Windows 7 Pro or Start Button, Taskbar problems, context menu problems

I woke up really early and started on my project before you made your post. I used Acronis because it is a DVD that you boot from to do backup/rescue/restore. But I'm thinking positive - I won't need it. But I will check out your s/w recommendation on next go round.

I've had no issues, it is doing the windows updates right now.

simrick said:

Oh, and you don't have to do an Insider version of W10 - the standard General Release is fine. But, the Insider release I am on, (14332) does not have an ISO available for d/l yet from MS - and my Insider release is a preview of what will come out at the 1yr anniversary in July - it's got some really nice features and modifications.

Good luck. I have asked another member here to be available for you while I am gone: @essenbe. Please feel free to ask for his help. :)

You say I don't have to do Insider version - I've been wanting to check it out since I heard about it. But if you had about 3 hours I could write a small novel telling you the horror stories of the hardware issues and software issues I've had with my laptop and desktop. I haven't owned a laptop in probably 10 years. Just didn't care if I had one or not. But a few months ago Microcenter ( Terrific Computer Hardware and Software retailer here in town) had a great sale on several laptops when Windows 10 pre-installed laptops were coming into the store.

I got a great deal on a Dell that had Windows 10 home on it. It has an Intel I-5 (can't remember the chip number, but I know it's the faster I-5) 8GB memory, 64bit, all the bells and whistles for $400. And it's a very good thing I bought that laptop because my custom built desktop crapped out. Bad Motherboard. This is my first and last ASUS. Their support is awful and it took forever to get an RMA. Finally got MOBO back and right after getting Windows 10 installed and most of my programs, the WD Black quit on me. That took 2 months to resolve cuz at first, once they decided the drive was bad, they sent me a replacement - the WD Blue. Dunno if you're familiar with that latest WD HDD line, but the Black is far superior to the Blue. It took over a month to convince them that the BLUE was not the same as the BLACK. I had a supervisor on the phone telling me the specs were the same. Enough whining....... There were about 4 other issues I dealt with since September 2015. Soooooo, just haven't had time to research the insider versions, and whether I'm eligible since I'm the Admin for MS VLSC program for the company.

I will check it out before I do the repair update on the desktop. If your current insider version is NOT available on the website yet, does that mean once you're in the program, they send you info with a link to d/l the latest version?
So the insider version currently on the web - is it a later version than what I d/l from Tech Bench?

Thanks for the advice and the referral to your friend if I have probs.

Hello Hooked, you should have no problems with the Repair install you are doing. It should go just as the video in the Tutorial shows. If you have problems, just let us know.

If you want info on the Insider program to do the Insider builds, this is the link https://insider.windows.com/

hooked said:

I woke up really early and started on my project before you made your post. I used Acronis because it is a DVD that you boot from to do backup/rescue/restore. But I'm thinking positive - I won't need it. But I will check out your s/w recommendation on next go round.

I've had no issues, it is doing the windows updates right now.

Positive thinking - yep! Acronis and Macrium function similarly.

hooked said:

You say I don't have to do Insider version - I've been wanting to check it out since I heard about it. But if you had about 3 hours I could write a small novel telling you the horror stories of the hardware issues and software issues I've had with my laptop and desktop. I haven't owned a laptop in probably 10 years. Just didn't care if I had one or not. But a few months ago Microcenter ( Terrific Computer Hardware and Software retailer here in town) had a great sale on several laptops when Windows 10 pre-installed laptops were coming into the store.

I got a great deal on a Dell that had Windows 10 home on it. It has an Intel I-5 (can't remember the chip number, but I know it's the faster I-5) 8GB memory, 64bit, all the bells and whistles for $400. And it's a very good thing I bought that laptop because my custom built desktop crapped out. Bad Motherboard. This is my first and last ASUS. Their support is awful and it took forever to get an RMA. Finally got MOBO back and right after getting Windows 10 installed and most of my programs, the WD Black quit on me. That took 2 months to resolve cuz at first, once they decided the drive was bad, they sent me a replacement - the WD Blue. Dunno if you're familiar with that latest WD HDD line, but the Black is far superior to the Blue. It took over a month to convince them that the BLUE was not the same as the BLACK. I had a supervisor on the phone telling me the specs were the same. Enough whining....... There were about 4 other issues I dealt with since September 2015. Soooooo, just haven't had time to research the insider versions, and whether I'm eligible since I'm the Admin for MS VLSC program for the company.

Aren't computers fun?

hooked said:

I will check it out before I do the repair update on the desktop. If your current insider version is NOT available on the website yet, does that mean once you're in the program, they send you info with a link to d/l the latest version?
So the insider version currently on the web - is it a later version than what I d/l from Tech Bench?

TechBench will give you the latest GR (General Release) - not Insider builds. Insider builds come through Windows Update. Eventually MS post downloads for stable Insider builds (which I think right now is at 14228). But our builds come through WU, as MS are also testing the delivery method.

hooked said:

Thanks for the advice and the referral to your friend if I have probs.

Good luck! See you on the flip side. :)

Well, all seemed to go well with the repair install. Then when Win 10 came up I clicked on the windows start key - all ready to do winver, and the start key didn't work. Now my right - click button does NOTHING except on the Start menu button and the Message center icon. I can right click and it shows 'Display Action Center' but still nothing comes up. I did winver and indeed I'm at the newer build, but I went backwards - I'm worse off - not status quo - things are worse. So I decided to walk away from laptop before I threw it out the window.
Came back and decided to burn img to a DVD and try repair. Same outcome.
So since I have all this time invested, I'm going to go for a clean install with this same DVD.

Thanks essenbe for the advice on the insider program. I was told by msft to check with VLSC about my eligibility since we have enterprise copies of s/w. I sent an email, but they're M-F 9 to 5 support. So that will wait.

I did a chkdsk, simrick, per your advice. All checked out. But before I do a clean install I thought I'd run a couple of other disk check utilities. I'm a wee bit grumpy right now. Don't know if I'll do anything else on the repair tonight. As I rambled on about all my computer probs in an earlier post, and told you that was just 2 issues. There were many, many more. I'm not having fun on my computer. Haven't had fun on computer in about 8 months. That's how long all this crap has been going on - taking turns between laptop and desktop.

But I'm learning. I know I have to take a break if I'm this frustrated. I have this beast desktop I built - best one I've ever built - and I haven't had a chance to just go crazy on it.

So, as she quietly gets ready to wrap up for the night, she wishes her comrades in crime a great rest of the weekend. Really, thanks a bunch to both of you for being there. I have a feeling the desktop is going to be a breeze. The laptop is just being a laptop....

ttyl

hooked said:

Well, all seemed to go well with the repair install. Then when Win 10 came up I clicked on the windows start key - all ready to do winver, and the start key didn't work. Now my right - click button does NOTHING except on the Start menu button and the Message center icon. I can right click and it shows 'Display Action Center' but still nothing comes up. I did winver and indeed I'm at the newer build, but I went backwards - I'm worse off - not status quo - things are worse. So I decided to walk away from laptop before I threw it out the window.
Came back and decided to burn img to a DVD and try repair. Same outcome.
So since I have all this time invested, I'm going to go for a clean install with this same DVD.

Yeah, walking away works for me sometimes too. I'm sorry about all the troubles you're having. I am not sure why it would make things worse - it doesn't make sense.

How will you do the clean install? Will you use the ISO or will you use the recovery partition from Dell? Never mind, I see you will use the ISO.

hooked said:

I did a chkdsk, simrick, per your advice. All checked out. But before I do a clean install I thought I'd run a couple of other disk check utilities. I'm a wee bit grumpy right now. Don't know if I'll do anything else on the repair tonight. As I rambled on about all my computer probs in an earlier post, and told you that was just 2 issues. There were many, many more. I'm not having fun on my computer. Haven't had fun on computer in about 8 months. That's how long all this crap has been going on - taking turns between laptop and desktop.

But I'm learning. I know I have to take a break if I'm this frustrated. I have this beast desktop I built - best one I've ever built - and I haven't had a chance to just go crazy on it.

So, as she quietly gets ready to wrap up for the night, she wishes her comrades in crime a great rest of the weekend. Really, thanks a bunch to both of you for being there. I have a feeling the desktop is going to be a breeze. The laptop is just being a laptop....

ttyl

Let's concentrate on the laptop for now. Do a clean install. As soon as it's finished, turn off Fast Startup, set a Restore Point and make an image. Leave it on and running for a while. MS says things have to "hydrate" (LOL - not sure how they came up with that term...) Cortana and search will take a while to function well. Don't install any programs yet. Let me know how it goes when you get to this point.

It wasn't straight forward, but I now have a fresh, working, Win 10 Pro. I did have some disk problems. I was sure there was something wrong w/laptop. I ran my ESET AntiVirus scan twice. Ran Malware Bytes twice. I read some good things about HD Sentinel, so I d/l a trial of that. It found a few issues, so I ran chkdsk /r again. This time when I ran it, screen stayed at 12% forever!! Seriously, probably for almost an hour. Then of course when I was out of the office, if finished. So I didn't see if it gave any messages.
When that finished and a restart, I did the clean install.
I entered my Win 8.1 Pro key in, it accepted it. But when install got done, I had Windows Home and NOT the release and build I expected.
While it was doing updates, I went for a visit with my sisters - we rarely seem to be able to get together anymore. So I didn't get home until 1:30am.
Winver showed me Windows HOME and a build # lower than the one I had before the clean install.























I tried to enter my 8.1 key again, got a numeric error msg. So I did some searching, and I was so tired, I don't even remember what I did. But I did something Msft suggested which involved updates and such. I let that run and went to bed.
Got up this morning and Voila, this is my Winver today:

Now I will start slowly, methodically, with discretion - installing programs. Clean install is always a good time to clean house, and unfortunately I've done lots of clean installs with these 2 beasts.
So, I'll keep you posted. I'm not touching my desktop until my laptop is in full working order, just in case I have problems with desktop. I have to have a fully working PC to fall back on.
Thanks again for your help. I wish I hadn't been so out of it when I got that advice late last night/this morning. I would have documented it.
I'm going to go thru my FF history and see if I can find the website. I've never had a problem with getting Windows Home on a clean install in the past. Usiung that 8.1 Pro key should get me win 10 pro...

Later.....

Great! I'm glad you were able to get it installed. At least you have it the way you would like it. I may suggest you right click the start flag, select command prompt (Admin) and enter this into the window sfc /scannow It is a system file checker and will make sure there are no missing or corrupted protected system files.

Oh yeah.... I remember that command now, but haven't used it in ages. Thanks essenbe. It's running now.
I love this forum. So many knowledgeable and helpful folks on here.

Will post results, hopefully all good.

Excellent news! Not sure exactly what happened with the key and home/pro - probably because the BIOS holds a Home key from Dell, and your Pro key is needed to upgrade. I am going to guess, it went something like this:
Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro - Windows 10 Forums

At any rate, the sfc /scannow @essenbe suggests is a very good idea. I would also turn off Fast Startup, set a restore point or two as you load software onto the thing, and make some images of the entire HDD while you're at it.

I see you've marked the thread as solved; I assume you're confident the desktop will not require assistance here?

Congratulations! Well done!