Posts by driftingnomad68

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd3JTGAs-q0

An OEM license is tied to one specific machine. You’re totally free to reinstall it, but just remember that the license stays locked to that particular PC.

Now, a RETAIL license is portable—it isn't stuck to one computer, so you can reinstall it whenever. You can move it around, but the rule is that one license can only be active on one machine at a time. In that regard, OEM and RETAIL are actually pretty much the same.

Honestly, I don't see the big deal with HDMI on a monitor most of the time. Most of them don't even come with built-in speakers anyway, right? So, if you look at the actual technical difference between DVI and HDMI, the main thing is that HDMI carries audio along with the video, whereas DVI is really just for the picture. Then there's DisplayPort, which is a slimmer connector—kind of like HDMI—but it hasn't exactly taken over the world just yet.

VGA is an analog connection, so if you actually have the option to hook up your monitor via DVI, just do it. I mean, look, it’s not like you’re going to see some massive, mind-blowing difference or anything, but honestly? If you have a free DVI port sitting right there, using VGA just feels like a waste of time. No real reason to go that route.

So, yeah, then everything should be good for him too 🙂.

You can probably use that method; it’ll likely pop up a message on your screen before Windows even starts, telling you to hit a specific key to trigger the recovery process.

Just do a quick Google search for your specific laptop model plus "recovery" to see how they handle it.

As for downloading the version itself, you'd find it on those same sites where people grab all those other questionable versions... I really shouldn't say where specifically, though, so just give it a search.

So, you don't have a recovery partition at all? Or maybe a recovery disk? Did you used to have one and just lost it, or did you never actually have one to begin with?

You really need to grab the exact version that came on the laptop. Since it's an OEM version, you're looking for the clean, stock version—nothing fancy, no custom tweaks or modifications. Try installing it using the product key from that sticker. If that works, just go through the normal activation process once it's done. And hey, whatever you do, stay far away from those "activator" tools that sometimes come bundled with downloaded versions. Just stick to the official stuff.

If that doesn't do the trick, your best bet is probably just calling up an authorized service center.

Austin Hall95 said:Everything works fine, I just kind of want to upgrade the version of Windows

Well, hey, go ahead and do whatever you want if you've got the spare time and feel like tinkering 🙂.

But honestly? You aren't actually getting a "better" version of Windows or anything like that. It's really just a bunch of extra features and bloatware that you probably won't even touch. Plus, I have a hunch that your current home Premium setup is legit, whereas trying to jump to Ultimate definitely wouldn't be.

Austin Hall95 said:It's my kid's laptop and it doesn't have American English, which is one reason why

I wouldn't mess with legitimate Windows over something that minor... let the kid learn some English instead🙂.

I'm just a little curious here, but what would be the actual, justifiable reason for you to even go through with that? 🙂

It’s pretty obvious you aren't doing this because the Windows you're running on your machine is acting up, because if it were, you wouldn't be asking if you could skip the reinstall entirely.

Hard drives just aren't big fans of vibrations or being tossed around too much. I mean, the ones inside laptops are built to be a bit more rugged than a standard desktop drive, but still, it's not like you should be spinning the thing around constantly without a care in the world.
The only real danger when you're moving things around is if you accidentally bang it against something or—even worse—drop it. That’s where you really run into trouble with the drive. 😁

Those lines and the green "blocky" textures? Those are artifacts. Usually, they pop up because of a hardware failure—like a bad memory stick—overheating, or just a mix of everything going wrong at once. I can't recall ever seeing a virus that would cause visual artifacts in games after only a few minutes of play; almost all of those issues are hardware-related.

And like I mentioned before, it sounds like something else got messed up during those installations. I don't think you've ever actually had a virus, it's more likely your antivirus was just throwing a bunch of false positives at you.

I'm not seeing those files in the picture you posted 😢
All I can see are svchost and csrss, which are just standard system processes.

If you actually have an svchostWchost process running, then you've definitely got some kind of virus on your hands—it's pretty weird that AVG isn't flagging it. Are you running anything else, like Norton (Symantec)?
Honestly, this question doesn't really fit the topic; it's got nothing to do with Windows 7 🙂

Anyway, a lot of those cracks and hacks trigger false positives when you scan them.
It's strange that searching Google for that Counter Strike vldrv virus barely brings up any results 🙂

Who knows what went sideways during that installation of yours.

Did you get all those graphics drivers installed? You've got that Intel integrated one on the processor plus the Nvidia card separately. Are you even sure that Nvidia chip is actually turning on?
Those white lines and green "blocks" don't look like a virus to me... sounds more like a memory issue with the graphics card itself. Is everything else running okay? Like, is your new laptop maybe overheating or something?

Neither of those cards are really meant for modern gaming, but an old school version of Counter-Strike should run just fine on both, hmm.

That’s pretty much the gist of it, though the link suggests making sure Office is fully patched up. If you're running genuine Windows and Office, you're probably already good to go.
I actually installed this ages ago—didn't bother patching a thing and it worked just fine, but honestly, that was over four years ago 🙂

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/su...010168676.aspx

Home Premium retail is about $1,600—$600, while the Professional retail version goes for $2,300 or more. These are all the English versions 🙂.

Do you have an original version of Microsoft Office? Are you just missing the disc, or are you without a product key entirely? 😕
If you actually have a key, you can just find the right version online to download and then install it using your key.

Otherwise, if you're looking at Microsoft Office 2010 for home use on up to three computers, it'll run you about $200.

They’re probably trying to use some outdated download manager that just doesn't play nice with Windows 7.
You'll actually need to go into your VirtualBox settings for that VM and set up a Shared folder, then mount it inside the virtual machine. Standard copy-paste isn't really an option here—what you have to do is copy-paste into that Shared folder within the virtual environment, and then grab it from there on your host machine to wherever you want it to go.

Those aren't inputs, they're actually outputs. Honestly, I’m not even sure what you mean by that.
If you can, just hook up the monitor via DVI or HDMI instead—since those are digital connections, they'll work way better than that old-school VGA stuff.

Of course you're going to get a way better picture using a DVI or HDMI cable instead of sticking with old-school VGA.

If you head over to your power options in the Control Panel, you'll see an option on the left side called Choose what the power buttons do.