Windows 7 Lots of options not working

[elloco999]

Hi all,

I've installed Windows 7 Professional several weeks ago and it is mostly running just fine. But there are also a lot of options not working. For example, nothing happens when I:

• click My Computer -> Properties
• In the windows update screen, when I click the installed updates link (lower left corner, under see also)
• clicking lots of links in the configuration screen

And I get the error "Interface is not supported" when I:

• Right-click my desktop and click Personalize
• Right-click my desktop and click Screenresolution

On my other computer running Windows 7 Ultimate, all works just fine. I've tried searching the net, but can't seem to find anything that even comes close to my problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Rick

 

[ickymay]

did you perform an upgrade install or a fresh install ?

 

[reghakr]

ickymay is correct.

Is there a restore point you can go back to?

 

[elloco999]

I performed an upgrade install. Would rather have done a clean install, but since it is a student license, I could only upgrade.

Previous OS was XP Pro.

I already tried going back to a previous restore point, but even in the first restore point the problem persists.

 

[tblount]

I performed an upgrade install. Would rather have done a clean install, but since it is a student license, I could only upgrade.

Previous OS was XP Pro.

I already tried going back to a previous restore point, but even in the first restore point the problem persists.

I'm not sure how you upgraded from XP, it requires a custom / clean install. I guess your upgrade was satisfied and found a way to do it.

There is a sticky note here in this forum that explains how to use your upgrade version and key to do a clean custom install.

It seems that your problems may be related to graphics card/drivers. I have a link in my tagline to identifying your problems. You probably have logs that suggest what's wrong.

 

[ickymay]

further to what tblount says you can't successfully upgrade from XP to windows 7 , it's not a recommended path in fact out of the manual it states

you cannot upgrade directly from windows xp to windows 7

you can migrate your files and settings in XP by launching Migsetup which launches windows easy transfer to transfer the files to store your data on a USB stick then run windows easy transfer to migrate the settings back in a windows 7 environment

even if you fix these few issues you will experience and discover more problems caused by the upgrade

 

[elloco999]

Technically, you are correct. You can't "upgrade" windows XP to windows 7.

But, a student license can't be installed on a PC that does not have a genuine XP of Vista installed on it.

The way I installed win 7 is to boot from the DVD, then choose the upgrade option. Try this with a vista installation and you'll get a message stating you should start the upgrade process from vista. When XP is detected however, it installs Win 7 over XP. So it is technically not an upgrade, since XP is removed by the installer, not upgraded.

The clean install option is available for me when I boot the DVD. The installation also works perfectly, until win 7 boots for the first time and I'm asked for the key. Then I get a message that my key is invallid. This is because of the limitations of the student license... So "upgrading" even if it is not really upgrading, is my only option.

I'm not interrested in keeping the settings from the XP installtion. I preffer a clean install myself, that's why I tried that first (formatted my drive and installed win 7) even though the installation documentation clearly stated it was not possible with the student license. When that failed, I reinstalled XP and chose the upgrade option.

Rick

 

[elloco999]

That sounds like a good workaround! If/ when I decide to reinstall, I will definately try that!

By the way, my wife (it is actually her computer) told me just now that these problems did not exist when windows was just installed. Only later, after the computer hanged at one time did the problems appear. So maybe it's not that it is an "upgrade", but it might just be due to problems with the NVidia drivers/ graphics card (we installed those just before the problems appeared...) Strange though that the restore points didn't work...

 

[tblount]

But, a student license can't be installed on a PC that does not have a genuine XP of Vista installed on it.

yes it can, I thought I mentioned there is a sticky thread here in one of these forums that explains how to do it.

The clean install option is available for me when I boot the DVD. The installation also works perfectly, until win 7 boots for the first time and I'm asked for the key. Then I get a message that my key is invallid. This is because of the limitations of the student license... So "upgrading" even if it is not really upgrading, is my only option.
Rick

I have a student upgrade, I copied the files to a usb drive, I removed my hard drive and replaced it with a new drive that never had an os on it. I booted to the usb, I did a clean install on the clean hard drive and used my upgrade key.

Microsoft says it ok to do this if you have vista or xp and have problems with the upgrade or simply want to install clean or to a new harddrive.

You just need to know the facts... check my blogs

 

[elloco999]

Hey everyone,

Last night I solved the problem using a repair install As advised to me here. It took quite some time, but after is was done all was working fine.

If all continues to work fine, I'm going to leave it at this. If not, I will try Drew's method of doing a clean install and then upgrading that.

Thank you all!

Rick.