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I have just acquired a near new Toshiba P50 laptop. These PC's allow the user to choose between W7-64 and W8 when they are first switched on. The previous owner has chosen Windows 8 and this reports as having been activated, but I would prefer to run with Windows 7.
There is a "factory reset" function available which I imagine returns the PC to "out of the box" condition, but does this also allow me to choose Windows 7 and activate that instead, or am I stuck with Windows 8 forever?
Are you saying that your laptop is Dual boot-able and you cannot access windows 7? If that's the case you might need to enable windows 7 in your boot manager and then you would be able to open W7. – Hunter – 2014-01-03T15:47:06.540
@Hunter No the laptop is not dual-bootable. In some markets (incl. NZ) they provide the ability to select Win7 instead of Win8 as an operating system, but this choice can only be made when the PC is first started, and the alternate OS is not available once this is done (otherwise I guess they would need to buy 2 OEM licences from MS). My question is whether the factory restore function will allow me to make this choice again. – rossmcm – 2014-01-04T22:50:20.117
In that case no, factory restore will do you nothing good. Windows is installed when you first buy a laptop and if you are given a choice btw windows you can either get only 1 i.e. when you make a choice you are given that windows installed and might be given a windows installation disc. Factory restore cannot bring back an installation that is never installed. So you would need a fresh W7 installation disc from microsoft website or from some friend who has it and then you would be able to install a new copy of Windows 7 on your laptop. – Hunter – 2014-01-05T04:47:39.187
@Hunter, it appears as if you warrant being awarded the answer – rossmcm – 2014-01-12T21:28:58.567