What are /r/windows7's favorite Products & Services?

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No you shouldn't. Not because it's unsupported or anything, but because it won't run. Windows 7 is not compatible with the SanDisk eMMC storage the HP Stream has. I have one too and believe me, I tried a dozen ways to try getting Windows 7 working on it to no avail. There are no drivers for this eMMC on Windows 7.

But it's true, Windows 10 doesn't work well on this computer at all, mostly because of the limited storage. Either install a lightweight Linux distribution like Xubuntu or Mint XFCE, or turn the computer into a Chromebook (OS with just Chrome web browser) using CloudReady.

It looks like FileHippo has a copy of it - https://filehippo.com/download_windows-usb-dvd-download-tool/

The site appears to be a bit crazy with the ads even with an ad blocker, so proceed with caution.

You won't be able to run Windows 7 on your HP Stream. Windows 7 has absolutely no drivers for the eMMC. No matter what you try, it won't boot up. (I have the same computer and spent hours trying to get it to work)

If you don't feel like learning Linux, install Chrome OS using CloudReady. It has nothing but Chrome, so you don't have to learn something new and it performs extremely well.

Windows 7 may seem "lighter" since it was made for older computers that are naturally less powerful, but no version of Windows is designed to be "light".

Yes, I recommend the following:

1. instal Windows 7 on an SSD. This will allow Windows 7;to boot faster, load apps quicker and give it a fresh feel.
2. Reinstall Windows 7 from a fresh start. You will lose all your programs and files, etc., however, this is a valid option if you cannot locate the source of the slowdown.
3. Remove unwanted startup programs launching itself from when Windows Starts. Here is the full tutorial on how to do so https://www.ionos.com/digitalguide/server/configuration/windows-7-startup-programs/
4. If possible, more ram can help.

​

those Are a few possibilities. I hope I was helpful.

To answer OP's question

Motherboard:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-GAMING-EDGE-Motherboard-802-11AC/dp/B07T8HJVY8?th=1

There are no missing drivers for this motherboard, if you want proof i can provide screenshots

Any other components that are compatible with this mobo, e.g. Ram, Cpu, will work whatever you get

As for how to install Windows 7 I will provide a link shortly when my newest version of 7 has finished uploading

Thanks for the answer.

I bought this adapter (bluetooth 5) but didn't get any luck with it. I used snappy driver installer btw.

Maybe I should try a more ancient adapter ?

I have 45GB Win7 partition on my old HDD. I kept installing new programs on this HDD, before cloning into the SSD.

Right now, it occupied upto 36GB since I also augmented this HDD with 6GB page file(to accommodate overflow process) since I currently only had 2x2GB DDR3 RAM.

Installed softwares: Firefox , LibreOffice, SumatraPDF VLC, Spotify, Video Thumbnail Maker
ProtonVPN, MalwareBytes, SMADAV
Google Drive, Icedrive, MegaSync, Dropbox IDM, qbittorrent CrystalDisk, AOMEI Partition, Recuva

"Slipstream" is for an expert or MCSE professional who must have a working Win 10 or Win 11 PC to do that. I can do it but not everyone can.

ASUS X570 motherboard has a PS2 port so

an adapter like this will get a common person going so he can update all the drivers.

https://www.amazon.com.au/StarTech-com-Replacement-Keyboard-Adapter-Mini-DIN/dp/B000A0K2JO/ref=sr_1_12?keywords=ps2+to+usb+adapter&qid=1668359896&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjg5IiwicXNhIjoiMi43NiIsInFzcCI6IjIuNDcifQ%3D%3D&sr=8-12

Then you oughta reseat and test your RAM.
https://www.memtest.org/

In my experience, almost all issues with Windows installs freezing up without any error is almost always bad RAM.

Windows 7 has been unsupported for two years, so you shouldn't use it unless you have a very specific reason to. It sucks but it's the truth. The performance will be okay since you have 8 GB of RAM which is more than enough. If you have an SSD, it will be fast. Without an SSD it would be a little slow, but so would 7 be after a while.

If you've already got 7 installed, you can upgrade to 10 using Microsoft's media creation tool (no key needed, it will use your 7 key). Then if there are major problems you can go back to 7 within ten days from the Settings app.

>Sorry, the file you have requested does not exist.

Make sure that you have the correct URL and that the file exists.

The Gdrive link isn't mine. Here you have a .docx version that I uploaded: https://pixeldrain.com/u/6SSJPLKm

XP ? Wow I kinda wanna try XP too

But I checked the website and it seems like their site is down? I can't find the msdn folder anywhere.

https://the-eye.eu/public/

They only are hosting their AI machine learning stuff The rest are inaccessible due to hardware failure which is odd.

I've never seen a 4.5GB stick of DDR3, but Windows is reporting "Dual Channel", so it's probably ignoring one of your 3GB sticks. I chucked dual channel in quotes because dual channel DDR3 ain't 666mhz. That's the base operating speed of single channel DDR3.

You should power off, pull all your RAM modules and check that their frequencies and capacities match. If they don't, they need to. Also, RAM is cheap. You can get two 8GB sticks of DDR3 for about $50, and even if your Mobo offers four RAM busses, it's best to only fill two channels. Speaking of which, check your mobo documentation because mobos have their own RAM limits.

TLDR: Four memory busses and three sticks steps everything down to single channel speed.

If everything checks out, jump into BIOS/UEFI and ensure capacity and frequency are reported correctly. If there are any enhanced memory management features, research and enable/disable where applicable. If nothing seems applicable or results in no difference after booting into Windows, it's time to run RAM diagnostics.

I'm not certain about this, but Windows Memory Diagnostic may have a 2GB limit in Windows 7 SP1. To avoid that possibility, I'd recommend a 3rd party app.
https://www.memtest.org/

If all your RAM modules match, they aren't BIOS/UEFI limited, you're not running 3 modules in a "dual channel" setup, and everything passes diagnostics - I don't even know what the hell, man. I'd wanna blame your busses at that point, but could be an ancient BIOS firmware that desperately needs updating.

TLDR2: Take it to a computer technician and pay them to pimp your ride.

Download this and save it somewhere accessible.
https://letsencrypt.org/certs/isrgrootx1.der

Click start.
Type "certmgr.msc" and open it.
In the left pane, right-click on "Trusted Root Certification Authorities"
Select "All Tasks > Import".
In the Certificate Wizard, click next.
Click Browse.
Pull down the filetype menu and select "All Files (*.*)"
Find and select the isgrootx1.der file you downloaded earlier.
Click next.
Make sure "Place all certificates in the following store" is selected.
The selected store should be "Trusted Root Certification Authorities". If it isn't, click browse and select it.
Click next, and finish.
Reboot your 'puter.

Also, Firefox has it's own built-in certificate store so you don't have to fuss with all this. Only good for browsing the net, though; doesn't work OS-wide.

It's real

https://the-eye.eu/public/MSDN/Windows%207/?\_\_cf\_chl\_jschl\_tk\_\_=d791d7c149d71aaee5e785f6ff5704a5a829115b-1578191051-0-Ae9fRyNsDj5r4Fi-HEa2N6XVpXMVnutvJDPxEZv5MUIqIW00MJ\_rz08kAbPNaTyzdZ419lfoO7Rv61A0YYlv8cqkQhGH5BbGEjq8oYU97ofvAY\_kumInn-Jj...

Yes, it would. You would need to create USB media on another computer to boot from on the laptop. Also keep in mind you need to have Admin rights on the computer you will be using for creating the install USB, otherwise the media creation tool (or Rufus) won't work.

So for your ELI5 - Basically, the issue is you don't have the password to your laptop, which means the current install is also useless to you. This means you would need to reinstall your Windows and wipe the drive to get a fresh copy, so you could set up your own account on the new installation.

So to reinstall an OS, you need an installer, obviously. The Windows installer can then install Windows to your machine when you run it.

How do you get an installer? You would first need the .iso file for your Windows version. You can get Windows 7 unmodified isos from https://the-eye.eu, and you can get Windows 10 isos from Microsoft's website.

Once you have the iso file, you would need to write the installer to a bootable media. Here you have two options - DVD and USB. You could take that iso file and burn it to a DVD, and then insert into your laptop, and boot from it into the installer. You can also use a utility like Rufus to write the iso to a USB drive, and then boot from that as well.

Both these options will get you to the Windows installer on your laptop. Once you are there, you can reinstall Windows. This will give you a fresh Windows that won't have any files or passwords from your friend.

If by "restart" you mean "restore", check if there's a "recovery" option in your computer. If there isn't or it doesn't work, you can download Windows 10 from here and install it using your Windows 7 product key.

If you really want Windows 7 instead, you have to download a generic copy from this page. Choose the one that says en_windows_7_[EDITION]_with_sp1_x64. Instead of [EDITION], check your product key sticker for your edition of Windows, like Home Premium or Professional, and choose the edition in that list.

Once you downloaded the ISO file, you have to write it to a DVD or USB drive, then do a clean installation. If you don't know how to do that, search burn iso file and windows 7 clean install

group the icons or try this program 7stacks 7stacks is an easy to use, free app that lets Windows 7 (and Vista and XP) users have “stacks” of icons in their Taskbar (in 7) or QuickLaunch Toolbar.

If you don't need BitLocker just re-install the current edition of Windows 7 that's on there. You can find out the installed copy's product key using ProduKey so you can write it down and use it when re-installing. You could even install 10 Pro with that product key, but it likely won't run well on a Pentium 4.

Gotcha. I'd recommend RAM diagnostics, especially after BSOD and continued system instability like this. Something tells me your apps aren't loading because they're trying to fill corrupted memory addresses.

I'd also advise you to backup personal data off of that hard drive just in case. I don't want to worry you because you haven't provided enough solid info to indicate you could have having HDD problems, but you could potentially have the same issues if your RAM is fine but your page file is attempting to write over bad sectors on your HDD.

Windows 7 has a built-in Windows Memory Diagnostic that can be accessed from a search or by running "mdsched" from the Run dialog. It'll require a restart. It can only scan up to 4GB of installed RAM though - so if your system has more than that, you may need to opt for Memtest x86+.
https://www.memtest.org/

If this memtest stuff feels a bit above your comfort level, RAM diagnostic through a computer tech should be really cheap, and RAM generally isn't that expensive either.

Hey if you don't mind, I'd like to ask one more question to you, about the product key situation.

I retrieved her product key using a software called 'Belarc advisor' (website here). It generates a profile of your computer saying things like the serial number, number of profiles, product ID and key, etc. However, last night I went to Microsoft's site here to get another image of WIndows 7 in case we went that route, and when I typed in the product key (it requires you to give the product key to download the image), it just gave me an error. I even called microsoft tech support and gave them the error ID but of course as this had to do with WIndows 7 they just said sorry we don't support WIndows 7 anymore so we can't answer any questions. It leaves me wondering if I Have an incorrect product key for her. Do you know of a better way to retrieve the product key from the computer? Part of me honestly wonders if the error on the website is just due to it being WIndows 7... but I'm worried now if I try and do an actual install vs. an upgrade, I'll discover the product key is not accurate and we'll be out $100 or so.

Firefox - great idea btw, going to try this.

No. WSUS Offline Update won't detect hardware and look for drivers because it can be used on a different Windows computer too (even Windows 10).

For drivers, you can download Snappy Driver Installer (choose Application and Driver Packs via Torrent), or DriverPacks.

Windows 7 is not made for less powerful computers, it's made for older computers. It's an older version of Windows, not an alternative one. If your "potato" computer was made after 2015, it can't run Windows 7 properly (even if it boots up, it won't have any drivers). If you have eMMC storage, Windows 7 will not run at all.

If you just want an operating system that runs better than Windows 10 or 11, try a Linux distribution, or Chrome OS if you're fine with only having Chrome. Chrome OS runs fantastically even on the most potato PCs and it gets security updates.

...You can use any number of tools from Macrium Reflect...

Yep, the hard drive is getting ready to die, and your best bet for an easy transition to a new hard drive is to use Macrium Reflect to clone your existing installation. You'll keep your Windows 7 license, all your old programs, etc. Even the desktop will be unchanged.

My old Windows 7 tower was starting to lose its hard drive, and it was behaving in exactly the same manner. Cloning with Macrium Reflect provided an excellent way to keep my system intact (BTW, Macrium is free). Since you're working with a laptop, it'd be worth looking into getting a USB to SATA adapter (I have one made by StarTech that works well; I'll give a link to their latest one below). That way, you would clone directly to your new hard drive without having to use an "intermediary."

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-SATA-USB-Cable-USB3S2SAT3CB/dp/B00HJZJI84/

yes, except it's out of stock. Try this one instead.

Is this okay? https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-QGOO-Receiver-Headphones-Compatible/dp/B07JVBFVRX/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=bluetooth+receiver+window+7&link_code=qs&qid=1617794946&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzTFhJTTJWV084RUVVJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzY1OTY0MlJQVTdKUTk0MUcxSiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNjY5MTIwMjBCSlczMzUxWFFEMiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Just tried it on a windows 10 laptop. Same result. I ordered this today, hopefully it works...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014N53JVO/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1