Did a clean install of Windows 7 64 bit - problems with everything

For what it's worth, I haven't yet (nor do I intend to). The McAfee site is valuable inasmuch as the website itself reliably causes the display and linkage errors. I most recently attempted to install panda but that didn't work either (the downloader started, downloaded some files, said they were corrupt, and tried to install anyway (with the level of success one might expect)). At present I have no applications installed other than base windows and the few drivers which windows was unable to provide.

Since the Display adapter provided by Windows Update failed, what display adapter do you now have in Device Manager?

If it is Standard VGA this is only a placeholder driver which must be replaced as explained in Clean Reinstall Windows 7. What driver is provided on the Support Downloads webpage for your model Display device? Please provide us a link to that page.

Windows found a driver nVidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti version 9.18.13.4052 and installed that, but seemed to want to install the other "nVidia Graphics Adapter WDDM 1.1, Graphics Adapter WDDM1.2, Graphics Adapter WDDM 1.3 – Nvidia GeForce GTW 750 Ti"

In terms of your question on what the support downloads page says to use, I'm having difficulty finding such a page either on the laptop I'm using to ask these questions or on the main computer (where the windows website is rarely even acknowledging that I'm attempting a search - links I click on are find but entering text into a search box and either pressing enter or clicking the button does nothing). I'm sorry to be so unhelpful but the microsoft website keeps pointing me to pages that don't seem to be what you're talking about.

One windows page eventually pointed me here Graphics Cards - GTX750TI-2GD5 - ASUS but this is a much older driver than the one listed on Nvidia's website.

I followed the instructions in the tutorial until step 7 - the exception being that I was unable to install panda cloud due to the errors described above. I have not begun installing any other applications because I don't want to cause any complicating factors from other software.

What MS website are you trying to access? Your specs say you have a Custom build, so you should have a graphics card, correct? Well if the Display driver delivered by Windows Updates does not work correctly for your display device, then the next stop is the video card's Support Download's webpage to find the driver for your model card.

If you know for sure it uses Nivida drivers then you can also have Nvidia Downloads page scan your PC for the correct driver. Be sure to watch for and click on all the prompts to install the scanner and enabling software needed to do this. NVIDIA Driver Downloads - Automatically Detect NVIDIA Products

Ah, I follow you now. I had originally thought you were talking about some microsoft site with a list of the drivers it provides via windows update and was not finding such a thing.

As I mention earlier in the thread, I had immense difficulty installing this (either the current version or the older version on the manufacturer's dvd), and as more recent advice was that forcing drivers was not a good idea until all else had failed, I didn't do it this iteration. Basically when trying to install these nvidia drivers I get a sequence of errors:

1) while unpacking the files the installer crashes saying "7-Zip error" - this happens at different percentages of unpacking
2) sometimes it gets all the way through that and crashes while installing, leaving one or more component (there is the base driver and 3 3-D related components) uninstalled
3) after 20-30 times (slightly fewer in safe mode) you can get all the way through and it will claim to be properly installed.

I haven't gone through this process on this iteration of my attempted install as earlier comments had suggested I shouldn't force drivers unless necessary, and as at least some of my problems appear also to relate to my internet connection (I can't see how a bad video driver will cause a "bad request" error to come up when I click on a link) it was possible that the graphics driver was not the only or even primary problem.

The nvidia tech support forums indicate that there are 2 possible causes of these problems: 1) the downloaded file is corrupt and needs to be redownloaded (I tend to discount this in this case as both the manufacturer's disk and several download attempts all show this problem) and 2) 3rd party software is interfering - as this has occurred on an otherwise clean install of windows I can only assume that means windows itself, probably something to do with the hardware auto-update - this is why in a previous iteration of installing windows I tried telling windows not to automatically update drivers).

How could you think that I was referring to some MS driver list when the steps couldn't be clearer following Clean Reinstall Windows 7 and are even printed in red so you don't miss exactly how drivers are best handled?

Are you following these steps which assure you get and keep a perfect install as a million others have done without a single complaint? What partitions did you delete and save during install?

You said that Windows Update did deliver one driver for your Display adapter which was installed, correct? What is the exact problem with that driver? If you didn't give it a chance before installing another driver then roll it back now on the Device Manager>Display adapter>Driver tab.

The exact problem with the driver is that as I have mentioned, websites do not display properly in IE. Several of the errors I'm getting in IE are obviously display related - colors are off, there are bands of static, etc.. Windows update appeared to think there was something wrong with that driver because it tried (and failed) to download additional nvidia programs. I have been giving the driver a chance and it is giving me obviously display related errors. I have not installed a newer driver this run through and was describing what happened in previous failed attempts. I am sorry if I was unclear in this regard. As of my post at 12:40, the only drivers I had installed that were not the ones chosen by windows without my input were for the LAN card, and for a couple of unknown devices (the chipset, a USB 3 controller).

If you're sure the Display uses Nvidia then go to the Nvidia site and let it scan and suggest your Display driver. Compare and report back. NVIDIA Driver Downloads - Automatically Detect NVIDIA Products
You will need to also install Java at the prompt and watch for further prompts to start scan.

Note that IE11 will be delivered by Updates, too, if it hasn't been already.