As part of the release for the Preview of Windows 10 for Phone yesterday was the Windows Recovery Tool. This separate download is the key for users who want to roll their devices back from Windows 10 for Phone to Windows Phone 8.1. As I put in my initial thoughts on Windows 10 for Phone, there are a lot of bugs and some significant lag issues with the Preview and it may be to much for some users. As a reminder, for those who are going to stick with it, be sure to use the Feedback app built into the Preview to give Microsoft the feedback they need to improve things.
The Windows Recovery Tool is a free download and is found here. Once installed, you can erase your Windows Phone and do a restore from backup. Doing this will revert you back to Windows
Windows 10 for Phone Recovery Tool
Phone 8.1. Keep in mind that if you go for this “nuclear option” that your phone will be completely erased and you will lose any personal data that you have on the phone. That means you need to make sure you have pictures backed up (should be going to OneDrive anyway), files, etc.
Even if you decide to roll back to 8.1, that doesn’t mean you can’t participate in the preview later when builds are more stable. This just gets you back to a stable build where you can use your phone as a daily driver.
Did I mention that the preview has a lot of bugs? 🙂
