reply to hoov about windows 7 vs. vista drivers

[muriel]

/this is my second try to post my question. I guess before I go through putting all of my information in I'll post my question. My name is Muriel and I'm new to the forumn so I hope I'm in the right place.
My question is, I have a windows 7 home premium and i downloaded vista windows 7, is this going to ruin my pc, i thought I was downloading window 7 drives not vista. now I have almost all vist drives.

[Hoov]

Just to make sure, you have windows 7 but you have been downloading Vista drivers. If that is what you are doing, then no you will not ruin your computer. All of the functions may not be available, but you can fix that. Just download the drivers for Windows 7 (if they are even available) and install them right over the Vista drivers.

[muriel]

  I posted a little while ago, but I thought I would add more of my information about what I had on my computer and what I have on there now. maybe that will help you help me more better. I have an eMachine PC
                                    Model: EL1333G
                                    Processor: AMD Athlon (tm) processor
                                    LE- 1640 2.70 GHz
                                    System type: 64 bit
                                    Rating: 3.2
                                    Installed Ram 200 GB (1.75 GB usable)
                                    Product ID: 00359- )EM- 8992687-00006
                                    NIVIDA GeForce 6150SE 430 Desc
                                    NIVIDA VGA bluetooth 3G device 20110801 Disc
I also have some other programs such as Malwarebytes, AVG PC tool, Paratologic PC Advisor Emachine updater, Regclean Pro, and Driver performer. I had on my computer,
                                    windows home premium 64 bit (service pack 1)
                                    Direct Version 11.0
                                    GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 Details
                                    Driver version: 258.96
                                    Core Dock: 425 MHz
                                    Memory Clock: 100 MHz (200 MHz data rate)
                                    Memory Interface: 32 bit
                                    Total available graphics... 895 MB
                                    Dedicated video memory: 0 MB
                                    Shared Sustem Memory: 639MB
                                    Video BIOS version: 5.61.32.25.16
                                    IRQ: 20
                                    BUS: FPCI
I now have these programs,
                                    NIVIDA Display Control Panal
                                    NIVIDA Graphics driver 285.62
                                    NIVIDA Pysx
                                    NIVIDA update
I tried to go into my files and find out which vista program was installed, but it won't let me. all I know is I have a lot of vista on my computer. I didn't want vista, I wanted windows 7, that's what I thought I downloaded. So am I in a pickle now?

[muriel]

I'm sorry, you say my problem has been resolved, but it hasn't. I havn't gotten any advice on it yet. Please help me. is going from windows 7 32x64 bit to vista windows 7 safe for my computer?

[Hoov]

Before we can go any further with this, can you please tell me where you downloaded the operating system from?

[muriel]

I downloaded the program for windows 7 which turned out to be window vista windows 7 R266.exe no. of driver is 4, file name is 15.57-nf..., locaction is C;/UserDrivers 07/01/20... Driver v...5.3.1.10 I think the site was CNET. I can't be sure, because I didn't keep track of that. It also tried to download and install a printer I don't even have. I have an hp deskjet 2600 series, where they wanted me to download an hp universal print drivers file name upd-pcl6 driver v... 5.3.1.10 So I didn't download it. Was that the right thing to do? I also didn't download NIVIDA nForce 610i/630i/720a/... size 65921368 no. of drivers 4 file name 15.57nf... driver version...5.3.1.10...
I don't know if you need more information, but if you do, please let me know. i'm also having a hard time finding where I go to find where I look for peoples posts to me.     
 Thank you

[Hoov]

OK, I understand now. You are trying to get drivers for a realtec audio device, an HP printer and some other things. from what you were saying earlier I thought you were trying to download a pirated version of windows to upgrade Vista to Windows 7, but now I see what you are doing.

As for the posts other people are posting, I combined all your posts to this single thread. We can work on it here.

Can you tell me why you are trying to get new drivers for the computer? Also can you go into the control panel, and then to the device manager and tell me what devices have a yellow ! or a red X next to them.  Once I have that, we can point you to the drivers that you need.

[muriel]

I installed a few programs such as disc speedup and disc installer and it was giving me problems with my computer. I also tried to download a free microsoft office 7 and ended up with the wrong program and got all these other programs such as dolphin screen saver, free songs and when I went into my computer to delete them, I couldn't find them. I found some, but it kept saying it was being used else where. For the life of me I cannot find them. Can anyone help me?

[muriel]

I did what you said and checked device manager and I saw no yellow ! or red X 's beside any of the programs. The reason I decided to upload my drivers was because my PC health advisor said that they were outdated. I had accidently zipped some files, and I don't know how to unzip the files and that's where the drivers are. Of course they are vista I downloaded the wrong ones I think. I have and eMachine PC so don't I need eMachine drivers? I'm really computer illiterate when it comes to this stuff.

[muriel]

Is it possible to download window 7 free over vista so I'll window 7 home premium again? If so which site would I go to?

[Hoov]

Before I help you more, we need to get a few things straight, because I think you are talking about something different than what you are asking.

There is no such thing as a free version of Windows. If you got it from the internet for free then it is pirated software and we cannot help you with that. Drivers are what windows uses to interface with the hardware. Each piece of hardware has its own drivers. Some use the same drivers for all versions of windows. Some have different versions for each version of windows.

If your PC health advisor is telling you that some drivers are out of date, it should also give you the link to the page that you should go to for the driver. If you have the wrong driver for the operating system that you have installed, then if you download the correct one and install it, it will replace the older version and you don't have to worry about removing the old version. If PC health advisor doesn't give you the page to download from, if you go to the device manager and right click on the device and select properties, you can do a driver update from there. Just let it connect to the internet and it will check for updated drivers. If it finds one it will install, if there are none, it will tell you that.


Now are you talking about a copy of windows or drivers for a version of windows?

[Hoov]

There is no such thing as a Free Microsoft Office of any version. If you downloaded it for free, then it is pirated and we cannot help you with it. Pirated software often has malware of all kinds as part of the installation package. That sounds like what you are experiencing. The only way to get rid of them is to uninstall the pirated software and then run scans to remove the malware from your system.

[muriel]

I installed some programs that I mentioned before like free microsoft office 7 and it came with all sorts of other programs and other programs that gave me grief so I uninstalled them, but they are still somewhere in my computer and won't let me uninstall them because they say they are being used elsewhere. So what do I do now, and where do I look? I've looked in Programs x86 where most of my programs go, in my documents, common files, favorites, library, recent places, downloads, computer, emachine C: photos, videos, new files, games, and everywhere else I could think of, and I still can't find them, but they're in my computer somewhere. So what do I do? Hopefully you can help me.

[muriel]

Hoov, I have a windows 7 home premium desktop that came with it, then i have an emachine pc that the drivers came with it, I thought I neede to to upgrade my drivers so I tried to download drivers for it and ended up installing vista drivers. The vista drivers aren't causing me any problems yet, i just thought maybe down the line it might cause my computer to crash or something. I never once downloade andy of those programs free. I did however download microsoft office 7 and those other programs we talked about free, and they came with a bunch of garbage. I ran malwarebytes which I own, and they say there's no infection, but they won't let me completely uninstall their programs because they say they're being used. I looked everywhere and I cannot find them.

[Hoov]

If you downloaded MS Office 7 for free, and it was not from Microsoft or from the manufacturer of the computer, then you need to uninstall it.

I think we need to do a full malware scan and fix on your computer, but before we can do anything, you have to get rid of the pirated software, not just Microsoft. And we will have to verify that it is removed. This will get rid of all those extra programs that you got with the pirated Office 7.

Other than that I can't give you any advice. The drivers are not the real issue, it is any software that you would have to pay for that you got for free from some P2P or torrent or other download site other than the original vendor.

If you need the software but cannot afford it, there are open source freeware alternatives that work very well.

Let me know what you want to do.