General Chat

I'll travel incognito

Careful Errol,She dowses everything in sight with Mint Sauce, :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

do you mean an avatar for on here? I'll be round in the morning

:-S :-S :-S No problem's with my pop-ups lately Errol, but can you come round anyway and teach me how to draw a good avatar :-D :-D :-D

If doing that it would be a good idea to back up drivers etc too.
Also, if using Outlook or Windows Live Mail, you may wish to back up your emails.
A factory restore is exactly that - it resets everything (well, reinstalls I suppose really) so your laptop will be exactly as it was when you first had it and everything else will disappear and cannot be restored so proceed with caution

what make of laptop is it
most laptops have the facility to restore to original set up which will give you back your original windows install
just back up all your data you want to keep to a memory stick first

Thanks for that BudgieRustler,

Not the Thomas Wotherspoon I am researching as he was still alive in 1953 as he attended his brother, my grandfather's funeral.

However I do have a couple of other Thomas Wotherspoon's in my tree who may fit that time frame so will look further into that.

James

OneFootInTheGrave... Re your Thomas Wotherspoon

have you checked this out?
Yes a bit young to be in the armed forces, but bugle/drummer boy or even lying about age.

WOTHERSPOON, THOMAS
Rank:Private
Service No:29352
Date of Death:14/07/1916
Regiment/Service:Royal Scots11th Bn.
Memorial: THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Panel ReferencePier and Face 6 D and 7 D

I found this online and it may help:-

There are a couple of different ways to check and make sure that your Windows 7 copy is genuine.

Method 1 – Activate Windows Dialog

The first way to validate that Windows 7 is genuine is to click on Start, then type in activate windows in the search box.

Method 2 – Validate Online

The second way to determine if you have a valid copy of Windows 7 is to use the validation tool on the Microsoft website.

If you ever tried to download updates from Microsoft, you’ve probably noticed that sometimes your copy of Windows has to be validated before it allows you to start the download.

Well, you can use that tool independently of downloading an update by going to the following address:

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/validate

Then click on the Validate link at the top. Make sure that you visit the site while in Internet Explorer, otherwise it will ask you do download a small program onto your computer in order to validate.

Method 3 – Control Panel

The third way to check for genuine Windows 7 is to go to the Control Panel. Click on Start, then Control Panel, then click on System and Security, and finally click on System.Then scroll all the way down to the bottom and you should see a section called Windows activation, which says “Windows is activated” and gives you the Product ID. It also includes the genuine Microsoft software logo.

Good Luck Grannie of 13 soon to be 15, hope you get it sorted out

Thank you for all your posts.I will try any new updates.This morning it has given me more information to go and get the genuine microsoft.I am no good with computers so have wrote everything down and i am going to pass it over to my son.Will let you all know if i still have a laptop.

Just a thought, but although it's quite likely the repairer put a non standard copy on, it's just possible it's one of those scareware scams that say you have illegal / pornographic material on your computer.

Try a windows update, if your copy is a pirate the update will flag it up straight away.


Mayfield

sounds like its a pirate copy to me. i had the same thing years ago and payed £150 to get the proper microsoft key password.

An alternative operating system is a bit drastic - check the existing copy is genuine before doing anything else

Get Microsoft Security Essentials - it's FREE!!

:-D

Make sure you go to the Microsoft site.

If you have a pirate copy of W7, you won't be able to down load MSE.

Errol, yep, your right ..... its left :-S sigh....

G ... get the feeling you're not in a good place, unless the pop-up is saying you've 30 days to validate your copy of Windows 7 ? For that you'll need a validation code .....?

Ref other posts above, you may have a pirate copy....suggest that, if you can,you make a back-up copy of your hard drive before going any further with Windows! Suggest contacting Microsoft - though hopefully someone on the boards with good IT skills can help more.

There's also the 'alternative' of downloading a different OS, such as Fedora, but not sure, sorry, how computer savvy you may be regards this ?

MrDaff cant find Willow Engine? Think my laptop may not be here soon.Think i have been had over.I have got 30 days going by the pop up ??

MrDaff I think you mean left click

Do a quick check (not 100% but an indicator)

Bottom left of your screen is the 'start' globe = right click on that.
In the screen that comes up it says, in italics, 'search programs and files'.
In that, type Windows7
What do you get ?

If it says at the top of the screen that appears WillowEngine.ini you probably don't have a copy of Windows 7 :-S

Sounds like they may have installed a pirate copy when they restored.

It may work out cheaper in the long run to get a genuine copy & install it yourself.

I run Google Chrome & know that the .Microsoft Utility Essentials free security package filters out just about everything & 'shouts' loudly if you even dare to try to go somewhere they do not like.. even warn you if a site is unsafe

Errol how would i know?I have a sticker on my laptop that says windows 7.I think i could be hard work as i know nothing?