Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

Yes, running Recovery always formats the drive before reapplying the image.

Thank you, again. Of course, now that I'm getting started, do I discover that this version of the Recovery Manager only has two options: Microsoft System Restore and System Recovery.

What options does System Recovery offer?

Microsoft System Restore and System Recovery. I'm doing System Recovery. As best as I understand it, it will reinstall everything to the original factory settings. This will mean that I'll need to uninstall all of the bloatware manually. While tedious, this still seems preferable for my situation than the fresh reinstall. I am fixing my mom's laptop, and am not available to troubleshoot any driver issues that might appear down the line as a result of a clean reinstall.

Win7 is pretty driver-complete in the installer and via optional Updates then any missing drivers are always available on the Support Downloads webpage for the computer or device model.

Clean Up Factory Bloatware

Followed your instructions a couple of days ago. Installed successfully on a different PC. (Original version was from HP Windows 7 -64). Installed on an Asus board. Just had a message pop up saying something like "wrong version", thought oops. It said ring to activate, so I did. Success. So now running on HP and other Asus board computer. Thanks.

Not sure I get you. What do you mean "installed on other machine?"

You used the Product Key from COA sticker for the same machine installed upon, correct?

Please explain further.

No. Two different machines. Original was an HP 6. My older machine has an Asus motherboard with a different processor. Used same product key. Works fine.

Haven't heard that before. OEM Product Key should only activate on same mobo.