How to uninstall the May 2020 Update from Windows 10.
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Despite a lengthy testing process, we’ve seen reports of bugs in the Windows 10 May 2020 Update. If you’ve installed the latest version of Windows 10 and you’re having problems, you can uninstall it. Here is how to uninstall the May 2020 Update or any other major Windows 10 update.
Warning: you only have 10 days
Microsoft allows you to uninstall a major update and “roll back” to your previous version of Windows 10, most likely the November 2019 Update, but you only have ten days after installing the update to do so. After ten days, Windows 10 will automatically remove the necessary files from your PC to free up space. Microsoft hopes that if you encounter problems, you will return within the first ten days.
If you’ve manually chosen to “remove previous installations of Windows” from your PC with a tool like Disk Cleanup within the first ten days, you can’t roll back either. The required files are gone from your PC.
In the worst case, where you can’t uninstall the update, you can always reinstall Windows 10 or “reset” your PC to a fresh Windows 10 system.
How to uninstall the update from Windows 10
If you can use Windows 10 normally, you can uninstall the update from the Settings app.
To find this option, head to Settings > Update & security > Recovery. Under “Go back to a previous version of Windows 10”, click “Get started” and click the wizard that appears.
If you don’t see this option here, you can’t go back to your previous version of Windows 10 because your files have been deleted from your PC.
If your computer doesn’t start and run normally, or if it keeps blue screen or crashes while using it, you can also uninstall the May 2020 Update from outside of Windows 10 using the recovery environment.
To access it, hold down the Shift key and click on the “Restart” option on the Windows 10 Start menu or Windows 10 Start screen. If your PC cannot start Windows normally, it should also automatically offer to load the recovery environment.
You can also try booting your PC from a USB recovery drive to access this menu.
From here, click on “Troubleshoot” to find troubleshooting options.
Click on “Advanced Options” to find more options.
The “Reset this PC” option here will completely reinstall Windows; you can use it if you don’t have the option to uninstall the update.
Select “Uninstall updates” to uninstall a recently installed update like the Windows 10 May 2020 Update.
Click “Uninstall the latest feature update” to remove the May 2020 Update from your system. Click on the wizard.
Large updates are considered “feature updates,” while smaller security patches and bug fixes, like the ones that arrive each month on Patch Tuesday, are considered “quality updates.”
The process will involve providing a Windows user account password to continue. Follow the instructions on your screen to uninstall the update.
If you can’t uninstall the update
If you don’t see the uninstall option, you can’t just uninstall the update and get your old system back. You can still choose to reinstall Windows 10 or reset your PC and get a fresh system.
Windows 10 won’t delete any of your personal files if you restart your PC and tell it to save them, but you’ll have to reinstall any apps you use afterwards.
