reverting to windows 7

ss091091 · 12 Dec 2016

Hi.
I have a sony vaio laptop with a pre activated windows 7 home premium in french. A year ago, I upgraded to windows 10 and now 1 want to go back Win7.

I wanted to do this with the recovery partition that came with the laptop. Then i got an idea. I want to install windows 7 in english this time by doing a clean install (I feel much more comfortable with english). I would validate the install with the product key on the back on my laptop. Would it work?

Thank you :)

ICIT2LOL · 12 Dec 2016

Hello and welcome ss now so I have this correct the machine originally had 7 Home Premium installed on it when you bought it from wherever you did?

Now if this is correct then is there a sticker on the bottom of the machine? If so then you could reinstall with an ISO from Heidoc Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool if you really want to go down that track - then you can pick an ISO in English that way, and use the activation code on that sticker.

If you want to find the activation code then you can use this Product Key Number for Windows 7 - Find and See

I don't know if the factory restore would work that well to be honest because it would be in French if the original install was in that language and you want English as the language to be used. It is not something / situation that I have come across before again to be honest.

Megahertz07 · 12 Dec 2016

As Icit2lol mentioned, download the tool, run it and under Win 7, choose Win 7 HP OEM.
Burn a DVD or install it on a USB Flash disk with Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way
Do a Clean install Clean Install Windows 7
Use the COA key to activate.
For the updates MS releases SP2 for Windows 7

ICIT2LOL · 12 Dec 2016

In addition to what we have already said personally I would take this opportunity to fit a new hard drive - a good SSD would be the go. That way you don't have to worry about the old drive for one, the drive will be quicker, and it avoids any corruption left over from the original install.

But it is your budget and your choice:)

Megahertz07 · 12 Dec 2016

You have no idea what a SSD can do for your computer. Boots in seconds and open programs at a blink of an eye . I have one of this:
PNY CS1311 2.5" 480GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSD7CS1311-480-RB - Newegg.com
So far so good.
Buy a USB3 case to put the HDD to use as a backup.

ss091091 · 17 Dec 2016

Thank you all.
I managed to install win7 home premium in English using the ISO download tool. My activation key was not accepted at first and i needed to to a phone activation to make it work.

ICIT2LOL · 17 Dec 2016

That's good mate now as Megahertz has suggested a SSD would be the go and there is this too Optimize Windows 7 this is my bible and it really makes a difference to any Windows machine I use it on all mine and any fixes I do providing the owner wants me to of course.
You may lose a bit of the "bling" as I call it - like transparency but stuff like that is overkill for me at least:)