Best products from r/windows

Option 1: Test your HDD first with any of these free tools. You may need to replace the HDD. It's very easy to replace the hard drive and RAM in a laptop. It takes only a few minutes in most cases. Google your laptop model + "replace HDD" or "swap HDD" to find the instructions. If you don't know your model number, there should be a sticker on the bottom of the laptop or near the battery that lists the model number and serial number. If the sticker is gone, you can use Speccy to find all the information about your computer and hardware. I don't know why you would think it would be difficult to swap the HDD. Get the WD Black 1 TB currently on sale until midnight tonight and swap the drives. You can also check out these laptop HDDs from Newegg and these laptop HDDs from PC Part Picker. If you want to try to save anything from the old drive, get a dual docking station like this Thermaltake BlacX Duet Hard Drive Enclosure Docking Station so you can clone the HDD or just copy the data.

Option 2: Since you said the data is porn, I'm leaning towards the fact that you may have a virus/malware infection. I would try these steps and see if they help at all.

1. Download ComboFix, HitmanPro, Malwarebytes, Bitdefender Rescue CD, and the Bitdefender free 30-day trial of Bitdefender Internet Security or Bitdefender Total Security. If you want to know the difference between the versions of Bitdefender, check the comparison chart.
   
   
2. Install ComboFix, let it run the scans, remove anything bad it finds, and restart the PC.
   
   
3. Install HitmanPro, let it run the scans, remove anything bad it finds, and restart the PC.
   
   
4. Install Malwarebytes, let it run the scans, remove anything bad it finds, and restart the PC.
   
   
5. If there was anything that couldn't be removed in regular Windows, restart the PC in safe mode and run the scans again.
   
   
6. Boot the PC from the Bitdefender Rescue CD before Windows starts and let it run the scans and then restart the PC. Here are instructions on how to make the Bitdefender Rescue CD. If you need more directions on how to use the Bitdefender Rescue Disk, check these instructions from Bitdefender or these instructions from How To Geek.
   
   
7. Install the 30-day free trial of Bitdefender Internet Security or Total Security and let it run a full scan just to make sure everything is clean.
   
   
8. Purchase Bitdefender Internet Security, Bitdefender Total Security, or another good, paid anti-virus program. According to tests, research, and my personal experience, Bitdefender is the best antivirus for home Windows users. (No, I do not work for Bitdefender or any antivirus or software company, nor do I get any kickbacks for promoting them and never have. I just recommend what I've found is the best option.) I use Bitdefender Internet Security or Total Security on all my computers and recommend it to all my clients. There's no reason to pay $50+ for a paid antivirus. I always buy mine on sale and have never paid more than $20 for a 2 year/3 PC subscription. Sometimes I even get paid antivirus programs for free after the rebate. Watch the sales from different retailers like Newegg: Antivirus & Internet Security, Amazon: Antivirus & Security, Best Buy: Antivirus, Security & Utilities, Staples: Antivirus Software, and eBay: Antivirus & Security Software. There are always sales or rebates so there's no reason to pay full retail price for any antivirus. (If you would like to see the links and research proving the Bitdefender is the best antivirus, feel free to PM me or comment on here and I will be happy to share them with you.)
   
   
9. Backup your PC or at least your important files. If you don't have an external hard drive, use a free cloud service like Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive to back up your most important data. Every computer owner should have an external hard drive and perform weekly backups. If you have a laptop or prefer portable storage, a Western Digital My Passport (Amazon link for My Passport) or Western Digital My Passport Ultra (Amazon link for My Passport Ultra)are great choices. If you have a desktop computer or need more storage space, check out the Western Digital My Book (Amazon link for My Book).

>First of all. Dell is great, but if you want a gaming laptop you want Alienware. No contest.

I strongly disagree, with Alienware you are paying simply for the name. Dell bought Alienware a few years back and you can get an ample Dell laptop with gaming specs for well under the cost of Alienware. If you go with Dell, I highly suggest trying out their outlet. You can usually find coupon codes on sites like SlickDeals where you can save upwards of 20% on outlet PCs (which still have full warranties). This allows you to get a much higher spec PC then you would have on a budget.

Samsung, Acer and Asus all make terrific gaming laptops for $700-$1000. As an example, this ASUS is very popular, as is this Samsung. The main point when shopping for a gaming laptop is to stay away from the Intel HD graphics machines, and look for mobile Nvidia or mobile ATI graphics chipsets. You'll want at least a Quad Core processor, 7200RPM hard drive and 6-8GB of memory.

Nearly every laptop maker out there makes great hardware that can run today's games, because the component prices are so cheap. If you have games in mind you like and you find some models of laptops, simply Google the model + the games you want to run on it. Example, if you want a Samsung Series 7, type Samsung Series 7 running Diablo.

No brand is really better than any other, that is the beauty of PCs... as most have the same components within. Just make sure to do your research on any issues (performance or hardware related) with the model(s) you are interested in before making a purchase. Also, buying online from a site like Amazon or NewEgg could save you hundreds in sales tax.

EDIT: Grammar.

This is out of my league in terms of knowledge, as I don't know the way Unix security is implemented too well but I will say this, syncing Windows permissions to Unix will be easy, just group the write permissions into Windows into a write permission on Unix, the other way though is going to be considerably hard unless you start working with the Unix version of extended attributes, which I certainly don't know about.

For information on the Windows Security system, and how ACLs work, then the Windows Internals 6th Edition books will be your best bet, Mark Russinovich, David Solomon and Alex Ionescu practically know the OS inside and out and they are a great read for learning more about the insides of Windows. Security is in part 1 chapter 6 on page 509 or 487 depending on your reader, but it helps to read through both just in case there are some additional details listed elsewhere.

I've linked the books below on the US version of Amazon, if you are in a different country it should be available using the search box on their, additionally you can probably

Part 1: http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Internals-Edition-Developer-Reference/dp/0735648735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405718207&sr=8-1&keywords=windows+internals+7th+edition
Part 2: http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Internals-Edition-Developer-Reference/dp/0735665877/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1405718207&sr=8-2&keywords=windows+internals+7th+edition

Additionally I think Russinovich has a public email that you can contact him on to discuss stuff if you like. Apologies that I couldn't help a bit more but like I said, the requirements are far beyond my scope of knowledge.

Man, we have a lot of shills here, for god's sake. Mac OS is a fucking fantastic OS, but Windows is too, in it's own merits. Have anyone over here tried to install and run software older than 5 years in a Mac?

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Well, let's go for the answers:

1 - I really don't think there is much to hate, it works, sometimes wonky, but it works. Most of the problems can be resolved with an quick search, and you should always be careful installing all drivers avaiable for your machine, the kind of thing that is completely automated in Mac OS.

2 - Like i've said, it works, it's usually stable, but the interface is definitelly wonky in a lot of times (like, the diference between uwp and win32 apps is huge. And I mean HUGE). Mac OS is a lot more constant in it's visual apresentation.

3 - I haven't actually switched, but I got rid of my Air for a Thinkpad Yoga from 2015, and it's been a blast since (but I've always had a Windows desktop).

4 - Like a lot of people have told you, you can get a better deal usually building it yourself, but if you don't want the hassle you have some deals like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q3KCY66/ref=psdc_13896591011_t2_B079SLT9R9?th=1, but i'm sure you can find even better prices.

5 - You can, but it won't be so confortable. Mac OS basicaly uses a keyboard layout that no one else uses, so it won't be so confortable with both Windows or Linux.

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I hope that I was of any help (and sorry for the engrish hahahaha).

The "screenshot" you are talking about is called an image. An image is like a giant file that you can copy and paste onto another hard drive. Later if your ssd becomes corrupt or something else happens to it, you can boot into the windows recovery and restore the image.
Go into the control panel and look up "backup and restore". Once you are in the "backup and restore" settings then you will see an option to create a system image on the left sidebar. You can click it and select the disk you want to save the image to. Once you are done windows should ask if you want to make a recovery disk. Make the recovery disk, and later if you need to restore the image you just made you can boot from the disk and restore your image.
You can find more info on creating and restoring the backup here.
Note: You made need equipment to connect the hdd to the computer with the ssd if they are not already connected. Something that connects USB to SATA like this would probably work.

Best bet is to just buy an OEM copy and do a clean install of Windows. Like I mentioned before, unless you plan on joining the PC to a domain, using group policy, etc. then Pro is just a waste of $40 over Home Premium.


http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Professional-System-Builder-Packaging/dp/B00H09BOXQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1396624323&sr=8-2&keywords=windows+7


http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Premium-System-Builder-Packaging/dp/B00H09BB16/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396624323&sr=8-1&keywords=windows+7



Or if you want to go to Windows 8.1, I'd recommend that. It's a very stable and fast OS, and is a huge improvement over Win7 despite the internet nay-sayers. Also, the "full" copies of Win8.1 costs as much as the OEM copies of Win7. (Full=transferable license, OEM=license tied to one machine and non-transferable)


http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-8-1-Full-Version/dp/B00EDSI7QO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396624517&sr=8-1&keywords=windows+8.1

yeah its a "gaming" mouse but the scroll on those is amazing.. you can release it to free scroll, which is great form web browsing,, etc. anything requiring long scrolls.

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Proteus-Spectrum-Tunable-Gaming/dp/B019OB663A/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1483581525&sr=1-1&keywords=g502

The G900 does the same thing and its wireless.

Look into Synology NAS devices. Works with Mac/Windows, decently priced and you can put whatever size drives in them you need to accommodate your needs. I use one at home and at work. Start with something like this, then find drives to populate it: https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Bay-DiskStation-DS1019-Diskless/dp/B07NF9XDWG/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=synology+nas+4+bay&qid=1572919695&sr=8-5.

They are pretty easy to setup as well.

I am not sure you know what OEM is. If you have an install disc for Windows 7 from Microsoft, it is a Retail copy, not OEM. If it was an OEM install disc, it would of came form the PC manufacturer.

Windows 8 is available for OEM and upgrade only to most people. Meaning you can only get it if you have Windows XP/Vista/7 or you buy a new computer from a manufacturer. If you want a physical install disc and a retail copy of Windows 8, you need an MSDN subscription to get it (I am a college student, so I can get one).

You cannot transfer (not suppose to be able to at least) to transfer a non-retail Windows 8 key to a new machine. That means once you install Windows 8 on a harddrive, it has to stay there (you can probably ghost it to transfer it to a new one). If you want to reinstall Windows 8 on the same machine, you can "Remove Everything and Reinstall Windows". It is an option in the settings.

EDIT: It looks like you want the Windows 8 System Builder OEM. It gives you a physical disc and product key, but I do not know if it lets you reuse the product key. Also, it looks like Windows 8.1 will have a Retail version available to the public if you just want to wait and get that install (upgrading from Windows 8 to 8.1 is free, but you could get this as an alternative to Windows 8).

Maybe not Windows XP, but Windows 10 definetly worked on an SSD and connecting via this SATA to USB3 adapter. I would bring the drive with me to play Windows game in various places. No issues at all; Although all locations were using Nvidia cards. Bonus: I was also able to get VirtualBox to boot from the drive as well from a Linux host.

Windows 8.1 is currently $100 on Amazon, so there's $20 off to start with. http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-8-1-Full-Version/dp/B00EDSI7QO/

$100 is a decent amount of money for a student or someone unemployed, but it's important to remember that the software is what makes your computer run. If you drive a car, you invest more than that each month in your vehicle's operations (i.e. buying gas) -- in that context, how much of a burden is it really to put down $100 every couple of years to upgrade/maintain something you rely on every day?

Edit: If you are a student, you have access to Windows licenses free or very cheaply through your school -- look into that.

Edit 2: If you're OK with reinstalling Windows 7 and then upgrading, Windows 8 upgrade licenses can be obtained for $75-$80.

Does your laptop have a SATA II or SATA III interface? Google your model number to find that out first

IF its SATA II, then there's no point in upgrading to an SSD, the gains will be minimal

IF its SATA III, then just order a SATA III SSD (https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-NAND-SATA-Internal/dp/B077SF8KMG as an example)

Create a bootable windows 10 USB stick using Rufus.

Look up online how to open up your laptop, guides to replace hard disks are available for almost any model out there

Replacing the drive is pretty straight forward (detach the main pin, unscrew a couple of screws, replace)

Reboot into BIOS and choose your USB stick to boot from

Install Windows on the new SSD. The activation is tied to your account and digital signature from your laptop (I don't understand the details fully), once you login, windows should be activated. Replacing your hard disk doesn't change activation status

You should be good to go

You can straight clone the drive with Macrium software.

You will need a drive bay.

If the drives are the same size it or the new drive is larger you can just use a hardware clone machine.

In both cases I suggest this one. It has a nice offline clone feature.

Inateck USB 3.0 to SATA Dual-Bay USB 3.0 Hard Drive Docking Station with Offline Clone Function fit 2.5"/3.5" HDD SSD SATA (SATA I/II/ III), Support 2x 8TB and UASP, Black (FD2002) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N1KXE9K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fiVKBbZ3B0DXQ

I was in the same boat as you a few months ago. Here's what I did.

1. I went to Amazon and ordered this HD cloner.
   
2. When the cloner arrived, I plugged it in and inserted the target SSD and my old drive with Windows on it.
   
3. I then pressed the clone button.
   
   Perfect copy, worked like a charm. No muss, no fuss.

Found a link to a small mom and pop shop that sells them.

Good luck.

Windows 7 Professional SP1 64bit (OEM) System Builder DVD 1 Pack (New Packaging)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H09BOXQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_7QGSybZVG0YX0

You can tell what the current state of how to licence Microsoft products is when the answers thus far can't directly answer the question.


Until someone else can give a better method and price, Amazon is the most straight forward, legal, way to buy a licence that I know of.

Assuming you're never going to use this as evidence in a case: the quick and easy answer is using something like AUTOPSY.

Install, then use an interface such as a COOLGEAR with a writeblocker ( https://www.amazon.com/Coolgear-SATA-Adapter-Write-Protect-Selection/dp/B005C55OYA/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1_sspa?keywords=cool+gear+write+blocker&qid=1555893161&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull-spons&psc=1 ) to mount the drive.

You can find tutorials on how to use AUTOPSY on youtube. Find what you need and "export" the files to your local disk. Done.

> but you can't just but a new OEM key. OEM keys can only be purchased with a new computer (or significant amount of hardware)

Yes you can... you can even buy them on Amazon all by itself.

I'd recommend using this device:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TZR3E70/ (Kingwin HDD Power Switch Module 6 Switches for 5.25-Inch Bay)

It allows running multiple operation systems without dual-booting and ensures true isolation of drives.

It also allows you to disconnect drives you do not use frequently without having to unplug anything. This will increase the longevity of the drives.

Buy it from amazon where they're actually clear about it being a full version (and it's cheaper): http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-8-1-Full-Version/dp/B00EDSI7QO/

Hap hap hello there! I am a bot and you linked to Amazon.

This comment contains 1 pricing graph(s)

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Product 1: Logitech MX Master Wireless Mouse, Large Mouse, Computer Wireless Mouse (B00TZR3WRM)

Imgur pricing graph

||Amazon|3P New|Used|
|--:|:--|:--|:--|
|Cur|$69.85|$63.99|$55.95|
|Hi|$99.99|$129.00|$149.99|
|Lo|$64.99|$55.00|$29.99|
|Avg|$71.43|$63.92|$48.06|

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^^I'm ^^a ^^bot. ^^Please ^^PM ^^any ^^bugs

How deep do you want to go?

$96 for OEM Windows 10 on Amazon

There's your starting point.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416804


http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Professional-System-Builder-Packaging/dp/B00H09BOXQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397225784&sr=8-1&keywords=windows+7+pro

Logitech MX Master.