WinXP user bought first desktop Win7 - Win10 Pro

To answer your questions.

Get free revo uninstaller.
It will uninstall apps and possibly things the windows uninstaller will
not uninstall properly

Get free Glary utilities (not just the cleaner) and it will clean up
registry, temp files etc. It can be used to wipe all free space and I
would do that on a garage sale laptop for sure.

I run both without problems and they do clean.
CCleaner is OK too but I think Glary does a better job.
If I run CCleaner first, Glary finds a few more things to clean.

Both cleaners will nag from time to time to upgrade to paid version but
I just ignore that. The are worth the nags I think.

All of these have run many many times without damaging a Win XP, Win 7
Pro or Win 10 desktop or laptop PC that I have.

Well worth the money ! (they are free, lol)

Now for additional cleanup, get free Everything utility.
Use it to find all *.JPG, *.BMP, etc images, audio files *.wav, *.mp3
*.mid etc , movie files *.FLV, *.MP4 etc and make sure you have nothing
that would embarrass you.

Use Glary file wiper (in the utilities) to get rid of them. One wipe is
really enough to do the job. Multiple wipes are not necessary and waste
time.

Good Luck.

On Fri, 5 May 2017 13:35:24 -0000 (UTC), John & Jane Doe wrote:

Only a clean install will work for me I think.

FFS mate, that's about a hundred posts to get to this point; just
get on with it!

On 05/05/2017 15:55, mechanic wrote:
FFS mate, that's about a hundred posts to get to this point; just
get on with it!

How can he? He can't read his digital license from the pictures he
posted. Can't you see it? He posted a picture of his Motherboard but
he can't see his Windows Digital License in it. Now this should be
something to ponder here!!!!!!!!!.

It is all Microsoft's fault to make them mentally challenged.



--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

On 05/05/2017 08:56, Lucifer Morningstar wrote:
There are many programs that can be used to clean up an exsiting
instillation of Windows, such as ccleaner, startup control, virus
scanners.

Don't talk rubbish. Nothing works as effective as clean installation of
Windows. Go back and start sucking people's blood in the company of
"Count Dracula".



--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

Bill wrote in :

Rather than Magical Jelly Bean, I normally use Belarc Advisor, which
gives a lot of extra info about the hardware and software as well as
doing some security checks. One example is the detected Internet
Explorer key which will match the key that Windows 7 Home was running
under when it was updated.

Thanks for the advice to run Belarc Adviser.

It says the BIOS is from 2009:
https://s8.postimg.org/5b6whrped/belarc0_bios_date.jpg

The versions a
"Windows 10 Professional (x64) version 1511 build 10586.545)
Installed in 2016.
https://s23.postimg.org/5kbnjonsr/belarc1_win10date.jpg

And it does have "codes" for:
Microsoft - Internet Explorer
Microsoft - Office Professional 2007
Microsoft - Windows 10 Professional (x64)

Which are the all-important keys to write down & save?
https://s27.postimg.org/r2nw2u0dv/belarc2_swkeys.jpg

Good Guy wrote in news
How can he? He can't read his digital license from the pictures he
posted. Can't you see it? He posted a picture of his Motherboard but
he can't see his Windows Digital License in it. Now this should be
something to ponder here!!!!!!!!!.

I have to admit I don't know what you're saying.
Is there something I should take a picture of on the motherboard?

Paul wrote in news
These are ones I don't mind posting. There are a hundred million
computers using these two. Generic placeholder keys.

VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T (Windows 10 Professional) --- my X79 homebrew
YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7 (Windows 10 Home - multi language) --- my Acer laptop upgrade

Whereas the actual Win7 COA key on the sticker, I won't
be showing you that.

The "8HVX7" one is generic, and appears after a person
does the free upgrade to Win10 Home, from a qualifying OS.
Those keys are backed up with the Digital Entitlement
on the server, which is the "real" and unique identifier.

Here is what my ShowKeys run output:
https://s24.postimg.org/ny4uzpwc5/showkeyplus.gif

Product Name: Windows 10 Pro
Prodict ID: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Installed Key: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
Original Key: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Original Edition: Windows 7 Ultimate Retail
OEM Key: Windows 7 OEM marker present in firmware

What does that puzzle tell us?
Which is the thing I should write down?

On 05/05/2017 18:44, John & Jane Doe wrote:
I have to admit I don't know what you're saying.
Is there something I should take a picture of on the motherboard?

Look forget about pictures because they tell us nothing. Just get on
with the job. Installing Windows 10 is pretty simple these days and you
don't even need a serial number. All existing machines running Windows
10 have a digital License and so users don't need to worry remembering
them. Even all new machines with Windows 10 pre-installed have their
serial numbers in the BIOS so these also make s it easier for users to
wipe the disk clean and start again. It is not possible to clear these
numbers from BIOS.

Just wipe the disk clean and start again. Problem solved. For your
applications you'll need the serial numbers and original DVDs but this
should not be a problem for most people. People are storing tons of
CDs, DVDs and back-ups all over the place. In fact these newsgroups
pride itself in spending all their time doing back-ups. They do
absolutely nothing but back-ups after back-ups.



--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

Good Guy wrote in news
Just wipe the disk clean and start again. Problem solved.

So you're apparently saying the Microsoft Office Professional 2007 that is
part of the existing Windows 10 Pro setup will be re-installed if I just
wipe the disk clean without any effort beforehand to save the correct MS
Office keys?

I don't think anyone else said that was correct.

Being hasty isn't always the right way to go on everything, especially when
things aren't even close to intuitive (or the way they were done prior).

The whole point here was to ask how to do things right, without slipping up
and destroying what could have been re-used.

On 05/05/17 19:02, John & Jane Doe wrote:
Good Guy wrote in news
Just wipe the disk clean and start again. Problem solved.
So you're apparently saying the Microsoft Office Professional 2007 that is
part of the existing Windows 10 Pro setup will be re-installed if I just
wipe the disk clean without any effort beforehand to save the correct MS
Office keys?

That is not what I said. Office of any versions have never been part of
the operating system. There used to be a package called Microsoft Works
but this was deprecated long time ago. The only free versions from
Microsoft is the online version that allows you to use Microsoft Office
latest version free of charge. All you need is a Microsoft Account that
is available free of charge and you can use any operating system
including LinuxJunk.


I don't think anyone else said that was correct.

Good to hear this because it would be a travesty of the truth!!!


Being hasty isn't always the right way to go on everything, especially when
things aren't even close to intuitive (or the way they were done prior).

You have already got about 100 posts so it is not hasty. Windows 10 is
very intuitive for some of us in the know.


The whole point here was to ask how to do things right, without slipping up
and destroying what could have been re-used.

Precisely. All you need is the DVDs for your Apps like Microsoft Office
2007 and their serial number. Is this the only application you use all
the time? If so then the online version is what you need should you
decide not to install anything old on your "new" machine. For email you
can use outlook.com or gmail.com.

What people are saying here is that just talking and discussing here is
not going to get you anywhere. You have to start doing things so that
you can see something on the screeen and then post pictures here if
there are problems. The pictures you have posted are about your
hardware and software. It is no good for us here.


--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

On 05/05/2017 14:48, John & Jane Doe wrote:

How do I know what parts of the key I should redact when posting?

REDACT - who taught you that word?!!!

--
"The important thing is not to stop questioning."
- Albert Einstein

David B. wrote in :

REDACT - who taught you that word?!!!

Origin and Etymology of redact
Middle English, from Latin redactus, past participle of redigere

First Known Use: 15th century
1350-1400; Middle English Latin redàctus (past participle of redigere to
lead back), equivalent to red- red- + àctus, past participle of agere to
lead;

On 05/05/2017 22:58, John & Jane Doe wrote:
David B. wrote in :

REDACT - who taught you that word?!!!

Origin and Etymology of redact
Middle English, from Latin redactus, past participle of redigere

First Known Use: 15th century
1350-1400; Middle English Latin redÃ*ctus (past participle of redigere to
lead back), equivalent to red- red- + Ã*ctus, past participle of agere to
lead;


I repeat: *Who taught YOU that word*?!!!

--
David B.

On Fri, 5 May 2017 13:08:09 -0000 (UTC), John & Jane Doe
wrote:

. . .winston wrote in news
In the meantime, I suspect, you were being asked if you have the Windows 7
Product key.

Yes.

- it should be on a sticker on the machine or included with the material
received when the product was transferred to you.

Thank you for asking clarifying questions because when I bought this
desktop, I was just told it worked, and when it booted up before I bought
it, the only thing I knew to ask was what the password was of the user (she
gave it to me, and I bought it as soon as I was able to log in).

Here is the sticker on the outside of the case which says it's for
"Windows 7 Home Prem OA" with a bunch of numbers on it.
https://s15.postimg.org/8k2gatca3/win7_sticker.jpg

Are any of those numbers supposed to be meaningful to me at this point?

The Windows version and the product key.

On Fri, 5 May 2017 18:18:37 +0100, Good Guy
wrote:

On 05/05/2017 08:56, Lucifer Morningstar wrote:
There are many programs that can be used to clean up an exsiting
instillation of Windows, such as ccleaner, startup control, virus
scanners.

Don't talk rubbish. Nothing works as effective as clean installation of
Windows. Go back and start sucking people's blood in the company of
"Count Dracula".

You're mean! But you are right.
A fresh install means reinstalling programs and changing settings etc.
I did find something that is very useful when doing a fresh install.
Save the profile folder of your browser then restore after reinstall.
That way you get back your start page, stored passwords, history,
and even addons.