Anyone still running Windows 7?

Did that pop up right when you installed Windows 7? Everything running smoothly on your previous OS before this mess?

Benjamin King2 said:Did that pop up right when you installed Windows 7? Everything was running fine on your previous OS?

Exactly.
I'm thinking it’s tied to that RemoveWAT tool—plus the fact that this is a pirated version.
Honestly, I don't see what else it could be. I just grabbed a fresh copy of Windows 7, so let's see how that goes.

It’s possible—though honestly, RemoveWAT is pretty much obsolete at this point anyway. The last update dropped like two years ago.

Benjamin King2 said:Could be—RemoveWAT is pretty much ancient history anyway. The last update was like two years ago.

Is there any other way to register Windows 7 besides using wat?

Benjamin King2 said:http://www.forum.com/showthread.php?t=458515

My bad.

boldranger25 said:From what I can tell, that's just a registry editor. I don't see why I'd even touch that if I just finished installing Windows and haven't even put any other software on it yet.
Look, since I don't have any other options, I'll give it a shot and let you know if it actually works.

I told you exactly what to try, so stop philosophizing with me—what's the point?
It doesn't matter if you just installed Windows; the OS itself is identical, but the hardware it's running on isn't. Do you get it now? If Glary finds an error, it'll try to fix it. It might not show up on my machine, but it could absolutely be there on yours—or vice versa. Our setups aren't identical unless you happen to be using the exact same laptop model with the exact same specs. Just try it. It won't kill you, haha.
And for heaven's sake, get rid of that RemoveWAT thing. Maybe it's blocking you from accessing the Control Panel or even just viewing your system properties, leaving everything blank. That could very well be linked to the issues you're seeing in Explorer itself.

Yesterday and today I had about 40 GB of free space on my C: drive, but now, out of nowhere, I'm down to 23GB?
I haven't installed anything new. When I check the C: partition, the Desktop folder is taking up 12GB, yet there aren't even five icons on my actual desktop, and I've already emptied the Recycle Bin.

Taylor Morales31 said:Look, I already told you what to try—no need to overthink it! Why the debate? It doesn't matter if you just finished installing Windows; Windows itself stays the same, but the hardware it runs on is different. Get what I mean?
If Glary finds an error, let it try to fix it. It might not show up on my machine but could pop up on yours—or vice versa—since our setups aren't identical unless you happen to have the exact same laptop model and specs. Just give it a shot, it won't kill you, haha.
Also, get that RemoveWAT out of there. If it's blocking you from getting into the Control Panel or even just checking System Properties, it'll just leave everything blank. That might actually be tied to your Explorer issues.

Tried it, still the same result. Got rid of the wat, found a new loader7, installed everything... still broken.
Looks like a fresh install is my only option.

Charles Thompson15 said:So, until yesterday I had about 40 GB of breathing room on my C: drive, and now, out of nowhere, I'm down to 23GB???
I didn't install anything new. I check the C: partition and suddenly the desktop is hogging 12GB, even though there aren't even five icons on my desktop and the Recycle Bin is empty.

Just grab CCleaner and run a deep clean on the machine. Honestly, you're gonna be shocked at what you find 😉

Douglas Garcia52 said:just grab CCleaner and run it on your system; you'll be surprised how much it cleans up. 😉

Thanks, but it didn't really move the needle. I'm still missing about 20 GB. 🤷
All I did today was install some webcam drivers, wipe Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas from my E drive, and then try to reinstall it using Magic ISO. But Magic ISO kept freezing on me, so after a few failed attempts, I just used Daemon Tools to get Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas back onto the E drive. That's literally everything. I have no clue where those 20 GB went.
I never had anything like this happen back when I was using Windows XP.

Did you actually toggle the setting to show system and hidden files? You really ought to see pagfile.sys and hyberfile.sys sitting right there in the C: drive root—assuming you haven't disabled hibernation, of course—and while you're at it, take a look at your System Restore and Recycle Bin settings; by default, they tend to gobble up a massive chunk of your disk space.

Benjamin King2 said:Did you make sure to toggle the setting to show system and hidden files? You should see pagfile.sys and hyberfile.sys right in the C: drive root (assuming hibernation isn't turned off). Also, take a look at your System Restore and Recycle Bin settings; by default, they tend to hog a lot of disk space.

Enabled or disabled? I turned on the option to view hidden files, but I'm still not seeing those pagfile.sys or hyberfile.sys files in the C: root.

How do I actually disable hibernation?
And where can I check the settings for System Restore and the Recycle Bin?
Sorry, I'm not exactly a pro with Windows 7; I always found Windows XP much more intuitive.

My bad—had a few typos in my last post. I was actually talking about pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys...

If you need to handle a system restore: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/5482/...-in-windows-7/

You can do the exact same thing through the Recycle Bin 'properties'...

As for hibernation: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...e-disable.html

Just a heads-up—if you just toggle hibernation off in your power options, it doesn't actually delete the hiberfil.sys file. You have to explicitly disable it to get rid of it... and honestly, that file can easily hog a few GBs of space if you aren't careful.

I managed to sort this out like this:
Once I went into my settings and enabled hidden files, I found the AppData folder under C: -> Users -> (My Username).
I just went in there and cleared out about five pieces of junk left over from Magic ISO.
Basically, I was trying to mount Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas using it, but Magic ISO would freeze on me every single time. I ended up having to kill the process through Task Manager repeatedly, and it kept happening.
All those failed attempts were hogging space. After cleaning it up, I freed up about 15 GB.

Anyway, thanks for the help.

I am unsure if this question belongs here, but I don't see a more appropriate place to ask.
I was running Disk Cleanup on my C drive and accidentally selected the compression option. Later, I disabled it, and everything seemed fine. The computer functioned normally until the following day when I tried to boot it up again.
Upon startup, I receive this error message:
"WSKMQ is compressed. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart." When I follow those instructions, the system attempts to start, but the message simply reappears.
I am at a loss as to how to proceed.
I am using an HP 4710s laptop, which features a highly unconventional BIOS, making any standard BIOS-level troubleshooting useless.
Does anyone have a suggestion for a fix, or should I simply take it to a repair shop?

First off, you’re going to need to boot your machine from a recovery CD—basically getting into that recovery console environment. Once you’re staring at the command prompt, make sure you’ve navigated all the way back to the root of the C drive (you’ll know you’re there when the prompt just says C:\). If you find yourself stuck deep in some random folder, just use the cd \<enter> command to move up one level at a time—just keep doing that until you hit C:\. Once you're home, type in attrib -c c:\filename—and obviously, swap "filename" with whatever specific compressed file the error message was complaining about. This should strip away that compressed attribute and hopefully stop the error from popping up again.

Keep in mind, if you accidentally compressed a bunch of system files, you might have to run this process more than once. Honestly, I wouldn't hold my breath for tech support to solve this—since it’s a software-level issue, they'll probably just give you the classic "wipe the drive and start over" routine. 😁

Is it actually possible to install a fresh version of Windows on my computer without using a DVD drive? For instance, could I do it via the hard drive or some other method like that?

Thanks!

You can just use a USB drive. 🙂

So, does that essentially function the same way as a portable hard drive?

It’s not quite the same thing; whatever you're using to install Windows actually needs to be bootable. 🙂