main system at all, so we can test Windows 11, and all kinds of programs and configurations, without danger that something goes wrong and leaves our computer unusable.
When we get tired of the virtual machine, just delete it from the hard drive and voila, there will no longer be a trace of Windows 11.