Help with windows

anndy25

I had windows 10 on my laptop and had windows 7 put on after I had a virus by a pc repairer. After a few weeks I am getting a msg saying my windows 7 is not genuine. I have tried to contact my repair man but he seems to have gone out of business. My 2 year old laptop is now not working and I don't know what to do.
I have tried a few things but I am not that savvy, can someone please help?
Andy

NiftyDigits

Perhaps brand name and model number would help....

anndy25

It's an acer Aspire E1-522. Thanks for trying to help

Andy

NiftyDigits

What's the part number shown underneath?

e.g.: NX.M81EX.136

NiftyDigits

You seem to be taking an extraordinarily long time to look underneath the laptop.
In the meantime, I'm going to bed.
If it was supplied with Windows 8.1 and subsequently upgraded to Windows 10, you can simply reinstall Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 if you choose. Not Windows 7.

Waiting for the information for which I asked. Perhaps it will be there when I look tomorrow.

wongataa

anndy25 wrote: »

I had windows 10 on my laptop and had windows 7 put on after I had a virus by a pc repairer. After a few weeks I am getting a msg saying my windows 7 is not genuine. I have tried to contact my repair man but he seems to have gone out of business. My 2 year old laptop is now not working and I don't know what to do.
I have tried a few things but I am not that savvy, can someone please help?
Andy

Put Windows 10 back on. That should sort it.

anndy25

My no is NX.M81EK.012. I don't know how to install windows 10. Do I need to buy one and do I need to uninstall windows 7.

I'm sorry I didn't get back quickly, I am using my iPad at the moment and the battery was low.

As you can see I am not very good at this, what would I do with this number?

Thanks for any advice

lewishardwick

If you're lucky you might have a license key stuck on the under-side of the laptop, but this will probably be for Windows 8/8.1 and probably not compatible with 7. (Unfortunately newer pc/laptops have the license build into the BIOS)

Acers usually come with a recovery partition accessible on the boot menu.

When you power on the machine and you see the Acer logo pop up on the screen, press the Alt key and F10. This should take you into a Recovery menu from which you can rebuild to the factory settings.

Of course there's a high chance that the laptop 'repairer' blew away the recovery partition when installing. Unfortunately there are a vast number of these shops and people who don't really have a clue other than take a "wipe & reinstall" approach and are happy to take your money for the pleasure.

If the recovery partition IS missing and you have the license key label on the underside of the laptop, you should be able to download or obtain a install of Windows 8/8.1 relatively easily online.

NiftyDigits

anndy25 wrote: »

My no is NX.M81EK.012. I don't know how to install windows 10. Do I need to buy one and do I need to uninstall windows 7.

I'm sorry I didn't get back quickly, I am using my iPad at the moment and the battery was low.

As you can see I am not very good at this, what would I do with this number?

Thanks for any advice

It just enabled me to discover the original configuration. So the question now is do you want to install Windows 8 or Windows 10? You won't need to buy anything, other than perhaps a USB thumb drive for the installation if you don't already have one.
It will be a 'clean' install, wiping everything currently on the hard drive. So you will need to save your pictures, documents etc elsewhere before the clean install.
Of course if you really prefer Windows 7, that too is possible. But likely at the moment, you machine is licenced for Windows 8 and has a digital entitlement for Windows 10.
In which country did you purchase the laptop?

almillar

Following Nifty's advice will get you back up and running. I advise using Windows 10 unless you have a good reason not to. You need an 8GB USB stick to make an installation disk for it, and download it for free.

NiftyDigits

If purchased in the UK, this likely is the image that you need to download and save; Windows 10 English International 64 bit

This is assuming that you upgraded your machine from Windows 8 to Windows 10 previously. Did you?

Are you still able to utilise the laptop?