How To Uninstall Windows 7 Service Pack 1

If you installed Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7, you might experience some stability issues with it. If so, you can uninstall it, provided you haven’t deleted the SP1 backup files with the Disk Cleanup utility. Today we’ll take a look at the process and what to look out for.

1. So, you installed Windows 7 SP1 and you notice your system is unstable, certain programs or hardware isn’t working correctly. If that’s the case, you might want to uninstall it.

Ensure You Have Service Pack Backup Files

2. To make sure you are able to uninstall SP1 you’ll need to make sure you don’t delete the SP1 Backup files. If you run the Disk Cleanup utility, make sure you don’t delete them.

Note: If you get a computer with Windows 7 SP1 pre-installed, you won’t be able to uninstall it.

If you installed SP1 through Windows Updates, first verify you have the SP1 Backup Files. Click Start then Computer.

3. Right-Click on your local drive then click Properties from the context menu.

4. Click on the General tab – which should be open by default – then click the Disk Cleanup button.

5. Wait for Windows to scan your local drive.

6. Then go through the list until you find Service Pack Backup Files – where in this case it’s 650 MB.

7. If you want to want the ability to remove Windows 7 SP1 Don’t Delete these files. Otherwise according to the Windows Website, you’ll have to do a fresh install of Windows 7 and start over.

Uninstall Windows 7 SP1

8. Provided you still have the Service Pack Backup Files, the uninstall process is pretty basic through Programs and Features in Control Panel. Click on Start then Control Panel.

9. When Control Panel opens click to View by Large Icons then click on Programs and Features.

10. In the next screen click on View installed updates.

11. Then scroll until you find Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB976932) – right-click on it and Uninstall.

12. Click Yes in the dialog asking if you’re sure you want to uninstall it.

13. Then wait while Service Pack 1 is uninstalled…it really does take several minutes…about 7 minutes on our Dual-Core test system.

14. Then a restart is required to complete the uninstall process.

15. While your computer restarts you’ll see the a couple of messages following message it’s being uninstalled.

16. When you get back from the Restart, right-click on Computer and you’ll see Service Pack 1 has been successfully uninstalled.

If you’ve installed Service Pack 1 for Windows, make sure you test out the computer for a week or two and verify there are no stability issues. If not, then it’s probably safe to uninstall the backup files in Disk Cleanup. If you have a large enough drive, you can keep them there for a while, just to be safe in case you want to uninstall SP1 in the future.

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