Of course, this is all being a little negative - we don't know yet exactly how vigorously and persistently the official over-the-air rollout and subsequent firmware revisions will happen. But, in light of my feature about devices with lesser capabilities and older processors being best left on Windows Phone 8.1, these instructions are perhaps worth acting on - just in case!
From the Reddit post:
Sure today as of right now you can flash your phone back to 8.1, but once the line has been crossed you are pretty much forced to stay on Windows 10 Mobile, and any attempts to reflash will just turn the phone back to W10M again. So what can you do? Before its too late, simply follow my instructions below!
- Step 1: Download Windows Device Recovery Tool http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=525569
- Step 2: Launch the software, insert the USB cable from computer to your phone. A few seconds later your phone should appear on the list. When the phone appears, simply click on it to proceed.
- Step 3: Click the "Reinstall software" option. The software will download the ROM first from the Microsoft server BEFORE flashing your phone. This is how you will capture the image.
- Step 4: Disconnect the USB cable after it begins downloading the ROM. This is necessary to prevent the tool from wiping away your CURRENT settings. The idea here is to allow the software to detect the phone so you can push ROM to machine, then YANK the USB cable after the fact.
- Step 5: Navigate to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Packages\Products. Right-click on RM-XXX and save it your preferred storage device.
The full article then goes on to explain how to use an offline flashing tool to restore this archived firmware to a Windows Phone, all without regard to what Microsoft is up to.
So yes, a little belt and braces - and I do think that, for most devices, Windows 10 Mobile is a step forward overall. But you can never be too careful, eh?
