Anyone still running Windows 7?

Have you had a chance to check for those online updates yet?

I’ve got a bit of a mystery on my hands—I'm running Windows 7, and until very recently, I had at least half my C drive free... we're talking about 20 GB out of 40 GB available. Now, suddenly, I'm looking at maybe 2 or 3 GB left, and I have no idea where it all went! I actually went through the C drive and checked the individual folders, but they don't even add up to 5 GB total, so nothing makes sense to me. Just to be clear, I install all my games on the D drive and keep my movies over there too, so the C drive should really just be holding BSPlayer, Skype, and a few other tiny little programs. I honestly can't wrap my head around how the space vanished like this...
Does anyone happen to know what might be causing this? Because once those "low disk space" warnings start popping up again, I am seriously going to lose my mind 😁

Go ahead and toggle those settings in Folder options so you can actually see the hidden and system files.

Hey there, I have a quick question—is it actually legal to run Windows Home Premium on a point-of-sale register, or am I required to use the Pro version?
Specifically, this would be on a brand-new laptop where both the hardware and the Windows license were bundled together on the receipt.

I don't think there's really a connection there—you can definitely go with the Home edition, but you might want to check out this comparison of the different Windows versions just to be safe.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/compare#T1=tab01

On my Compaq Presario CQ62 running Windows 7, everything looks fine on paper—the system claims Bluetooth is working perfectly without a hitch. But in reality? It’s a total wash. I can't establish a connection with another PC, I can't link it to my phone... nothing. It just sits there, refusing to send or receive any data whatsoever. Has anyone dealt with this kind of nonsense before? Or better yet, does anyone know where I can find a specific guide on this forum to actually fix this mess?

Maybe give the Bluetooth driver a shot—try reinstalling it by grabbing the latest version directly from the manufacturer's support page for your specific laptop model.

So, here’s the deal. Yesterday, I was looking for that old Microsoft movie maker tool, so I headed over to the Microsoft site to grab it. I started the download, but things just stalled out. When I finally got to the installation phase, it was dragging its feet so badly that I honestly didn't have the patience to sit there staring at a progress bar, so I just killed the process and nuked the file from my downloads folder. But then, this morning, I noticed this weird thing popped up in the bottom right corner of my screen, kind of like this



It said something along the lines of "Windows updating," or whatever. At first, I didn't really wrap my head around how to stop it, so I just closed my laptop lid and went about my business. It wasn't until later that I realized I might be able to kill the process by opening Chrome—which is what I use—going to my downloads, and hitting cancel on the transfer. I actually mentioned this to my brother since I wasn't home at the time, and he probably did exactly that, because the download seems to have stopped and the activity in my downloads folder is gone now. However, there's a catch. Now, when I go to the Start menu, right next to where I usually shut down the laptop near the 'shut down' option, there's this orange and black shield icon. When I hover my mouse over it, it says "Installing updates and then shut down your computer." I guess I'm wondering if this is some kind of glitch or if I'm actually in trouble? What am I supposed to do to make this disappear so I can just turn off my laptop normally without seeing some "updating 1 of 190" nonsense pop up every single time?😁

So you ran that Windows update, huh? Well, looks like you're stuck now. There isn't much you can do besides sit tight and wait for those 1-190 tasks to finish up once you reboot.

Actually, it wasn't popping up during startup for me, but more so right when I was shutting everything down, though I did end up pulling the 😂 out. I went ahead and stopped that download process, and then I just wiped it from the download queue entirely, which seems to have made that little yellow shield icon vanish. I'm honestly not sure if it's just a temporary fix or if it's gone for good, but I'm really hoping it stays away for good this time 🙂

So I've got this massive headache with about 3 or 4 different programs. Basically, I couldn't uninstall them through the standard "Add/Remove Programs" route because the .exe files weren't even showing up in the Control Panel—so I just went in and started nuking the files manually.

And those pesky files that were supposedly "in use"? I had to use a force-delete tool to just rip them out of existence.
Now, whenever I try to reinstall the exact same software, I get hit with this stupid error: "the installation cannot be run because a newer version is installed."

Seriously? I manually wiped everything—the Program Files folder, the Start Menu entries, even the desktop icons. Everything is gone.

Here’s the deal: I can't get Advanced SystemCare to install, and I can't even get my Nvidia physics drivers working. The physics driver isn't actually installed anywhere, but there's this ghost icon stuck in the Control Panel "installed programs" list that I can't get rid of—because if I try, the uninstaller just crashes since it can't find the files I already deleted!
Because of that, when I attempt to install the new driver, it tells me a "newer version is already in use." Makes zero sense.
Is there some kind of install/uninstall manager out there that can actually bypass this absolute nonsense Windows 7 keeps throwing at me?

Right now, I'm left with nothing. No Advanced SystemCare, no physics drivers, and not even Avira, which is being a total nightmare by claiming it's "in use" every single time I try to install a fresh version from the web—even though the program is completely purged from my system.

Does anyone know a program that can actually scrub these bugs out of Windows? I dealt with this junk back on Windows XP, but honestly, Windows 7 is driving me absolutely insane.

It would be beyond ridiculous and honestly pretty pathetic if wiping my entire PC was the only way to fix this. :S

Run a registry clean with CCleaner first, then try the installation again. Look, these aren't some mysterious bugs—there's a reason why an actual installation and uninstallation procedure exists instead of just deleting files whenever you feel like it.

Jesse Diaz3 said:So, that yellow shield icon has finally vanished—I’m honestly not sure if this is just a temporary glitch or if it’s gone for good, but I am desperately hoping for the latter. 🙂

It’s honestly a bit like being behind the wheel of a car—you know, when that little oil pressure warning light pops up on your dashboard—and instead of actually checking the dipstick or fixing the leak, you decide to "solve" the problem by simply ripping the bulb out of the cluster. 🙂.

Most of those update files are actually tied directly to system security. If it isn't most of them, then at least a significant chunk of viruses—I guess you could say a pretty sizable number—essentially "count" themselves against users who just aren't willing to install their updates.

lonestag3 said:And honestly, I think it would be absolutely absurd—bordering on the ridiculous—if a full PC format ended up being the only possible fix for this mess. :S

The way you’ve been "uninstalling" programs—by just arbitrarily deleting files—is exactly how you drive Windows into a state that practically demands a full reinstall. There isn't anything funny or even remotely clever about it. I suppose some people think they're being efficient, but let me be clear: installing software isn't just about dumping a bunch of files into a single folder and calling it a day. It's much more complex than that.

Are you absolutely certain that—during your cleanup process—Windows didn't throw any kind of warning at you? I mean, surely it would have popped up a message saying something like, "This could affect some of your installed programs," or even just a vague heads-up about potential issues. I guess it's possible it stayed quiet, but it seems unlikely, doesn't it?

Nicholas King said:It’s basically like having an oil light pop up in your car and deciding the best way to "fix" it is—get this—just pulling the bulb out. 🙂.

Most of those update files are straight-up security patches. If it isn't most of them, then a huge chunk of viruses count on users being too lazy to install updates.

The way you "uninstalled" stuff—just nuking files randomly—can leave Windows in a state where a full reinstall is the only way out. There's nothing funny or crazy about that. Installing a program isn't just copying files into a single folder and calling it a day.

Are you absolutely sure Windows didn't give you a warning like "This could affect some of installed programs" or something similar while you were busy deleting everything?

I'm not talking about INSTALLING, I'm talking about deleting! I was wiping out stuff that isn't vital to Windows—stuff like disk cleaners, antivirus programs, ancient C++ runtimes from old games, duplicate .NET frameworks, and Geforce drivers. (Windows Live too). Just doing a little fresh reinstall of apps and cleaning out the junk... nothing weird there.

And my biggest headache was this PhysX driver staying stuck under an installed program—even though it wasn't actually anywhere because I'd deleted it! So when I tried to install the Nvidia driver, PhysX would fail to install because it kept claiming a newer version was already there. Meanwhile, half my games were throwing "failed to initialize 3D engine" errors, or when I tried to play Mass Effect 3, it’d scream "failed to initialize physix engine" at me.

It drives me insane when it tells me something is "in use" when I can see with my own eyes in Task Manager that it IS NOT.
Same thing with it telling me it can't install something because a newer version exists—all because some tiny fragment of a registry entry is hanging around saying a file used to be there.

And I KNOW that Nvidia, Advanced SystemCare, the PhysX driver, and Avira aren't critical components for Windows to actually run. Logic dictates I didn't even have them on my PC originally; I added them all myself over a year ago.

I just wanted to run an update, plain and simple. And btw, I fixed the whole mess using Revo Uninstaller.
Now my computer is clean as a whistle. Luckily, I also cleaned out the registry (everything that hasn't been active in the last week).

Because I realized that's where most of the garbage lives.

And that "this could affect" warning popped up 50,000 times—especially when Advanced SystemCare accidentally triggered automatic updates, and the next time I booted up, my PC had dumped a whole Bible of junk on me that I had to delete one by one. (And let's be real, the whole point of the Windows auto-update option is to turn it off, because... who actually uses Windows auto-updates? LOL)

When is Windows finally going to start working on a "DO AS I SAY!" basis, without all this extra software bloat just to do things Windows refuses to do because of some 2KB legacy registry entry?

Does anyone know how I can get my Pictures folders to actually show thumbnail previews instead of just a bunch of identical icons? I really miss how it used to look back in the Windows XP days... right now, everything just looks exactly the same

😢
I could really use some help and a little advice here.
I'm trying to get Windows 7 installed on a brand new laptop—it's a Toshiba, 4 GB of RAM, no OS pre-installed—but I'm hitting a total wall.
Right from the jump, I'm getting this error: PXE-MOF: exiting PXE ROM
Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press key.

PXE media test failure, check cable.

I used the F12 key to pull up the boot menu, and it shows me options like LAN, HDD/SSD, ODD, and USB.
The thing that's tripping me up is that there's no specific "CD" or "DVD" option listed. I know I need to set the disc drive as the primary boot device.
I've tried setting all of them to the top of the list (except for USB), but nothing is working...

I'm totally stuck and can't get past this screen.
I did test the installation CD on another computer, and that works just fine—
It actually gives me the option to start the setup.

By the way, I'm using the 32-bit version—could that be part of the problem?

The laptop supports 64-bit too, but I'm currently running with the 32-bit one.

Anyone got any tips or ideas?

"Optical disk Drive" sounds just plain weird to me.

Thanks—I actually tried putting that one first in the sequence too, but no luck there either.
Honestly, I’m at my wit's end here.🤷

So, what’s the actual model number we're dealing with here? It should be printed somewhere on the chassis—check the bottom or under the battery—or you can just pull up the system info on the desktop to find the exact designation.

Toshiba Satellite C855-1PP