Windows 11 and Windows 10 includes a Retail Demo experience mode. This feature basically is useful for and meant for retail store staff who want to demo Windows 11/10 to customers.
NOTE: This post is only meant for information purposes, and we do not advise you to turn on or try this retail demo mode as it will delete all your user settings and personal content. You may have to reinstall Windows should you wish to go back to your original version.
Retail Demo mode in Windows 11/10
Windows 11/10 Retail demo basically gives customers a run-down of the features that the new operating system has to offer.
Windows 11
To view the Retail Demo experience in Windows 11:
- Open Windows 11 Settings
- Open System > Activation
- Click on ‘Windows’ 5 times
- A Change to retail demo window will pop up
- Click on Change to start the process or Cancel to cancel the process.
As mentioned earlier, it will delete all your user settings and data, and even restore your computer to factory settings.
Retailers who have a valid account can view the demo of the app at WindowsRetailDemo.com.
Windows 10
To view the Retail Demo experience, open Windows 10 Settings app > Update & Security > Activation.
Now click on “Windows” 5 times, and you will see a blue box appear asking if you want to Change to retail demo.
Clicking on Change button will start the retail demo – BUT as mentioned earlier, it will delete all your user settings and data, and even restore your computer to factory settings. So you want to click on Cancel and exit.
Delete Windows 11/10 Retail Demo
While using the Disk Cleanup tool in Windows 11/10, I noticed this entry – RetailDemo Offline Content.
So if you wish to delete this Retail Demo and save disk space, use the built-in Disk Cleanup utility. This will clear 100MB of disk space!
Commenters say: You cannot simply use Windows Disk Cleanup to delete the Retail Demo Offline Content. It requires a password. The password of Retail Demo Admin account is trs10.
intresting
how the fuck do I undo this now that ive done this shit. I’m pissd
i need some password crap
i cant remove this crap now i got to reinstall windows….
It was mentioned twice in the post: “This post is only meant for information purposes, and we do not advice you to turn on or try this retail demo mode as it will delete all your user settings and personal content” and “BUT as mentioned earlier, it will delete all your user
settings and data, and even restore your computer to factory settings.
So you want to click on Cancel and exit.”
You could at least set up a big warning sign that repeats itself 3x – top, middle & bottom. Otherwise your “warnings” are just text. Other than improving the site for idiots, great article! Thank you. :)
Changed the color of NOTE to red. Hope people read it now. :P
Still fail, nowhere in your article does it say it needs a PASSWORD to disable it. Yes you say it will delete your personal data, but not that you can’t disable it without a unknown password!
Deleting it is not quite as simple as running Windows Disk Cleaner, and selecting it. You have to run Disk Cleaner as an Administrator, otherwise the Retail Demo content will not be deleted.
password is trs10
How many Goons have tested this out?
Even if you have the password, they removed that from the disk cleanup tool. Now the only way to get rid of demo mode is to click start>settings>update & security>recovery and click “get started” or “restart”, some PC’s are different but it all brings you to the Windows Recovery module. You’ll want to “remove everything” and this will restore the PC back to a standard out-of-the-box installation of Windows.
OK I just noticed another comment about running the cleaner as an administrator, not sure if I tried that.
I think MS and your Club have in mind how to do the people become mad and change to buy an Apple…..
That would be just Microsoft, not this site. ;) We are like you – Windows end-users trying to help out where we can.
If I don’t activate the Retail mode, never… Is possible delete all RetailDemo Offline Content files without problem?
The password of Retail Demo Admin account is trs10
I am trying to recover to a previous date. I have the retail windows. When I try to recover it asks me about the Administrator password. I tried trs10 and it does not work.
Thank you very much for this little article.
I make a small search on bing about this specific entry listed in the disk cleaner tool and find your tip
I don’t activate the demo mode and delete the retail demo mode without any problem (no password needed)
maybe trs80
So just so i understand this correct, if i delete demo offline content through disc cleanup i will lose all my current settings?
I bought a floor model because the computer I wanted was no longer available. The person who sold me my computer said it was easy to take off the demo mode (I live in France btw). After having my computer shipped to another location for an IT person to deactivate this function, I have my computer back with the same problem. :)
When i go to diskcleaner, I don’t see the “French” equivalent for the file that must be deleted. Is there another way to get my computer out of this demo mode? I need to download some applications and I would like to save files to my computer. These are all things i cannot do in the demo mode. Any help would be greatly appreciated. :) THANK YOU!!!
You can also delete the retail mode files from Settings>System>Apps & Features>Manage Optional Features and then finding ‘English (United states) Retail Demo Content’. Click it and then select uninstall. No password required
No, you only lose your files and settings if you enable demo mode
Anand, it’s not, “we do not advice you.” The correct spelling is advise. Advise is a verb. Advice is a noun. This is true no matter whether you use the British or American spelling. It’s always the same.
You are absolutely correct. Thank you.
I deleted the user Darren after logging him out and then using the TRS10 password was able to change the password on the Admin account so that I am the Admin. So far the pc is working just fine, except that the Admin account is called RetailAdmin. I finally changed that by going into Control Panel/User Accounts. However I think when if I signed into my Microsoft account it would’ve changed it anyway but not sure.
I don’t have anything under English except typing, no RetailDemo Content but I do have the RetailAdmin Account. So it’s odd there’s no software to delete but the RetailAdmin did run because it made both the Darrin Deyoung and the RetailAdmin Account. Okay i was able to change the name on the RetailAdmin so all is well.
There is an option for this W10AU to unsintall. Go to Settings > type Optional Features -> click Manage Optional Features, and there are “Demo features” that could be uninstalled
god damn windows. I just wanted to reset my PC. Now I am stuck in a Darren DeYoung account. If I open the User Accounts window, the computer restarts. If I can’t get rid of it from Disk Cleanup, I’m going to resort to what should have done in the first place. Which is go to the pirate bay, download a WORKING COPY, and then use windows like normal. I can’t believe I was suckered into using the Windows “reset PC” option. I knew it was a mistake from the start. I should have known better. But I did it anyway. And 5 hours later, I’m going to torrent a working copy. I’m never going to let this happen again. DO NOT TRUST WINDOWS RESET FEATURE
Hi,
FYI,
Activating this demo mode will erase existing profiles.
After a week running as a normal user, these files should remove themselves.
You can reset your device within a few seconds/minutes using RemoveRDX command in Documents>Tools>RemoveRetailDemo folder (run as admin; password : trs10). You will get back to welcome screen.
Another way is complete reset : hold shift key + clic on restart and follow the steps
Hi I came to this site looking for help as I bought a new laptop that was a store DEMO.
I think that no purchaser or user should ever enable this demo mode. Although some of the help and advice is correct or partially correct it is not a true fix.
I found that by doing Windows updates and restarting – then update – restart until all updates are finished, the system will at last install the full version of Windows 10 automatically. I think it is better than buying or finding a copy of windows 10 for clean install.
I cannot be sure this will work for all demo units. Also I think the retailer should reconfigure the demo units back to normal before they are sold. Of course that would be too perfect.
Hi there. Please see my post bellow for details. Please note the updates and automatic install of windows 10 takes a very long time. Do it when you have lots of free time.
how to get rid of retaildemo offline content completely?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRetailDemo is the regedit way of enabling or disabling this.
Does the presence of this indicate that the computer was a floor model? I.e. displayed in the store? I am asking because it was sold as a new computer.