Solved Getting rid of a pirated copy of windows 7

[Raymie64]

Hi,
I have recently been stupid enough to let someone install a ''genuine'' copy of windows 7 home premium on my computer and now it has all gone wrong, recognising that my copy is not genuine and insisting that I activate the account. Unfortuanetly the system restore does not work and I have tried installing windows 8 preview and ubuntu in order to replace this dodgy copy but nothing seems to work. I have a legit key for windows vista that I would like to go back to but because the system restore isnt working I dont know how to go about doing it. Any help would be massively appreciated.

 

[Brink]

Hello Raymie, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Do you still have your Vista installation disc?

If so, you could just boot from it, format the HDD, install Vista, then activate Vista with your key number.

Clean Install with a Full Version of Vista - Vista Forums

 

[Raymie64]

i dont have the installation disc tho i have just downloaded windows vista pack and hope to use the product key to get that working, just dont know if it will let me?

also, how do i format the disc? does that clear it of corrupt files? sorry, still a novice at all of this

 

[Brink]

If what you downloaded is for creating Vista installation DVD/USB media with, then it should work.

The link I posted above will help show you how to do a clean install of Vista.

 

[Raymie64]

thats done the job. thanks for your help

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.