Gateway nv79 win7 ultimate issue

Hey all, first day here and starting with what is probably an annoying question that I just cant find answers to anywhere.

Here is the basic situation.

Have win 2003 sbs domain to support, owner bought a Gateway NV79 with 7 Home Premium (64bit) installed and win 7 (64bit) "anytime upgrade" license from Best Buy.

Out of the box 7 Home Premium won't join a domain and some of her 32 bit apps need domain authentication to work, so the upgrade was bought.

Ran the machine as Home Premium and checked all hardware, and software functionalit, wireless, etc. and that all the local apps installed and ran.

did the "Anytime Upgrade" to Ultimate, which forced updates from Microsoft. Usually not that big a problem, but this time it is.

Joined Domain, installed other apps that needed the domain and all works well. Nifty, right? wrong. Serives started to fail, event logs recorded things like VSS not working.

Uninstalled the bloat ware from BestBuy and Gateway, and the Network Location Awareness service, Network List Service, and RPC EndPoint mapper service stopped working.

Event logs going nuts, wireless not connecting. etc.

Domain access is fine, just the wireless is off and several other services are starting to fail .

Cloned the hard drives and created full system images including the restore partition.

Ran the Restore Operating System Files but keep data option, and the new system came up with all the bloat ware and no ability to create Administrator account or reactivate old profiles which that option said it would. It won't let me add users or create an administrator account.

Figured since I am going to have to do a full factory restore and start from scratch, I would try removing the bloat and see what happens.

It came with Norton Internet Suite Trial and Windows Live, neither of which are wanted on the final system.

Uninstalled Norton and the OS almost choked to death trying to do it.

then uninstalled Windows Live and wouldn't you know it, the MSI service reported that it was crapped out half way through the uninstall.

The NLA, NLI, and RPC Endpoint Mapper all crapped out along with 10 more services.

This is what led me here.

I am trying to figure out if I can pull the image out of the Gateway restore partition and remove the bloat ware and repackage it and restore it to the restore partition.

If not what will be the effect of the SLIC self activation if I use a Technet ISO? Will any of the techniques on here (and so far I been eyeballs deep in reading DAZ, nonesence, etal's posts and processes trying to figure out if they apply to me.

The more I read the more confused I get.

We have paid for those licenses and I am not sure how the anytime upgrade affects the process and licenses.

Once I get the clean install and system configured I can create a master boot/restore disk for this and all but would prefer that the bloat free version be what is in the hidden restore partition. The reason being is that I will not be here in 6 months or so and if something happens i would prefer that the restore brings her back to the config she needs instead of having to reinstall all the crap and reconfigure everything. and it will save me tons of time writing instructions.

So my questions are:

Can I pull the image off of the restore partition and modify it to remove the bloat ware?
if so HOW?

do I edit the unattended text or is it a .ISO or .VHD that I would have to unpack? I can do an ISO but VHD editing would be new to me.

What parts would I remove from the OEM setup to prevent the bloat from even installing?

With Window Live is it installed as a windows service which I can remove from the remove windows components settings?

ON the other track, if I use the Technet ISO do I do a complete restore, run the Anytime upgrade and then back up the activation files.

Then do a clean install from the Technet ISO modifying it with the EI.cfg steps and add back in the activation files?

The Technet ISO allows for 10 activations and that would not happen, but I just don't want her using that license as a working machine. With her luck the MS cops would track her down and litigate the crap out of her.

I am sure I can access the driver sets on the restore partition so they would be available to add to the ISO, but won't that change my hash value?

AT this point my head is spinning, all I want is a clean install and to make a back up image to use as a restore for emergencies, or in the best case replace the OEM restore on the restore partition.

If anyone has had a similar problem please share the solution with me.

am I over thinking this? should I just run the technet ISO with that license and let her go on her merry way? or can I use the OEM keys on the technet ISO?

Thanks in advance

Mike

 

Thanks for the reply and frankly that is where I figured this was heading, but after reading all the posts I am concerned about the whole cert, product key and and the anytime upgrade.

If I understand your suggestion correctly;

I will use one of the tools to get the cert and product key from the exisiting install (which tool or tools do I need? what versions. As i said earlier there seems to be ALOT of information and some of it has some old posting dates.)

I will reformat the hard drive, delete the partitions.

Use the untouched ISO (can i use the technet iso i have?) to reinstall clean

Import the cert and product key. (curious about if this is the key and cert the Anytime Upgrade installs? or the OEM with 7 Home Premium that was the OEM install?)

and if need be apply the anytime upgrade

I am assuming that even if I use the technet ISO the install will pass Genuine Advantage and all that including the MS Office Suite Install ( I have the full retail license).


My main concern here is that I probably won't be supporting this user in 6 months and she has a habit of gorking up machines. I can create the ISO to restore the hard drive and configuration so that is not a problem, but since I don't have a real solid grasp on the SLK setup and the OEM key stuctures+cert I just need to make sure that restoring the clone will continue to work as normal in the event it needs to be used after my departure. No licensing issues etc.

I know I sound like an idiot here, but I have not had to deal with Win 7 before or vista, and frankly this is giving me a headache!

The other issue is the Windows Live. This machine and the user have zero use for it and I don't want it on the machine if possible. So can it be removed using the add remove microsoft programs applet? or am I just continually stuck having it in the system or trying to be loaded via updates?

I know MS is really attached to Windows live and they can be persistent little buggers about it.

Thanks again for your help and advice, and for any further information you can provide

Mike