Cannot install new software since switching back to Win 7 from 10

[Regulus Leonis]

Hi All,
My laptop is an ASUS Notebook K72J with an Intel i5 Core cpu, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. I cannot install anything from the internet since I downgraded back to Windows 7 about two years ago. When I go to MS's website for updates, it goes through the process and I get an error message at the end saying it was not successful.

I just tried updating from here: (Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB3172605)) Download Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB3172605) from Official Microsoft Download Center and, after clicking Open on the downloaded file, it gave me a message saying "the update is not applicable to my computer."

How can I fix my system so I can install software? Thanks!

 

[mrjimphelps]

This would be a good time to consider doing a clean install of Windows 7. If you are able to reinstall all of your software, that is, if you have (or can get) the install disks/software PLUS if you have all of the license or install codes to input, then you can do a clean install of Windows 7.

MAKE SURE YOU DO A GOOD FULL IMAGE BACKUP OF YOUR SYSTEM BEFORE PROCEEDING! Also, since your computer is probably many years old, you should consider installing a new hard drive, or an SSD. Do a backup of your current system, install the new drive, then restore your backup to the new drive. If everything works just like it is working now, then you have a good backup. Now you can do a clean install of Windows 7 to the new drive. And you can put the old drive in a static bag and store it in a safe place -- if things go wrong, you can always reinstall the old drive and be right back where you were before you did the clean install.

(If you installed an SSD, be sure to set up TRIM on it -- https://www.howtogeek.com/257196/ho...nabled-for-your-ssd-and-enable-it-if-it-isnt/)

A clean install is risky in the sense that if you don't save everything before you do the install, what you don't save will be forever lost when you do the install. You can reduce that risk some by choosing to erase only the contents of the Windows folder (as opposed to erasing the contents of the entire drive) when you do the install.

Examples of things you should save off of the drive before doing a clean install of Windows:
* Documents
* Pictures
* PST files (for Microsoft Outlook)
* The archives of other email programs
* Internet favorites and bookmarks
* Outlook auto populate email address list
* Other files

Examples of things you should write down before doing a clean install:
* Email account settings.
* The programs you will need to reinstall, along with all needed license and install keys.
* Other important information

In short, you'll need to take some time and thoroughly look everything over, so that you will know what needs to be written down / saved off before doing a clean install of Windows.