Required Win 7 Updates

[Not Kuno]

I need to reinstall windows and I've heard a lot of talk about some of the updates being really shitty (ie forcing you to update to win 10, etc). I'd rather not do this.

Anyone have a barebones list of which service pack/updates would be best to stay on?

[Arkanna]

KB3035583 - Hide this one. It puts the gay "Get Windows 10" app in your tray.

[Soa]

Here's a list of all of the Windows 10 nagware updates you should probably not download:

KB3035583

KB2952664

KB2990214

KB3021917

KB3112343

KB3123303

KB3123862

KB3146449


Microsoft Telemetry Information for Win 7/8


KB3068708

KB3075249

KB3080149

[Niya]

Well, a fresh install of Win7 (with SP1) offers about 130+ updates in several waves, and if you install them through WinUpdate you'd probably have to reboot don't ask me how many times thanks to the weird behaviour of it...
I really love patching new systems with WSUS offline update. You start it beforehand, tick what updates you want included, and it downloads them all from the MS servers and can pack them onto a USB stick or into an ISO image. On the fresh install, launch the updater, tick what you want, and it installs all of them in one go. If you tick additional stuff like IE updates, VC++ runtimes or .NET it requires reboots in between, but you can tick another box to let it reboot and relaunch automatically (though that doesn't work on all systems).
And to stop the Win10 nagging, MS finally released some registry keys you can set to completely disable it, permanently. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351 . Though the offending updates should be blacklisted in the WSUS offline repo.

[Silenka]

There is a tool someone created you can get here that will wipe that Windows 10 shit out for you if you accidentally do install it.

[Arkanna]

No need for a tool, just go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features, and uninstall update KB3035583, reboot.

[Not Kuno]

I also realized we don't have a 'General computer questions' thread so i'll make my sort of related question here:

My hard drive's been going kaput for a while, it'll boot up but randomly crash, takes long to start, etc etc. I purchased a SSd to replace it a bit ago and kept it on hand until the hard drive state becomes too shitty to actually use. Fast forward to now when it starts to break a lot. I put in the SSD but.. it doesn't boot. Someone suggested a clone my HD over to the SSD but that has a lot of other issues (clone failing a lot, etc). I ran scandisc a few times but that doesn't seem to help the situation a lot.

Anyway, when I put in the SSD to run a new install, it just doesn't work. I keep getting boot error messages, even if I try to load from CD (to install windows). It goes Boot bcd error 0xc00000e9 etc etc. It's been a while since I installed a fresh copy of windows and even longer since I messed around with hard drives.

[Arkanna]

Yeah cloning a failing drive is really hit-or-miss, and it sounds like you're missing.

What OS are you trying to install? Is the error you're getting at boot, a blue screen?

[Not Kuno]

Yeah cloning a failing drive is really hit-or-miss, and it sounds like you're missing.

What OS are you trying to install? Is the error you're getting at boot, a blue screen?

Trying to install win 7. Its an error at boot and not a blue screen. I don't remember much about installing new HDs and doing fresh installs, I just unplugged my old HDs and tried to put this one in and been getting no luck, so it may just be a simple problem as not plugging it into the right spot? Who knows.

[Arkanna]

Is the new SSD now the only drive in the system? If not, remove all other drives and boot from the Windows disc. I suggest this because sometimes if the new drive is not the only one in the system, boot order/priority can screw you up. If the new drive is the only one in the system, all you should need to do is boot off the Windows disc and select the new drive early in the install process. Windows handles the rest.

Additionally, I would suggest maybe setting up a Windows installer USB drive. Just a thought. Windows installs a lot faster off a USB drive, and it would remove your optical drive from the list of possible problems (not likely, but hey).

One last thought: make sure your BIOS SATA mode is set to AHCI (as opposed to IDE or RAID) to best take advantage of your new SSD. Beware, your PC won't boot from your old drive if you change this.

[Not Kuno]

Is the new SSD now the only drive in the system? If not, remove all other drives and boot from the Windows disc. I suggest this because sometimes if the new drive is not the only one in the system, boot order/priority can screw you up. If the new drive is the only one in the system, all you should need to do is boot off the Windows disc and select the new drive early in the install process. Windows handles the rest.

Additionally, I would suggest maybe setting up a Windows installer USB drive. Just a thought. Windows installs a lot faster off a USB drive, and it would remove your optical drive from the list of possible problems (not likely, but hey).

One last thought: make sure your BIOS SATA mode is set to AHCI (as opposed to IDE or RAID) to best take advantage of your new SSD. Beware, your PC won't boot from your old drive if you change this.

I tried removing all other HDs and it still gave error. I never tried booting from usb so not to sure how to do that.

I'll try the bios thing. But if I did that, would I be able to use my other HDs for storage even if they aren't SSD?

[Arkanna]

I tried removing all other HDs and it still gave error. I never tried booting from usb so not to sure how to do that.

I'll try the bios thing. But if I did that, would I be able to use my other HDs for storage even if they aren't SSD?

AHCI is just a different SATA mode. IDE and RAID modes are present for legacy support and for, well, RAID. AHCI offers better performance vs those modes and should be used any time you can. You will be able to use other drives (HD's or SSD's, does not matter) for storage with AHCI turned on. The only reason I cautioned about switching to it is because if your existing Windows install was done in IDE or RAID mode, switching to AHCI then trying to boot into Windows will cause a blue screen 100% of the time.

To be clear, that's not a solution to your problem, though.

[Not Kuno]

It being on AHCI didn't seem to do anything. Turning it on asks to reboot and select proper boot device. Putting in Win 7 dvd and hitting enter causes screen to go black on a dos screen until it just gets to "Windows Boot Manager" screen that talks about encountering a problem communicating with a device connected to my computer. It has an error with \boot\BCD etc etc. Still same old shit.

[Arkanna]

It being on AHCI didn't seem to do anything. Turning it on asks to reboot and select proper boot device. Putting in Win 7 dvd and hitting enter causes screen to go black on a dos screen until it just gets to "Windows Boot Manager" screen that talks about encountering a problem communicating with a device connected to my computer. It has an error with \boot\BCD etc etc. Still same old shit.

Yep, switching to AHCI was not going to solve your problem, as I stated above.

In reading about \boot\bcd error messages, this does not strike me as something that should be happening with a clean SSD and no other drives installed in the system. Are you positive that you're both #1: booting from the DVD and #2: working with only the SSD in the system?

What happens if you remove the Windows disc and try to boot the computer? You should see something like this:

http://visihow.com/images/thumb/2/2b...r_message-.jpg

[Not Kuno]

Yep, switching to AHCI was not going to solve your problem, as I stated above.

In reading about \boot\bcd error messages, this does not strike me as something that should be happening with a clean SSD and no other drives installed in the system. Are you positive that you're both #1: booting from the DVD and #2: working with only the SSD in the system?

What happens if you remove the Windows disc and try to boot the computer? You should see something like this:

http://visihow.com/images/thumb/2/2b...r_message-.jpg

Nope it just says "Reboot and select proper boot device"

[Arkanna]

When you go into the BIOS, are you able to tell that it's detecting the SSD? For example, if you go into the boot order/priorities, somewhere in there you should be able to see the SSD shown as its brand/serial number.

[Not Kuno]

Yeah for "please select boot device" it goes:

P0: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM etc etc (DVD)
P1: CT500BX100SSD1 (SSD)


When I had it in my PC when it was working, it didn't show up though (like at My Computer). I chalked that up to my pc dying and being a piece of shit (it refuses to start up at all anymore). However in HD Health programs and for cloning it was there as an option.

[Arkanna]

The SSD not showing up in My Computer is normal for new drives (they need to be initialized in Disk Management).

What I'm reading is telling me it's an issue with your Windows disc, the DVD drive itself, or boot order/priorities. I've honestly never seen this error myself. I'd still say try making a bootable Windows USB drive from a working computer and try installing from that.

To make a bootable USB drive to install Windows, you'll need a Windows 7 ISO file and this tool: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down...-download-tool

[Arkanna]

And yes I know this is a huge pain in your ass and you're getting sick of it, lol.

[Not Kuno]

I dont have an ISO of it, only that dvd from ages ago. Looks like Im stuck then? D: