Nothing will open (programs, files, etc..)

Wolfgang doesn't feel you can do the Clean Reinstall so he will help you complete Dell Factory Recovery.

After it completes you can Clean Up Factory Bloatware to get nearly the performance of a Clean Reinstall.

If for some reason Recovery doesn't run or you don't like the way it turns out I can still help you do the Clean Reinstall. I will be monitoring the thread.

Good luck!

whs said:

Stevethaboss said:

gregrocker said:

If you own those Adobe programs then you'll need to be sure you have their Product Keys and locate the installers to reinstall them. Did you buy them from Dell or elsewhere? I would call them to find out how to secure an installer if you don't have one. Those are expensive programs so you should have preserved their disks and Keys so you could reinstall them.

You said you really don't understand a Clean Reinstall. Did you read the tutorial to try to understand it, because you didn't ask back any questions? You own a copy of Win7 which can either be reinstalled using Dell Recovery which includes a lot of factory bloatware that interferes with Win7, or you can Clean Reinstall just the OS which gives much better performance.
Dell Windows 7 PC Restore
Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

It's your choice. We will help you with whatever you decide.

I want to do the clean install but when i download the thing from the first step it makes me pick a drive and it just opens my cd drive and I have no cd to save it to... I want to use my usb, so i have no idea what to do from step one

This is not going to work for you. As I said, Ideally one would do that if one had all the equipment. But a reinstallation from the recovery partition is going to be a lot easier.

But first you have to secure your product keys and your data. And for that you will need a CD or DVD to burn the Lucid Puppy program.

Maybe you should first go out and buy a few DVDs (not CDs). Those you can then also use to save your data. Here is a small pack you can get at BestBuy:

Dynex 25Pack 16x DVDR Disc Spindle DX-DVDMR25 - Best Buy

Alright so tomorrow I will purchase some of those DVDs from Wallgreens. Then I just follow the puppy steps and I should be good?

You can also burn a Win7 installation DVD for your version using the Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool since you'll need it for repairs, if not reinstall.

Do you have access to an external HDD which you can use as this is the best way to back up files. You can even use the Win7 DVD in that case to Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console.

whs said:

OK, Make sure you read all the prior postings carefully. The important ones are # 20 and # 26. Print those out so that you have them handy.

Then keep the link to this thread so that you can get back to Greg's tutorials. Those are excellent but you will need more time to digest that.

Get back tomorrow if you need help. I will be here.

And in the future don't run without an antivirus program. MSE is free and from Microsoft. That will do the job:

Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Windows

I just bought the DVDs.. I an trying to get this universal usb installer but it doesnt make sense to me. It has directions to choose "mythbuntu" Whatever that is and then the line under it should turn green but mine stays red.. can you help me?

Okay cool. Now I have the lucid puppy on a disc. What do I click now is it boot or initrd with the winrar logo and extract the files ?

whs said:

Forget the Flash drive installer - unless you want to install puppy on the flash drive.

The easier way is when you download the Puppy .iso and burn it to DVD with this program Download ImgBurn 2.5.7.0 - FileHippo.com

Okay cool. Now I have the lucid puppy on a disc. What do I click now is it boot or initrd with the winrar logo and extract the files ?

whs said:

HMM, darn, now you need WinRAR to unzip it. Here are the 2 versions, 32bit and 64bit. Don't know whether you have a 32bit or 64bit system. Pick the one that fits your system: FileHippo.com - Download Free Software

I already have WinRar.. I just extracted it. What's next?