# Computer Help Needed



## colchar (May 22, 2010)

I recently installed GuitarPro (legit copy) on my desktop and it worked perfectly. When I installed it on my laptop I couldn't get it to work. Whenever I try to open it I get pop-ups saying that .dll files are missing. Apparently this is a fairly common problem. I checked the web for solutions (reinstall Visual C++, raun various functions under the Administrator command prompt, etc.), but none of them have worked. I even downloaded the .dll files and that didn't do anything.

I am currently running a system restore to see if that resolves it, but if it doesn't I have no idea what to do next. The only thing I can think of is to reinstall Windows, but that will be a pain in the ass, if I can even find my Windows disc.

So I was wondering if anyone here might be able to offer any advice for how to resolve this?


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

certainly not up to me to tell you how do deal with your problems but you may benefit more by posting this outside of the political sub,., unless of course you have other plans


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

Ooops, wrong subforum. I'll have @davetcan move this.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Which Guitar Pro and which OS? Is it a one shot deal? Can the copy you have be installed on more than one computer at a time? Which .dll files are missing? Not too sure if this will help or not.








How to Fix 'MSVCP140.dll Is Missing' The Right Way - Driver Easy


Way 1: Reinstall the Microsoft Visual C ++ Redistributable Package: 1) Go to the Microsoft download website. Then click Download. 2) Select the file according to your system processor type (x64 for 64-bit and x86 for 32-bit). Then click Next. 3) Install the file in your computer. Way 2: Do a...



www.drivereasy.com


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

Electraglide said:


> Which Guitar Pro and which OS? Is it a one shot deal? Can the copy you have be installed on more than one computer at a time? Which .dll files are missing? Not too sure if this will help or not.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



It was installed on my desktop and worked fine. So far as I know, Guitar Pro can be installed on multiple systems.

It was the latest version (so 7.5 I think), and I am running Windows 10.


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

Install as administrator?

Install with one of the compatibility modes?


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Copy the DLL files from the desktop to a USB then to laptop. Or search for each DLL as it gives you an error message. 

You get an error. Missing xxx.dll. Find xxx.dll on desktop and put it in same folder on laptop. Try again until you have found them all


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

I did copy the .dll files.

But before I did that, I checked out the repair utility. I cancelled it before it began, but after a restart the computer in now in a repair utility loop. I'll have to deal with that then see if copying the .dll files worked.


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## DaddyDog (Apr 21, 2017)

Can you share the exact errors? maybe a screen shot?

If your login is not in the admin group, it may be just a permission problem on a folder.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

DaddyDog said:


> Can you share the exact errors? maybe a screen shot?
> 
> If your login is not in the admin group, it may be just a permission problem on a folder.



I am still stuck in the repair tool loop so cannot do anything else right now. That repair tool is even overriding its own options to boot into safe mode.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

can you get to command prompt?


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

If not press and hold the power button for 5 seconds until it shuts off. Optional step is unplug the computer and remove battery if a laptop then wait 30 seconds. Plug it back in and start normally.

If you have a second computer another method is to shut down the problem computer and remove the hard drive. Put that hard drive in another computer and boot it. Repair might finish normally. Put it back in the original computer.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

colchar said:


> I am still stuck in the repair tool loop so cannot do anything else right now. That repair tool is even overriding its own options to boot into safe mode.


I got stuck in that loop on a laptop I picked up a week or so ago. Couldn't get it to go into the bios, boot screen or safe boot....there was a win 10 upgrade install done on the 9th of Jan on a fresh Hdd so no back up/restore on it to get back to the origional OS. I ended up shutting it down by holding the power button down, pulling the battery and then holding the power button down for a minute, pulling the HDD and putting it in an enclosure then hooking it up to this win 10 laptop for a few minutes until after it was recognized. Then I put it back in the other laptop, installed the battery, hardwired it to the internet here and turned it on. I got it into safe mode and let it run for a while then it took 4 or 5 times to get it to start in regular mode. I've found that there are some things that work better when you are hard wired. 
It would be nice if Win 10 would recognize the optical drive of either laptop.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> can you get to command prompt?



Yes, I can get to the command prompt.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

In Command Prompt, type *bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled No *and press *Enter*. That turns off the recovery feature and should let you in at next boot.

once you fix the problem and you want it turned back on again type the exact same thing but change No to YES and press enter.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> In Command Prompt, type *bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled No *and press *Enter*. That turns off the recovery feature and should let you in at next boot.
> 
> once you fix the problem and you want it turned back on again type the exact same thing but change No to YES and press enter.



I did that, and got the message that the operation had completed successfully. Unfortunately, I am still stuck in the repair loop and now I get an error screen while it is booting which says that it needs to be repaired and gives the error code 0xc0000001. When I press F8 for startup settings and try to go into safe mode, I can't. That error screen does have an option for recovery that I could try, but I want to get files off of the computer before I try that.

I ordered a SATA to USB cable from Canada Computers. As soon as it is available for pickup I will go get it, remove the HD, copy everything I need from it, and then try the recovery option mentioned above. If that fails, I will reload Windows.

I also found a crack in the shell that I hadn't noticed, so maybe I should just buy another laptop. Too bad Apple gives inferior specs for the same price as better specs on Windows machines as otherwise I might give one of them a try.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

try this next....

Open Command Prompt
Type *exe /rebuildbcd *and press *Enter*.
Type *exe /fixmbr *and press *Enter*.
Type *exe /fixboot* and press *Enter*.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> try this next....
> 
> Open Command Prompt
> Type *exe /rebuildbcd *and press *Enter*.
> ...



Am I correct in assuming that existing files will be safe during those procedures?

Also, Canada Computers just called to say that the cable I had ordered is out of stock but they have one from another manufacturer (half the price) that will do the same job. I can pick it up this afternoon, so even if these other fixes don't work as long as I can get my files off of that HD I can go ahead and reload Windows.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Yes you'll be fine.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Another thing you can try but you need another computer and a large 32GB to 64GB USB stick. Use rufus to burn theISO image of windows onto the USB stick then tell the offending computer to run windows from the USB. It won't install anything, it will literally run Windows using the USB as the hard drive. It will be slow, but it will give you access to the hard drive. 









How to Run Windows From a USB Drive


Loading and running Windows 10 or Windows 11 from a USB drive is a handy option when you're using a computer saddled with an older operating system.




www.pcmag.com


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> Yes you'll be fine.



Cool, thanks. I assumed so, but wanted to be sure as there are a couple of things on the laptop that I need to keep.

I will perform those functions as soon as I come in from clearing the drive.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

colchar said:


> I did that, and got the message that the operation had completed successfully. Unfortunately, I am still stuck in the repair loop and now I get an error screen while it is booting which says that it needs to be repaired and gives the error code 0xc0000001. When I press F8 for startup settings and try to go into safe mode, I can't. That error screen does have an option for recovery that I could try, but I want to get files off of the computer before I try that.
> 
> I ordered a SATA to USB cable from Canada Computers. As soon as it is available for pickup I will go get it, remove the HD, copy everything I need from it, and then try the recovery option mentioned above. If that fails, I will reload Windows.
> 
> I also found a crack in the shell that I hadn't noticed, so maybe I should just buy another laptop. Too bad Apple gives inferior specs for the same price as better specs on Windows machines as otherwise I might give one of them a try.


A laptop HDD or a desktop one. Enclosures for both are available every where, quick and cheap and are better in my opinion than cables plus when you're done you can make up a portable HDD. A crack in the shell usually doesn't create a problem with the laptop.
Note: What brand and model of laptop do you have and was it originally a win 10 machine?


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> Another thing you can try but you need another computer and a large 32GB to 64GB USB stick. Use rufus to burn theISO image of windows onto the USB stick then tell the offending computer to run windows from the USB. It won't install anything, it will literally run Windows using the USB as the hard drive. It will be slow, but it will give you access to the hard drive.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I did that using a 160 gig portable HDD and might run it today just to see what happens. What I'm looking for right now is win 10 and win 8 OS on USB drives 'cause the win 10 upgrade doesn't recognize the optical drive on the two laptops it's on....major PIA. Doesn't recognize my portable optical drive either. Major PIA same as most if not all new laptops don't come with an optical drive.


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

You can create a Windows 10 bootable USB installation media here.





__





Download Windows 10 Disc Image (ISO File)






www.microsoft.com


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Kerry Brown said:


> You can create a Windows 10 bootable USB installation media here.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


No license that I can find so far....I've looked tho I do have this page bookmarked. Will it do a fresh install or is it just an upgrade? On the one laptop I want to do a fresh install as if it started out as a win 10 machine.


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

Electraglide said:


> No license that I can find so far....I've looked tho I do have this page bookmarked. Will it do a fresh install or is it just an upgrade? On the one laptop I want to do a fresh install as if it started out as a win 10 machine.


It will take a Windows 7 or 8 key. You can use the key that cane with the laptop. If there is no key with the laptop it is probably embedded in the BIOS which will work fine. It will do a clean install or if you start the process from within Windows an upgrade. If you already have 10 on it boot from the media and erase all the partitions and do a full install. Make sure when it asks you pick the same version as you had on the laptop, e.g. home or pro. Once Windows is installed and connected to the Internet it will automatically activate with the key from the previous activation.


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## BlueRocker (Jan 5, 2020)

Use these keys if you think you have an "embedded" key


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@Electraglide , do a dual boot. Partition your HDD install Win8 on one and win10 on the other. At boot you will have 30 seconds to decide which version you want to run. When you attempt to install Win10 with 8 already installed it will give you the option to upgrade or do a clean install. Pick clean install then pick the partition you want 10 to be on. When you boot up you will have 30 seconds to decide which version you want to run.


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

BlueRocker said:


> Use these keys if you think you have an "embedded" key
> 
> View attachment 347643


If the key is embedded you don’t need a key for the install. If it does ask for a key say you don’t have one and continue with the install. It will ask you to pick version. Make sure you pick the version the laptop came with. Once Windows is installed activate it and it will use the embedded key. Usually you don’t even have activate it. It will activate as soon as it gets an Internet connection,


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> @Electraglide , do a dual boot. Partition your HDD install Win8 on one and win10 on the other. At boot you will have 30 seconds to decide which version you want to run. When you attempt to install Win10 with 8 already installed it will give you the option to upgrade or do a clean install. Pick clean install then pick the partition you want 10 to be on. When you boot up you will have 30 seconds to decide which version you want to run.


From the looks of it the HDD was either completely wiped or was replaced as there is no factory recovery portion on it. I am now in the process of making a USB boot thing and will go for a clean install of hopefully not the upgrade and hopefully I can get into the bios., it the laptop will boot from USB before going to boot from HDD. Might have to pull the HDD and put it in an enclosure to install windows.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> Another thing you can try but you need another computer and a large 32GB to 64GB USB stick. Use rufus to burn theISO image of windows onto the USB stick then tell the offending computer to run windows from the USB. It won't install anything, it will literally run Windows using the USB as the hard drive. It will be slow, but it will give you access to the hard drive.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Sorry, got busy and am just getting to this stuff now.

I don't have a USB stick large enough (although I could get one), but I do have the ISO image of Windows on a CD. Would that work the same as the USB version?


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Kerry Brown said:


> It will take a Windows 7 or 8 key. You can use the key that cane with the laptop. If there is no key with the laptop it is probably embedded in the BIOS which will work fine. It will do a clean install or if you start the process from within Windows an upgrade. If you already have 10 on it boot from the media and erase all the partitions and do a full install. Make sure when it asks you pick the same version as you had on the laptop, e.g. home or pro. Once Windows is installed and connected to the Internet it will automatically activate with the key from the previous activation.


Problem being among other things I can't get into the bios on the one laptop that I want to do an install on. I can check on the win 7 laptop to see if I can find a key but it was a win 10 upgrade that I restored to win 7.. Not too sure if I can get into the bios on this one or not. Also not sure at the moment what win 10 is on the laptop I want to do a clean install on other than it's an upgrade.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

BlueRocker said:


> Use these keys if you think you have an "embedded" key
> 
> View attachment 347643


Thanks I'll give those a try.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

Electraglide said:


> A laptop HDD or a desktop one. Enclosures for both are available every where, quick and cheap and are better in my opinion than cables plus when you're done you can make up a portable HDD. A crack in the shell usually doesn't create a problem with the laptop.
> Note: What brand and model of laptop do you have and was it originally a win 10 machine?



It is a Lenovo Thinkpad. I believe it was originally Windows 8, I downgraded to 7, and then went up to 10.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

What a pain in the ass.

After disabling recovery, I keep getting to that error message. I can manage to get it back to the point at which it asks for advanced options, but now it comes up with my Gmail address and asks for my password to that. No matter how many times I input it, the damned thing tells me my password is wrong despite the fact that I entered it for Gmail ten minutes ago and it worked fine.


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

Electraglide said:


> Problem being among other things I can't get into the bios on the one laptop that I want to do an install on. I can check on the win 7 laptop to see if I can find a key but it was a win 10 upgrade that I restored to win 7.. Not too sure if I can get into the bios on this one or not. Also not sure at the moment what win 10 is on the laptop I want to do a clean install on other than it's an upgrade.


You can’t get to the key in the BIOS. If it is there Windows will see it. Also if Windows 10 has ever been activated on that computer Microsoft has a hash built from the hardware information. It will automatically activate if you pick the correct version.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

colchar said:


> It is a Lenovo Thinkpad. I believe it was originally Windows 8, I downgraded to 7, and then went up to 10.


I'm on a T420 Lenovo Thinkpad....it started out with win 7 and was upgraded to win 10. The same place did the win 10 upgrade on the laptop that has been doing a fresh install. An Asus X55U that was originally win 8. I put the win 10 install on a USB drive but the laptop won't boot from USB and I can't get into Bios to change that so it's doing an install from the link Kerry posted. It was doing that thru wifi but that was slow so now it's connected via hardwire which is a little faster but it's still taken 3 1/2 hrs so far....there's only 18% of the updates installed so far. Gonna be a long night. I just took a quick look 'cause you said some .dll files were missing.....there's a lot of them on this Lenovo, both on windows and the win 10 upgrade.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@colchar i forgot to tell you to try this. Boot into safe mode from command prompt

bcdedit /set {default} safeboot minimal and press Enter. From there you can copy your files from the hdd to your usb stick, then do a clean install of windows....Assuming you know your dos commands.

C:\Windows>COPY C:\_. _ D:\Folder-1 would copy all files in the C directory to Folder-1 on the D drive.... Just make sure you have created the folder on the D drive first. Obviously substitute D for your USB stick drive letter. 




You also mentioned you are being asked for a username and password. Have you tried leaving them blank and hit enter?


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Electraglide said:


> From the looks of it the HDD was either completely wiped or was replaced as there is no factory recovery portion on it. I am now in the process of making a USB boot thing and will go for a clean install of hopefully not the upgrade and hopefully I can get into the bios., it the laptop will boot from USB before going to boot from HDD. Might have to pull the HDD and put it in an enclosure to install windows.


I'm not familiar with windows 8 so what I would do is install Windows 10 first. So install windows 10.

After you boot up you can go to control Panel and find disk management. Or use your search function on the task bar and search "create and format disk partitions" select it. Click on the C drive on disk one, it might be disk 0 depending on your setup. ( it should already have a few partitions on it from the install.) Right click on C (highlighted yellow below) and select shrink drive. If you have a 500gb drive shrink it to 250. When that is done you can right click on the blank space (Unallocated space) and make a simple drive and it will ask you to enter a size. Make it 250GB assuming that is half the size ( it should able close to the size of the other half) . Format the new drive and assign a drive letter to it. It may tell you the drive is not active. if so right click and select make active. Then continue.
Install windows 8 on the new partition. When that is done, every time you boot you will have 30 seconds to decide which version of windows you want. if you don't pick it will select whichever of the 2 was installed first. I said 10 first because as I said i don;t know how to manage hard drives with windows 8 but if it is the same you can install 8 then partition the install 10....

You can see on my C disk I have made a tiny booboo and i have a few MB of unallocated space. If I click on the C drive and pick extend instead of shrink it will not work because the unallocated space is in the wrong spot. But I could extend the 100MB partition by that 15MB because it is in the correct position... The unallocated space must end up to the right of the allocated space for it to work. 

Here is the screen. Right click, shrink, create new simple volume, assign drive letter mark as active. You now have 2 partitions. So now when you install the second copy of Windows it should ask you which partition/drive you want to install it on.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> @colchar i forgot to tell you to try this. Boot into safe mode from command prompt
> 
> bcdedit /set {default} safeboot minimal and press Enter. From there you can copy your files from the hdd to your usb stick, then do a clean install of windows....Assuming you know your dos commands.
> 
> ...



It wouldn't accept my password to give me access to the command prompt, so I removed the hard drive and copied over all of my files. As soon as I get some time today I will reinstall the drive and then either repair Windows or just reload it from scratch. I have recovery CDs, an ISO CD, and you can download the operating system from Microsoft so I have three options for what to do next.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> I'm not familiar with windows 8 so what I would do is install Windows 10 first. So install windows 10.
> 
> After you boot up you can go to control Panel and find disk management. Or use your search function on the task bar and search "create and format disk partitions" select it. Click on the C drive on disk one, it might be disk 0 depending on your setup. ( it should already have a few partitions on it from the install.) Right click on C (highlighted yellow below) and select shrink drive. If you have a 500gb drive shrink it to 250. When that is done you can right click on the blank space (Unallocated space) and make a simple drive and it will ask you to enter a size. Make it 250GB assuming that is half the size ( it should able close to the size of the other half) . Format the new drive and assign a drive letter to it. It may tell you the drive is not active. if so right click and select make active. Then continue.
> Install windows 8 on the new partition. When that is done, every time you boot you will have 30 seconds to decide which version of windows you want. if you don't pick it will select whichever of the 2 was installed first. I said 10 first because as I said i don;t know how to manage hard drives with windows 8 but if it is the same you can install 8 then partition the install 10....
> ...


Just one little problem, there is no way I can install anything except from online. The optical drive isn't recognized, can't change the boot order, it won't install from the usb download tool if I click on set up, and doing an install from the download windows 10 page get's me right back to where I started out. Checking the HDD thru various forms including disk managment shows there is no recovery partition on C: BTW I tried the shrink etc. thing on the HDD in the portable and I now have 5 partitions, 3 of which are small. Plus, I don't have a copy of 8 in any form if I could install it. My next option is to pick up a new HDD with nothing on it and see what happens there. Might be able to get into boot mode that way to change things. While I'm at it I'll see what software there is at whatever store I go to for de-partitioning HDDs. 


knight_yyz said:


> @colchar i forgot to tell you to try this. Boot into safe mode from command prompt
> 
> bcdedit /set {default} safeboot minimal and press Enter. From there you can copy your files from the hdd to your usb stick, then do a clean install of windows....Assuming you know your dos commands.
> 
> ...


Finding out your username and password. Control Panel, User Accounts (that will tell you the admin user name). Make changes to my acct, sign in will let you set up or change the password.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@Electraglide do you have any ISO's? If not go to your second computer and put the disk in the drive. Go to my computer and right click on the drive. Select "create ISO image" Save it if it asks you to. Download Rufus, it's free and simple to use. Open rufus. Insert a USB stick into a slot. In rufus the device is the Location of your USB stick. Boot Selection is the ISO file you just created. Click on the green arrow and browse the ISO and select it.... You can change the volume label if you want but not necessary. Reboot your computer and it should bring up the windows install screen. Delete all partitions. Make a new simple drive as large as it will allow which is the max size of your HDD. Set the partition as active and install windows to that new fresh drive. Then partition the drive. Do the same thing for the other version of Windows. Make an ISO using rufus. To install, pick the second partition. You now have dual boot win 10 and Win7/8 or whatever version you want. Hell you can make Unbuntu or any version of linux your second boot. You can make it a triple or quadruple if you have enough room for that many partitions.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> @Electraglide do you have any ISO's? If not go to your second computer and put the disk in the drive. Go to my computer and right click on the drive. Select "create ISO image" Save it if it asks you to. Download Rufus, it's free and simple to use. Open rufus. Insert a USB stick into a slot. n rufus the device is the Location of your USB stick. Boot Selection is the ISO file you just created. Point to it.... You can change the volume label if you want but not necessary. Reboot your computer and it should bring up the windows install screen. Delete all partitions. Make a new simple drive as large as it will allow which is the max size of your HDD. Set the partition as active and install windows to that new fresh drive. Then partition the drive. Do the same thing for the other version of Windows. Make an ISO using rufus. To install, pick the second partition. You now have dual boot win 10 and Win7/8 or whatever version you want. Hell you can make Unbuntu or any version of linux your second boot. You can make it a triple or quadruple if you have enough room for that many partitions.
> 
> 
> View attachment 347797


As I have said, that doesn't help. With the HDD that's in the laptop right now with win 10 on it the optical drive is not recognized....might as well not be there and it will not boot from USB. As far as deleting the partitions I prefer to have software on a disk. Also would prefer not to have win 10 if possible so might have to do some surfing to find that tho I do have Vista. Might get in touch with Asus to see if I can get the original set up for the laptop. I wonder if you can get a windows computer to run an apple os like you can get a macbook to run windows. The problem is now getting interesting.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@colchar You want to copy files from your "fried" (for lack of a better term) drive to another drive.... Go to command prompt.

You are now at command prompt. 









Type CD\

I have a file on my hard drive called assholes.jpg. Let's look for it

Type dir assholes.jpg /s /p

It will take a few minutes to find it. You will get these results... ( the /p forces it to pause after every file it finds named asshole) hit enter to find next file named assholes until all are found.










Depending on the size or your USB stick and the size of the windows install, you could just copy every single file on c to your usb drive.









assuming C is your main drive and D:\mysavedfiles is your USB stick location

So if I want to copy assholes.jpg from C to D, I need to type this exactly quotes included then enter. If you did it wrong you will get a syntax error.









Then follow the instructions I gave electraglide on how to install windows without an optical drive


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@Electraglide , you do not need an optical drive to install windows! You do need a second computer to make the USB bootable though. Then it will install from the USB. If you can;t change your BIOS settings try the F12 key right after the power button is hit. Keep hitting it repeatedly. It should bring you to a boot menu. Then select boot from USB, or it may only show the drive letters. Select the correct drive letter for your dev My Dell has no optical drive but I have Windows 10 ISO on a USB stick. Any computer I stick that USB into will try to install windows if run from boot.

You say nothing happens when you put a USB stick in your computer at boot. What is on that USB drive right now? The prgram on there must be bootable. Thats why you need Rufus first. Not to be sarcastic but If i stick a USB stick in a slot and it is full of jpeg's or videos the computer will not see an operating system on the USB and will boot from the next drive on the list.

Try tice.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> @colchar You want to copy files from your "fried" (for lack of a better term) drive to another drive.... Go to command prompt.
> 
> You are now at command prompt. C:\users\"your username" no quotes
> 
> ...



The files have been copied, so they are nice and safe. I will also copy them onto an external drive for good measure.

I cannot get to the command prompt. It keeps asking for my Gmail password, but when I type it in it tells me that it is incorrect. Now that my files are safe, I will try the repair function (if I can get it to work without a password). If that fails, I will install Windows from recovery discs or the ISO disc.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@colchar Have you tried wailing on the F8 key during boot? Keep slamming it after you see the logo. You should see a list of options. Or it may be Fn+F8 if you have a Fn key. usually blue or red

F2 for Bios F8 for Advanced Startup options. F12 to see the boot menu. with F12 you can select USB. any of these keys should work immediately after boot screen, but I normally start hitting them during the boot logo just to be safe. You may have to make a few attempts.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> @Electraglide , you do not need an optical drive to install windows! You do need a second computer to make the USB bootable though. Then it will install from the USB. If you can;t change your BIOS settings then I have no idea what you can do. My Dell has no optical drive but I have Windows 10 ISO on a USB stick. Any computer I stick that USB into will try to install windows if run from boot.
> 
> You say nothing happens when you put a USB stick in your computer at boot. What is on that USB drive right now? The prgram on there must be bootable. Thats why you need Rufus first.


The USB drive I have was made from this site so I assume it's bootable. Download Windows 10
The problem is is that the laptop boots from the HDD first and there is no way I can change the boot order with a HDD that has an OS on it in the laptop. I can not get into the Bios/Boot Mode to change anything. There is supposed to be a way of getting into the Bios thru settings, 



 but when I get to the advanced part the link to get to the UEFI Firmware Settings is missing. I am now going to go and buy a regular HDD and hopefully I can get into and change the bios/boot order that way. Hopefully I can get the optical drive recognized too. It's a PIA not too have one....neither win 10 laptop will recognize my portable for some reason. Somewhere along the way someone put a solid state drive in and that could be part of the problem. Among other things it's slow. Anyway, the problem is getting interesting.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@elctraglide hit the F12 key repeatedly at boot. What happens? what happens if you hit F2 repeatedly? 
I followed your link and saw two download buttons. 
Check your downloads folder you should have either MediaCreationTool.exe or Windows10Upgrade.exe. Unfortunately, neither of these is bootable from a USB stick. Both those files need to be double clicked and run from the folder. if you downloaded these from computer A and put them on a USB stick and put it in computer B it won't do anything. You need to make a bootable ISO.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> @colchar Have you tried wailing on the F8 key during boot? Keep slamming it after you see the logo. You should see a list of options. Or it may be Fn+F8 if you have a Fn key. usually blue or red
> 
> F2 for Bios F8 for Advanced Startup options. F12 to see the boot menu. with F12 you can select USB. any of these keys should work immediately after boot screen, but I normally start hitting them during the boot logo just to be safe. You may have to make a few attempts.



Yeah. Even going into the repair function requires a password. It shows my Gmail email address, and tells me I need to input the password for that account. Every time I do, it tells me it is incorrect. Thinking I might have changed my Gmail password and had simply forgotten that I had done so, I checked the 'show password' box when accessing Gmail on my desktop. But nope, I had the password correct every time. Despite that, it tells me that it is incorrect. 

Fuck it, I'm going to reload Windows.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@colchar what happens if you delete the email address and leave it all blank? IE no username or password? If you are setup with an admin account (ie you have to login to windows at startup and after screen saver, you want to use those credentials. as in the pic below) If you don't have a username and password, ie no screen after bootup try leaving the repair password blank. 

If you try to buy an app on win10 it will ask you to sign up for a Microsoft Account. It may want you to enter those credentials. I got rid of mine because it was pain in the ass. There is absolutely no reason for windows repair to ask you for your Gmail password.... but it may be asking you for the Microsoft password, or it want's your admin password.... You may have misunderstood enter email and password and now every time you get to that screen windows is supplying the last address entered.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> @colchar what happens if you delete the email address and leave it all blank? IE no username or password? If you are setup with an admin account (ie you have to login to windows at startup and after screen saver, you want to use those credentials. as in the pic below) If you don't have a username and password, ie no screen after bootup try leaving the repair password blank. It may be supplying your gmail account because you used it for Microsoft Account and is getting the 2 confused. You do not need gmail to access Windows.
> 
> View attachment 347817



I am still stuck in the repair loop, and this is happening when I go into the advanced options screen (the one that gives you various options for what you would like to do). No matter which option I choose, it asks for the password. The email address is provided as part of the instructions, so it is not possible to delete it. 

I will try to snap pictures of the screens to show exactly what i mean.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

There is absolutely no reason for windows to ask you for your Gmail password unless you used your Gmail to set up your Microsoft Account. Maybe you used your gmail to sign up with Microsoft but used a different password? Go to your web browser and search for the Microsoft password if you have one, then click on the eye to make it visible. That's the only explanation i can think of. Gmail and Windows are two entirely different entities. that would be the same as Guitars Canada asking me for my yahoo password....


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

It may be asking you for this password. so if you signed in here with [email protected] but picked a different password than you use for actual Gmail then that is the problem


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@Electraglide if you put the USB stick in a working computer, what is on it? .exe files? .iso file? you should see something at least. I'll post a pic in a minute


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> There is absolutely no reason for windows to ask you for your Gmail password unless you used your Gmail to set up your Microsoft Account. Maybe you used your gmail to sign up with Microsoft but used a different password? Go to your web browser and search for the Microsoft password if you have one, then click on the eye to make it visible. That's the only explanation i can think of. Gmail and Windows are two entirely different entities. that would be the same as Guitars Canada asking me for my yahoo password....



I completely agree that there is no reason for Windows to ask for my Gmail password, which is what makes it all the more confusing.



Here are photos of the sequence as it starts up:




















I press 'Esc' and it then follows this sequence.





















For every one of the options shown below, it will ask for my Gmail password.











Instead of going into those advanced options I have chosen to go into repair, and this is the sequence.











This is the next screen where it asks for the password (as it does for the other six advanced options).


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

Use the same password you use to logon to the computer at bootup.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

Kerry Brown said:


> Use the same password you use to logon to the computer at bootup.



I tried that one too. In the end, I tried every password that would ever have been used on that computer (I only use four passwords) and it said every one of them was incorrect.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@Electraglide top picture is the iso file as downloaded via a torrent. But if you have the CD/DVD and put it in your optical drive and "create an iso image" you will see something like this... but without the text files....










If you take that image and use Rufus, it will turn that image into this... Notice the title on the USb stick has a funky code and is not the same title as the iso











If I put this stick in any computer in my house it will immediately try to install Windows...


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

colchar said:


> I tried that one too. In the end, I tried every password that would ever have been used on that computer (I only use four passwords) and it said every one of them was incorrect.


Open your browser. Click the 3 dots.... Click settings, click passwords. 20 bucks it's one of the two shown. If not, I am stumped.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> Open your browser. Click the 3 dots.... Click settings, click passwords. 20 bucks it's one of the two shown. If not, I am stumped.
> 
> View attachment 347833



Turns out there were five passwords that I use, not four. But they all failed.

I have to get ready to get out of here for a couple of hours. Later tonight I will try reloading Windows.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

By the way, special thanks to @knight_yyz for all of the help in this thread. I owe you a bottle.


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

colchar said:


> Turns out there were five passwords that I use, not four. But they all failed.
> 
> I have to get ready to get out of here for a couple of hours. Later tonight I will try reloading Windows.


There are ways to activate the hidden administrator account or change a user account password but that is beyond the scope of a walk through on a guitar forum. You have to boot from a Linux DVD or USB drive then edit the files Windows builds the registry from. If you don’t know exactly what you are doing you could make the problem worse.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

He's got the files he needed so fresh install is the best next step.


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

knight_yyz said:


> He's got the files he needed so fresh install is the best next step.


I totally agree with this. If you don’t have any data you need, wipe the drive and do a clean install. Microsoft has made it very easy. They supply methods to make bootable media. If the computer has previously had Windows 10 activated on it you don’t need a key. It will automatically activate from a hash of the hardware that Microsoft stored the first time it was activated. If it only had Windows 7 or 8 those keys can be used. They want everyone on Windows 10 and make easy and free to upgrade old computers. Older versions of Windows are too easily turned into zombies on the Internet causing everyone problems.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> @Electraglide top picture is the iso file as downloaded via a torrent. But if you have the CD/DVD and put it in your optical drive and "create an iso image" you will see something like this... but without the text files....
> View attachment 347830
> 
> 
> ...


I get the same 8 folders etc as your usb drive but just for giggles I'm making up another USB drive. Not too sure what it's called. When it is ready I will put the 1T HDD I have in the laptop, put the USB drive in and turn the laptop on....and hope it works or else the laptop will get what we called back in the day a Hard Re-Boot. Then I will go back to Value Village and hope the old Toshiba laptop running win 95 is still there. Looks just like this except it doesn't have the floppy drive. 770 mb HDD and 8 mb dram. No mouse but it fired up right away and works quite nicely.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

colchar said:


> I completely agree that there is no reason for Windows to ask for my Gmail password, which is what makes it all the more confusing.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You might have to go into user and re install your password...then give that password when it asks for a reset. No need to change you user name. I get the same pics and as you got in the Advance Options there is a link missing that would enable a person to reset the boot sequence. As for why they ask for your password, is your email address your user name? They are microsoft and that's all the reason they need same as a lot of the time when I want to change something or do something on any of my apple products I have to provide my itunes id complete with password.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

Fuck this, I'm buying a Mac.

I tried loading Windows using the ISO disc, but nothing happened. I then tried the recovery discs and it seemed to be working. After a couple of minutes it asked me to insert a driver (and something else) disc. I tried each of the other four recovery discs, and none of them were the right one. So I said screw it, and decided to start over and to repair the Windows partition rather than doing a clean install. But the recovery discs had gotten things far enough that that was no longer possible.

I am now loading Windows using my trusty old Windows 7 disc and everything is going fine. I was thinking that once this was loaded I would upgrade to Windows 10 again, but I am sick of it. I am also tired of some sort of major problem, which necessitates a reinstall, cropping up 2-4 years. So fuck it, I'm going over to the dark side. If they are more user friendly then count me in for at least giving them a try.

I'll use my laptop running Windows 7 until the Mac arrives. I can get one from Best Buy in a day or two, but can save about $150 going through Apple's educational pricing program so will do that and will just accept that it will take about two weeks to arrive from Apple (none of their stores have the model I am looking at available for pickup).

Edited to add: Now the fucking thing is telling me that my Windows 7 product key is invalid!!! I'm reading it off the label on the sleeve that the disc came in for fuck sakes! Microsoft can go fuck itself, I'm done.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Kerry Brown said:


> There are ways to activate the hidden administrator account or change a user account password but that is beyond the scope of a walk through on a guitar forum. You have to boot from a Linux DVD or USB drive then edit the files Windows builds the registry from. If you don’t know exactly what you are doing you could make the problem worse.


Doesn't Contol Panel, User Accounts, Make changes to my account in PC, Sign In Options and go from there help. It told me my acct. didn't have a password so I added the same password over again. Worked and that's the password that was accepted.




__





Windows sign-in options and account protection


Learn about sign-in options, including Windows Hello, which lets you sign in more securely using your face or fingerprint instead of a password.




support.microsoft.com






colchar said:


> Fuck this, I'm buying a Mac.
> 
> I tried loading Windows using the ISO disc, but nothing happened. I then tried the recovery discs and it seemed to be working. After a couple of minutes it asked me to insert a driver (and something else) disc. I tried each of the other four recovery discs, and none of them were the right one. So I said screw it, and decided to start over and to repair the Windows partition rather than doing a clean install. But the recovery discs had gotten things far enough that that was no longer possible.
> 
> ...


That's why I have the win 7 laptop. The macbooks are just toys. Finally got win 10 on the one laptop. 1, had to change the format on the usb drive from NFTS to FAT32. 2. Ended up making the USB ISO drive on the win 7 machine. That was the third time. 3. found out the Asus machine was particular about which usb port the usb drive was in. Didn't work the one way but when I swapped the mouse and the usb drive things started to work. 4. Found out the 1T drive was a MBS partition....doesn't work. Deleted that and it worked. 5. It was a clean HDD, formatted NFTS with no partitions. 6. Had the laptop plugged in and hard wired to the internet. Finally got to the point where I was answering questions.....no to almost all of them. I can now get into bios via settings but the optical drive doesn't show up. That's it for tonight.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

I have been running 10 on 3 machines since 10 came out and the only problem I have ever had was the boot sector became corrupt on my laptop. . Went into command prompt , ran a few commands and everything was fine. No blue screens or black screens of death. My main computer that I am using now has even been debloated, so no cortana and a bunch of other stuff. Runs a little faster too. It also disables Windows updates but allows security updates. 

If you're near Hamilton I could probably get the Lenovo working for you in a few hours



@Electraglide , Do you have DVD/CD_ROM in your drevice manager list?
Have you gone to device manager to try and update the drivers for the optical drive? Win10 may not support it, but there may be OEM drivers which work on Windows.... Uninstall the old driver. Reboot and let windows try to find the proper driver. If not try your OEM website and see if they have an update then go back to device manager and tell it to install the OEM software.
Also in Device manager, look for IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and delete all ATA channel 0 and ATA channel 1 and all Standard dual PCI IDE controller . Reboot. try the optical drive again

If you can get into the BIOS make sure your optical drive is listed. If not look for anything that says Legacy. If Legacy is checked change it to UEFI. Or if it is UEFI change it to legacy

You may have to update the BIOS. Make sure you have the latest version.

On My old DEll 6540, the optical drive does not show up in my list of drives until I put a CD in the drive.

You can also try opening command prompt and type *reg.exe add “HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Controller0” /f /v EnumDevice1 /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000001*

If worst comes to worst and you absolutely must have an optical drive an external USB model should work normally.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Dell has a software download that will scan your system and tell you what drivers need updating. Go to yur OEM website and see if there is something similar. Dell is telling me my latop has 8 driver updates so I am upgrading now. I'll see if my DVD shows up after that. 

Question, is your optical drive removeable? If so, do you get the Windows chime when you remove it and put it back in?


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> I have been running 10 on 3 machines since 10 came out and the only problem I have ever had was the boot sector became corrupt on my laptop. . Went into command prompt , ran a few commands and everything was fine. No blue screens or black screens of death. My main computer that I am using now has even been debloated, so no cortana and a bunch of other stuff. Runs a little faster too. It also disables Windows updates but allows security updates.


I was mostly happy with Windows 10, until this happened. But Windows seems to go through this cycle regularly - works fine then big problem - so I am frustrated enough to try something different. 

Any problems that come up might be easy enough for you to fix, but for someone as technologically inept as myself it isn't that easy.





> If you're near Hamilton I could probably get the Lenovo working for you in a few hours



Thanks for the offer, but I think I am set on at least giving Macs a try.

If I don't like them then I'm going full Amish and to hell with computers altogether.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Ok, My Dell is now showing that I have an optical drive whether there is a CD\DVD in their or not. When I was in the BIOS the settings under Boot Sequence I had to choose between using Legacy or UEFI. It was set to legacy. I switched it to UEFI and now I can see the drive. My laptop was built in 2013 and running debloated Win10 on a 4th gen i5-4310m cpu and 8gb ram


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> I have been running 10 on 3 machines since 10 came out and the only problem I have ever had was the boot sector became corrupt on my laptop. . Went into command prompt , ran a few commands and everything was fine. No blue screens or black screens of death. My main computer that I am using now has even been debloated, so no cortana and a bunch of other stuff. Runs a little faster too. It also disables Windows updates but allows security updates.
> 
> If you're near Hamilton I could probably get the Lenovo working for you in a few hours
> 
> ...


Even with a fresh install of win 10 on a clean and empty HDD there is no DVD/optical drive with or without a dvd in it. There are no drivers to uninstall and re install and Asus doesn't have any ones for win 10. When I got my Dell it had the win 10 upgrade and the optical drive did not show up anywhere but change the OS back to win 7 and everything works like a charm. I have the same problem with this Lenovo....no optical drive, drivers, you name it and it also will not recognize my portable optical drive even after I downloaded the "win 10" drivers. That also works quite nicely on my Dell. And to really put the iceing on the cake I fire upr the Asus this morning and it tells me that the product code that worked last night won't work now and I am limited in what to do so: Format and reinstall win 10 ISO on a usb drive. Pull and format the HDD. Luckily I was able to change the boot order by going thru settings. The optical drive does show up there but I have no way of telling that it works. Put everything back together and re;install but as win 10 home.....hopefully it works this time and accepts the product key.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> Dell has a software download that will scan your system and tell you what drivers need updating. Go to yur OEM website and see if there is something similar. Dell is telling me my latop has 8 driver updates so I am upgrading now. I'll see if my DVD shows up after that.
> 
> Question, is your optical drive removeable? If so, do you get the Windows chime when you remove it and put it back in?


I pulled the optical drive on the Lenovo and put it back in.....a bit of a job because you have to pull the back off to do that. Nothing. My Dell is the same way, not too sure about the Asus but it probably is too. I've checked for driver updates for the asus and the lenovo....none for win 10. 
Note: Doing an install using win 10 home and a win 10 home product key gives me an activated version. So at least that works.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

I decided to upgrade the Lenovo from Windows 7 to Windows 10 again, but have suffered two crashes (blue screen of death) during the process. I am on my third try, and if this one doesn't work I will stick with Windows 7 on that machine.

I just ordered a Macbook and can pick it up later today. Looks like Windows pushed me into joining the cult............................


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@Electraglide , go to device manager.(right click the start button it is on the list). Do you see the DVD/CD-Rom section? If not hit the button I highlighted in yellow in the pic below. It will force the laptop to scan for new devices. 
If you still don't see it scroll down to instructions under the pic. 

If it is in the list right click on it. You will have a few options depending on the state of the drive. First is update driver. Second should be disable. But in your case I am wondering if it says enable. If you see enable select it. If you see disable, use the next selection uninstall. When done reboot. Go to my PC and see if the drive shows up.













If none of that works go to your search bar on the task bar and type troubleshoot settings. Click on troubleshoot settings and open. A new window pops up. Scroll down and select video playback. then run the troubleshooter. Follow the prompts

Last thing to try is enter the BIOS and look for boot selection. Cliik on that and see if you see anything that says legacy. Change that setting to the opposite of what it is now. If legacy is enabled, disable it. or vice versa and try again.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@colchar open win7 settings then click on system, then click on storage. Brings you to something like this










click on temporary files. new window opens











You'll see windows update cleanup and Windows upgrade log files selected. There are more categories in that list than I can screen capture. Select every possible option and then hit remove files. Win 10 downloads those files at upgrade. Those files stay forever until deleted. if they are corrupt win10 won't notice, and since they are already there, it won't try to redownload them after a BSD, it will try to use them. So delete all and start fresh.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> @colchar are you using an authentic Win10 disk or an image ?
> 
> Something you can try is after win 7 is installed delete your temp folder. Then try upgrading to 10. 10 uploads drivers to temp folder. they may be corrupt. so make sure there is no files at upgrade
> 
> or can you do a clean install? I would remove 7 and try a fresh install of 10.


It is an ISO disc, but it was created using a download from the Microsoft website.

I am doing a clean install. It gave the option to delete everything, so I did. Things seem to be going OK this time (famous last words!). It is currently at 60%, which is much further than it got on the previous two tries.

But the Macbook is bought and paid for so even if I get the Lenovo up and running properly, I'll also have a Mac. Oh well, its only money right? Plus, the two crashes worry me as I need a computer with a camera and mic for work. I could have saved money buy just buying those for my desktop, but that would have tied me to a specific desk whereas a laptop gives me more freedom.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

colchar said:


> I was mostly happy with Windows 10, until this happened. But Windows seems to go through this cycle regularly - works fine then big problem - so I am frustrated enough to try something different.
> 
> Any problems that come up might be easy enough for you to fix, but for someone as technologically inept as myself it isn't that easy.
> 
> ...


I know where there's a old toshiba running '95. It plays CDs so you'd at least have tunes and if anything screws up it's heavy enough to do some damage when you throw it. 
When 10 came out the IT people where my ex worked did up some laptops and we tried them for a while. It was at best just OK then and hasn't got any better and as you say evey once in a while there's a problem. As far as the Amish go, saw a documentary not that long ago about a kid....in his late 20's.....who went to apprentice with a family who made furniture....very nice shop with modern equipment, tunes playing in the background, nice office with a couple of computers and cell phones the full 9 yards. But they still had the bowl haircuts and drove horse and buggies tho I did see one 3 ton flatdeck. 
Biggest problem I have with macs....imacs and macbooks....aside from their OS doesn't make sense to me is that you can only update the OS so far. The one macbook I have is at Snow Leapord and the other is High Sierra.....same with ipads, you can only go so far. Plus a lot of times the windows version of software won't run on them and there is no apple version


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> @Electraglide , go to device manager.(right click the start button it is on the list). Do you see the DVD/CD-Rom section? If not hit the button I highlighted in yellow in the pic below. It will force the laptop to scan for new devices.
> If you still don't see it scroll down to instructions under the pic.
> 
> If it is in the list right click on it. You will have a few options depending on the state of the drive. First is update driver. Second should be disable. But in your case I am wondering if it says enable. If you see enable select it. If you see disable, use the next selection uninstall. When done reboot. Go to my PC and see if the drive shows up.
> ...


Done that, done that, done that....a few times. As far as either laptop is concerned, with win 10 there is no such thing a an optical drive except as a boot source....as far as I know the bios has nothing to do with the OS. 
The Asus seems to be working so far so once it is set up this lenovo is going back to 7.....I think I can factory restore it, I'll have to see. I'll bet as soon as that happens the optical drive will show up.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Would you like the code to debloat 10? You can remove Cortana for starters. You have the option to disable windows updates (if it;s working why update?) or to only allow security updates. You do this through PowerShell NOT command line. Type PowerShell in your windows search bar then choose run as an administrator. Copy the line below and right click in power shell. 

iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://git.io/JJ8R4'))


This window pops up.









Under program installation you will see12 programs. If you want to install any of them click on install chocolatey. When it is finished installing click the install button for the software you need. Note if you already have that software don't bother.

Under system tweaks. To Remove Cortana click on it. To remove OneDrive click on it. 

Under Security select the low or high depending on your preference. 

Under Windows updates use default or security updates only. 

And last but not least, clicking on Essential Tweaks will remove a ton of crap from windows. Candy Crush, Solitaire and a bunch of other stuff you probably don't need. 


If you don;t like the results....

run powershell as an admin and type (or copy and paste)

iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://git.io/JTbKD'))








For me I just clicked essential tweaks, one drive and cortana. I also selected Security updates only so I will not be informed of any Windows update unless it is a security update. OneDrive uninstall takes a while, be patient....


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

@Electraglide, you can see the ROM in the device manager?


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

Electraglide said:


> I know where there's a old toshiba running '95. It plays CDs so you'd at least have tunes and if anything screws up it's heavy enough to do some damage when you throw it.
> When 10 came out the IT people where my ex worked did up some laptops and we tried them for a while. It was at best just OK then and hasn't got any better and as you say evey once in a while there's a problem. As far as the Amish go, saw a documentary not that long ago about a kid....in his late 20's.....who went to apprentice with a family who made furniture....very nice shop with modern equipment, tunes playing in the background, nice office with a couple of computers and cell phones the full 9 yards. But they still had the bowl haircuts and drove horse and buggies tho I did see one 3 ton flatdeck.


When I lived in Waterloo I knew a lot of Mennonites who lived completely modern lives. There were also a lot of Old order Mennonites around. I used to find it funny to see hitching posts for their horses at the local McDonald's, Dairy Queen, and Sobeys. I think those who went to those businesses must have missed the plot somewhere along the line.






> Biggest problem I have with macs....imacs and macbooks....aside from their OS doesn't make sense to me is that you can only update the OS so far. The one macbook I have is at Snow Leapord and the other is High Sierra.....same with ipads, you can only go so far. Plus a lot of times the windows version of software won't run on them and there is no apple version



I thought you could upgrade perpetually so long as you had the space for the new system?


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

Despite all of the problems yesterday, removing every single one of my files from the hard drive, failed installs of Windows 10, downgrading to Windows 7, and absolutely nothing being done on that install except a clean install upgrade to Windows 10, when Windows 10 started back up again my wallpaper picture (my dog) was sitting on the screen.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> Would you like the code to debloat 10? You can remove Cortana for starters. You have the option to disable windows updates (if it;s working why update?) or to only allow security updates. You do this through PowerShell NOT command line. Type PowerShell in your windows search bar then choose run as an administrator. Copy the line below and right click in power shell.
> 
> iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://git.io/JJ8R4'))
> 
> ...


One of the first things i did after it was up and running was to go into programs and uninstall a bunch of things. Everything that can be tossed has been tossed. No Cortina, no updates unless I go in there and look for them. Everything that is not needed is gone. Firefox is my browser of choice so chrome, edge et al c'st finit. As 10 was setting up I just kept on clicking no to everything it thought I need. No games either.....I shoot pool and play poker the old fashion way. 
It's got to the point now where I'm starting to install things like Malwarebites and Adblocker plus etc..


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

I work with Macs, PCs, and various distros of Linux every day. I probably wipe and reinstall ten or so systems a month. They all have problems. They all need updates at inopportune times. They all have quirks that you need to work around. Upgrading any of them from one major version to another major version almost always leaves crap from the old version that causes weird problems. When changing to new versions you are always better to completely wipe the drive and do a clean install. Mac is the esieast go do this because you can do a complete install over the Internet of the latest version that will run on your hardware. Note what I said there. Once the hardware is around ten years old new versions of MacOS or IOS will not load. Windows PCs are getting better but the process to download and do a clean install is very poorly documented. Once you figure it out it works great if you do a nuke and destroy first. If your hardware is more than five years old you may have to hunt down drivers for hardware like printers, wireless cards, motherboard chipsets, etc. With Linux hire someone who knows what they are doing unless you have a week to kill reading contradicting forum posts and are comfortable with using a command line.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

colchar said:


> When I lived in Waterloo I knew a lot of Mennonites who lived completely modern lives. There were also a lot of Old order Mennonites around. I used to find it funny to see hitching posts for their horses at the local McDonald's, Dairy Queen, and Sobeys. I think those who went to those businesses must have missed the plot somewhere along the line.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nope. Same with ipads etc. . The Mini1 I just got running is OS 9.3.5, it won't update further, same with the ipad 2. My ipad air and mini 2 will update....I bought the air because some of the things I was running on the 2 wouldn't work because the 2 wouldn't update any more. Theoretically I should be able to put High Sierra, which is OS10.13.3 on the A1278 macbook from late 2011onto the A1181 macbook from 2006 that's running Snow Leopard which is 10.6.8 but apple won't let you. They get to a certain point and that's it. I think it's the same if you are running the apple version of windows. Not too sure which macbook you're getting but if it's on here it will tell you what the highest os you can install on it is.
Apple MacBook Pro Specs (All MacBook Pro Tech Specs): EveryMac.com


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

Electraglide said:


> Nope. Same with ipads etc. . The Mini1 I just got running is OS 9.3.5, it won't update further, same with the ipad 2. My ipad air and mini 2 will update....I bought the air because some of the things I was running on the 2 wouldn't work because the 2 wouldn't update any more. Theoretically I should be able to put High Sierra, which is OS10.13.3 on the A1278 macbook from late 2011onto the A1181 macbook from 2006 that's running Snow Leopard which is 10.6.8 but apple won't let you. They get to a certain point and that's it. I think it's the same if you are running the apple version of windows. Not too sure which macbook you're getting but if it's on here it will tell you what the highest os you can install on it is.
> Apple MacBook Pro Specs (All MacBook Pro Tech Specs): EveryMac.com



I got a brand new Macbook Air, so it will have the most current OS installed. I wanted the new M1 chip, so had no choice but to buy new.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Kerry Brown said:


> I work with Macs, PCs, and various distros of Linux every day. I probably wipe and reinstall ten or so systems a month. They all have problems. They all need updates at inopportune times. They all have quirks that you need to work around. Upgrading any of them from one major version to another major version almost always leaves crap from the old version that causes weird problems. When changing to new versions you are always better to completely wipe the drive and do a clean install. Mac is the esieast go do this because you can do a complete install over the Internet of the latest version that will run on your hardware. Note what I said there. Once the hardware is around ten years old new versions of MacOS or IOS will not load. Windows PCs are getting better but the process to download and do a clean install is very poorly documented. Once you figure it out it works great if you do a nuke and destroy first. If your hardware is more than five years old you may have to hunt down drivers for hardware like printers, wireless cards, motherboard chipsets, etc. With Linux hire someone who knows what they are doing unless you have a week to kill reading contradicting forum posts and are comfortable with using a command line.


I did the online install of High Sierra on the 2011 MacBook pro that I built from parts....it doesn't have an optical drive, it has another HDD in it's place. When I got the 2006 MacBook it had a bastardized copy of windows ontop of Tiger. I went on line to try and install high sierra, No luck, can't do it....so I backtracked and after I tried to install Lion with no sucess I saw that someone had Leopard and Snow Leopard discs for sale so I bought them and installed Snow leopard....that's as far as I can go OS wise with that macbook. Then I tried to install Itunes on the 2006 one so I could put music on my iphone 6S....can't install the newest version of itunes and it won't recognize my phone....it will recognize the iphone 5. Had no problem installing the latest itunes on the win 7 laptop, works great. I can remember putting win 7 on an old IBM laptop built for win 98. Had to put in a much larger HDD and more or less overclock it but it did install and it ran. Can't do that with apple. Linx.....tried that once and bound out that laptops don't bounce very good. Biggest problem I've found with win 10 is the one I have right now, it doesn't recognize the optical drive and there are no applicable drivers fo it, especially since it seems new laptops don't have optical drives and a lot of them don't even have HDDs....they all store things in some cloud. Kinda sucks if you're out some where and you don't have internet and you can't watch a DVD. 
Working with clean and empty usb drives and HDDs works nicely but I didn't figure that how the drives were formatted and partitioned would be that important.....and in the case of the Asus didn't figure out which usb port you used was that important too.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

My laptop seems to be working fine again (for the most part...I still haven't tried to install Guitar Pro on it again). 

I can't decide whether to A) keep the Mac and have both; B) return the Mac and buy a Windows laptop so that I am using a system I am familiar with (despite its problems and my frustrations with it); C) return it and just ride my current laptop for as long as I can, thus saving myself $1500.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

colchar said:


> My laptop seems to be working fine again (for the most part...I still haven't tried to install Guitar Pro on it again).
> 
> I can't decide whether to A) keep the Mac and have both; B) return the Mac and buy a Windows laptop so that I am using a system I am familiar with (despite its problems and my frustrations with it); C) return it and just ride my current laptop for as long as I can, thus saving myself $1500.


Save your money for now. I bought a new to me laptop and after setting it up....thank the dog for firefox sync....which included downloading a bunch of software my old laptop began to work no problem. Even the optical drive sort of works, I just have to download a program to see if it will play DVD's. It did read and install the software for an older webcam/camcorder I have. Not too sure what I did to get the old one working but it does. 
As far as working with mac/apple and windows goes, I do it but as I've said the macbooks are basically just for fun.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I'd stay current but ymmv. You got the nice new one, keep it and use it.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

If your current laptop is fast enough for you, I'd say get rid of the mac and keep your money. I have a 4th gen intel and it works fine for everything I need it for. There is no need for the newest generation bleeding edge except maybe for gaming.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

colchar said:


> My laptop seems to be working fine again (for the most part...I still haven't tried to install Guitar Pro on it again).
> 
> I can't decide whether to A) keep the Mac and have both; B) return the Mac and buy a Windows laptop so that I am using a system I am familiar with (despite its problems and my frustrations with it); C) return it and just ride my current laptop for as long as I can, thus saving myself $1500.


Just wondering, how good are you at working with OSX? It can be a hard learning curve.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

Electraglide said:


> Just wondering, how good are you at working with OSX? It can be a hard learning curve.



This is my first Mac.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

So I may have spoken a bit too soon about my laptop. It is acting a little funky, so I am thinking that I should go the new laptop route. The decision now is whether to keep the Mac and learn a new system, or return it and buy another Windows machine.

On another note, I have never used Linux but if my laptop is acting funky I am thinking of loading it up and trying it just for shits and giggles. I downloaded the ISO for it yesterday.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

colchar said:


> So I may have spoken a bit too soon about my laptop. It is acting a little funky, so I am thinking that I should go the new laptop route. The decision now is whether to keep the Mac and learn a new system, or return it and buy another Windows machine.
> 
> On another note, I have never used Linux but if my laptop is acting funky I am thinking of loading it up and trying it just for shits and giggles. I downloaded the ISO for it yesterday.


I'm looking for the iso to take my old one back to win 7. Actually I've found how to do the iso, just need a usable product key. Microsoft says the key that came with the machine is for a factory installed OS so it won't work to make the iso. Who ever installed win 10 on the laptop wiped the HDD first so I can't do a factory reinstall. 
One thing to check is if the programs and hardware you use will work with either a Linux based OS or an OSX.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Why do you need a key to make an ISO.?


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

Electraglide said:


> I'm looking for the iso to take my old one back to win 7. Actually I've found how to do the iso, just need a usable product key. Microsoft says the key that came with the machine is for a factory installed OS so it won't work to make the iso. Who ever installed win 10 on the laptop wiped the HDD first so I can't do a factory reinstall.
> One thing to check is if the programs and hardware you use will work with either a Linux based OS or an OSX.


I haven’t done this for a couple of years now but I used to use OEM keys with a generic Windows 7 install all the time. It would not activate over the Internet but it would activate via phone activation. Sometimes the phone activation was automatic. Every once in a while a live agent would come on and ask how many copies of Windows I had using this key.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

If you go to microsoft.com you can download the Win7 ISO but they won't let you without the key. I'm assuming that is the route he is trying to take. So without a valid key no download. Oh, and it has to be a retail key not an OEM key. I can think of a bunch of ways to get around that. There are many sources for the win7 ISO if you know where to look. 

Burnaware Free, ImgBurn etc will do the trick assuming you have a retail disc. 









Windows 7 Ultimate Product Key For 32-64 bit Working Free Active lifetime (07/2022) - Product Key Latest 2023 | Windows - Microsoft Office


Windows 7 Ultimate Product Key If you look on the internet a working Windows 7 Ultimate product key




iproductkeys.com


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Kerry Brown said:


> I haven’t done this for a couple of years now but I used to use OEM keys with a generic Windows 7 install all the time. It would not activate over the Internet but it would activate via phone activation. Sometimes the phone activation was automatic. Every once in a while a live agent would come on and ask how many copies of Windows I had using this key.


Using this you have to have a product key that windows accepts before you can download the ISO program.,








Windows 7 - Microsoft Lifecycle


Windows 7 follows the Fixed Lifecycle Policy.



www.microsoft.com




So far none I have tried have worked but that's not from the laptop with the win 7 key. That might work.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> If you go to microsoft.com you can download the Win7 ISO but they won't let you without the key. I'm assuming that is the route he is trying to take. So without a valid key no download. Oh, and it has to be a retail key not an OEM key. I can think of a bunch of ways to get around that. There are many sources for the win7 ISO if you know where to look.
> 
> Burnaware Free, ImgBurn etc will do the trick assuming you have a retail disc.
> 
> ...


As soon as I clicked on the win 7 ultimate link my antivirus jumped all over it. Doesn't like it at all so anything like that I'll do from the ThinkPad. Worst comes to worst I can get my son to bring in the portable 3 1/2 floppy drive and the win 98 discs and put 98 on the laptop. I have win 95 on discs but I don't have a 5 1/4 drive that will work with a modern laptop. A Vic 20 yes but I'm not too sure if they will connect.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

Electraglide said:


> I'm looking for the iso to take my old one back to win 7. Actually I've found how to do the iso, just need a usable product key.




Check your PMs, just give me a couple of minutes.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

i posted a plethora of keys above. click on the link they show about 20 at least


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> i posted a plethora of keys above. click on the link they show about 20 at least


If they are in the win 7 ultimate etc. link when I click on it I get a "secure connection failed" message and my anti virus blocks it. Says "Website blocked due to fraud" I've also tried some of those sites like this








[100% Working List] Free Windows 7 Product Key for Windows 32/64 bit [2021]: Activation Methods


[Working List] Free Windows 7 Product Key, Serial Keys & Activation Code for Windows 32/64 bit [2021]: Activation Methods & FAQ's Regarding Windows 7 Product Keys.




voivoinfotech.com




either they set off my antivirus for various reasons or all the keys I've used so far have not been accepted.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

how does copying a key give you a virus alert? Or you get the virus alert by clicking on the link?


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> how does copying a key give you a virus alert? Or you get the virus alert by clicking on the link?


As soon as I opened this thread a window opens up from my antivirus saying "website blocked due to fraud." Has something to do with iproductkeys. I don't have to copy the key or click the link. If I open the link I get this.
"Secure Connection Failed

An error occurred during a connection to iproductkeys.com. SSL received a record that exceeded the maximum permissible length.

Error code: SSL_ERROR_RX_RECORD_TOO_LONG

The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem."
Didn't happen before the link was posted. 
I'm running Malwarebytes Premium 4.3....it works.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Thanks to the guys who PM'd me some keys. The one Laristotle sent worked, I did up an iso dvd and installed win 7 on the laptop this morning. Just finished putting most of the drivers on a usb and now to install some so I can go online with it. It's a good thing it's -20 something degrees out there and snowing.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Weird, i just click on the link again and nothing is telling me there is a problem


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

knight_yyz said:


> Weird, i just click on the link again and nothing is telling me there is a problem


I left this thread, saw that you had just posted and as soon as I opened the thread again I got the "website blocked" window again. While I'm installing the drivers on the Lenovo I'll run the anti-virus on here and see if anything pops up.


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