Specs: Core Duo T2300, 1GB ram, 60GB HDD
The system itself boots up fine. I had a one hiccup during install (could that be the source of my problem?) where it got hung up on "Windows is expanding files at 0%." I ejected the CD and put it back in and the installation continued as normal.
Nearly everything seems to work ok including wifi and windows updates (I am typing on it as I speak). I even installed Firefox and it's fairly zippy at web browsing.
PROBLEM: Whenever I try to access anything from the start menu such as computer, pictures, downloads, control panel, it gives me an error saying "windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access this item."
I am the administrator, and it's a fresh install of windows, so I doubt there's any malware.
The computer used to run Windows XP Home. I did a clean install, not an upgrade.
After attempting another fresh install of Windows 7, and this time the setup asked me for a driver CD (which obviously doesn't exist for Windows 7), so I couldn't proceed any further.
From device manager nearly everything has a driver except for 2 "base system devices" that come up.
Is there any way I can get this installation fully up and running?
Here's a youtube video of someone running it well with the same exact specs and model as me, so it definitely seems possible
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qysEmsT0kzE
I got some amazing help from this forum when I was trying to remove some malware from my other laptop, so I was hoping I could get the same for this old system.
[b]problem has been solved!![/b]
Turns out the installation was just fine, but the user account was not set up properly.
I was an administrator, but I wasn't given all priviledges somehow.
Anyway, without being able to get into control panel, I used typed "user controlpasswords2" into run.
Played around with a few settings, and made a brand new profile with everything enable just for good measure, AND voila!
My computer is now officially on Windows 7 Ultimate and everything works
Thanks for the help guys. Hopefully my thread may help someone else as well