Questions about doing a clean install of Windows 7

[win7tmpProfile]

Hi folks, thanks in advance for any advice. I'm going to give a little background to explain this situation.

My mom has a laptop from 2011 which is running Windows 7. She bought this laptop second hand from someone. That previous user had the computer set up, so that it required a fingerprint on the lock screen in order to log in. As she has no way to provide that fingerprint, her only option is to log in to a temporary profile any time she wants to use the computer. (P.S. - The computer only had one account - that previous user's account which is admin - when she got the computer.)

I was thinking of doing a fresh install of Windows 7 for her. (I wanted to upgrade to Windows 10, but it seems the laptop might not be compatible with it due to its age and hardware). Thing is, I'm not entirely sure how to do this. She has no recovery media for this. I realize that Microsoft lets you download the Win7 image from their website, but it requires a product key; I have extracted the product key, but it's an OEM key, and apparently they won't accept that on the website, so that doesn't seem to work.

I thought about doing a factory reset, which I don't believe would require any install media - but would this get rid of the problem with the temporary profiles, and get rid of that previous user?

Any advice appreciated.

(P.S. - I did go ahead and create a new admin profile from her, from within the temp profile. However, it seems to have issues. For example, it can't seem to access any SSL certs, so browsing the internet on that profile is useless as she can't visit any HTTPS sites. The temp profile doesn't have that issue... I was originally trying to solve this problem but I am giving up as I've been troubleshooting for hours to no avail...)

 

[SIW2]

I thought about doing a factory reset, which I don't believe would require any install media - but would this get rid of the problem with the temporary profiles, and get rid of that previous user?

That should put it back to the state exactly as received from the factory.

If you run into an unexpected issue, it is not hard to find installation media for a clean install.

What is the exact make and model of the laptop?

 

[flavallee]

Also provide the serial number and/or service tag number of that laptop.
That will help even more in locating its support site and confirming its identity.

 

[win7tmpProfile]

Sorry for my delayed reply guys. We were able to fix the issue my mom was having with the computer (I can't believe it!), so I'm no longer going to go ahead with a clean re-install for now. Thanks for responding to my thread and sorry for wasting anyones time. If I post again in the future, I will provide the SN and any other identifying info requested here.

 

[SIW2]

We were able to fix the issue my mom was having

How?

 

[win7tmpProfile]

Hey, so the issue had a lot of context so I didn't want to bore anyone with it. But I will post the whole thing here in case this helps someone one day.

TL/DR: Mom could only log on to temp profiles on computer; finally made her a new admin profile from within the temp profile, but within that new profile, couldn't visit any HTTPS sites in any browser. Finally solved this by resetting Internet Explorer Settings.

Here's the context behind why I wanted to do a re-install:
More descriptive: my mom bought this computer second hand from someone. That previous owner had it set up, so you needed to scan a fingerprint at the login screen to log in. As a result, my mom could never get past that lock, and could only ever enter a temporary profile, making the computer not very useful.

It turns out the temp profile had admin privlidges, so we created a new admin user, from within that temp profile.

Part 2: Got her a new profile, but couldn't browse internet due to SSL cert? issues. I had her log in to the new profile - great, she had a proper profile finally. Only problem was - she could not browse the internet at all, as all HTTPS sites were blocked. (We first tried in Chrome and it gave a 'your connection is not private' (specifically, NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID). Edge and firefox gave similar errors. No option to 'proceed' at bottom of page. HTTP sites were FINE (Example Domain for example, she could go to); only issues visiting HTTPS sits. This problem did not occur in the temp profile.

I checked certmgr.msc and she seemed to have certificates. Troubleshooting that failed: Completed all pending Windows updates, resynching clock, turning off firewall and anti-virus, clearing cache, ran sfc /scannow. No luck.

(Finally, solution: Resetting Internet Explorer Settings.) Finally, we tried this in IE: It also blocked her from going to any sites, but the error was a bit different, saying there was a proxy issue. It recommended Network Diagnostic Tool. We ran that - finally, it gave a more specific clue: 'port issue (316)'. I googled this issue, and came upon this link which recommended to reset Internet Explorer Settings. We did this, and unbelievably, all the browsers began to work at this point. Literally no clue why this worked, but I couldn't be happier.

 

[Megahertz07]

I wouldn't trust a a OS on a second hand computer. Do a factory recover or do a clean install (don't delete the recover partition)

Download Win 7 iso from M$
Links expire: 4/21/2021 2:41:44 PM UTC
Win7_HomePrem_SP1_English_x32.iso
Win7_HomePrem_SP1_English_x64.iso

To make the Win 7 iso universal (all versions - HB, HP, Pro & ultimate) apply eicfg_removal_utility
Read the readme.txt
When used on an original Windows 7/8 ISO image, this utility will disable the ei.cfg file, thus converting a disc image into a "universal" disc image.

A laptop has a SLP license (offline activation) You can save this license for future activation on same computer in the case you do a clean install.
Dism++
Download ABR