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Having a tough time installing Windows 10

A

Aolish

Senior member
Hi all, I was hoping someone here can help. I spent almost the entire day yesterday trying to get Windows 10 installed onto a machine. A friend of mine at church said his computer is really slow. He said it probably needed to be cleaned. And he was right, the machine has 3 accounts, lots of pre-installed software in addition to having lots of malware entries and related files. I've decided a wipe at this point was the best option for him. The problem is getting Windows 10. His machine is currently running Windows 7 PRO. It's been a total pain trying to get Windows 10 downloaded and installed. I have tried many different ways to get Windows 10 to install and they all end in an error. Some of the things I have tried are:

-Media Creation Tool: This thing constantly throws out an error whenever it goes to the verification process. I even tried a different USB port with no luck. I even tried admin rights to see if this was the problem.The Media Creation Tool can't even create an ISO file as this also throws out an error.

-When I had first received his computer, Windows Update didn't even work. After some research I manage to find a file that helped fix it. It was then I found out that I couldn't even reserve a copy of Windows 10 because the link provided on Windows Update didn't work. So I used a registry edit AllowOSUpgrade to force the install of Windows 10 which worked. Unfortunately that didn't work either, when it goes through the installation process all I get is an error saying it wasn't able to be installed.

-I even tried going on Microsoft's website to download Windows 7 legally, but when I punch in the product key all I get is an error there also. "We encountered a problem with the product key you provided. Please try again or visit the Microsoft Support Contact Us page for assistance."

-Punched in the machines 25 digit key found on the machine on Microsoft's website and it says: "The product key you entered appears to be for software pre-installed by the device manufacturer. Please contact the device manufacturer for software recovery options."

-Called up Microsoft themselves and they weren't of any help.

-Called up Dell and they weren't of any help either, the representative said this machine was 5 years old and that it was advised not to upgrade to Windows 10 anyway because of hardware compatibility issues.

-There doesn't seem to be any options for restoring the computer back to factory defaults other than to reinstall Windows which says it needs the disc for. Unfortunately I do not have the disc for this. I'll have to ask my friend to see if he has one.

So I'm at a total loss right now on what to do. I thought maybe installing a copy of Ubuntu would be nice, but its probably not the right OS for them since they use Office a lot. I really want to get this done for them because these are GOOD people. They do so much for the church and have hearts of gold. Does anyone know of a way to get Windows 10 without having them to purchase a copy of Windows. I even have the product key that came with this machine (extracted by Belarc Advisor, great app btw), any help is appreciated!

EDIT: I think I read somewhere (I could be wrong) that you can now clean install Windows 10 without an upgrade now if you have a valid Win7/8/8.1 Key. If this is true can't I simply install Windows 10 through this method by downloading the Win10 ISO on another computer and transferring it to the Optiplex and just use the product key for Win7 PRO that came with the optiplex?

Specs are as follows:

Optiplex 790
Windows 7 PRO
i5 2500
4GB of RAM
250 GB HDD
Radeon HD 5450
PSU: I'm not sure
 
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Is the recovery partition still intact? Did the owner create recovery DVDs for the computer?

If no to both, I would suggest getting them from Dell and put 7 back on it. Let the Microsoft program tell you if it supports 10. You may find that Dell was correct, and there is a piece of hardware that doesn't have a driver for Windows 10. I have a Lenovo laptop that was about as old as this Dell. 10 installed, but the drivers used were a bit "sloppy" (some were generic). I ended up wiping it and going back to 7, which was an overall better experience on this particular laptop.
 
I should of listed this as one of the things I did. There IS an option for Recovery on control panel, however when I click that the options it provides is very limited. I can see of no indication of restoring the machine back to factory defaults. I will try and ask to see if they have a Windows 7 disc. Thanks
 
EDIT: I think I read somewhere (I could be wrong) that you can now clean install Windows 10 without an upgrade now if you have a valid Win7/8/8.1 Key. If this is true can't I simply install Windows 10 through this method by downloading the Win10 ISO on another computer and transferring it to the Optiplex and just use the product key for Win7 PRO that came with the optiplex?
Click to expand...

Yes, this is correct. Use the Media Creation Tool from another PC, it's just generic media not tied to any key/license. You can put the OEM Windows 7 key that came with the PC while installing Windows 10 and it will take it with no issues.

You can also buy a Windows 7 Dell recovery disk from Dell support. It costs like $5 for them to ship you one, but that will get you back to just a raw Windows 7 install.
 
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