Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.
Yup, considering how much you've changed, best option is just a fresh install. If you have information on the old installation you need to get off, I'd say get a ubuntu disc and boot to it, and copy everything off to a USB drive, then do a fresh install of windows.
Always used Debian for my servers. Never had a problem with intercompatibility. Install samba for Windows files, clamtk so you have a nice gui for antivirus, and you'll be good to go.
I think it is funny. Of EVERYONE that I know that has tested Windows 8, I only know of 1 person that can STAND the look and feel of it. EVERYONE else thinks it's the ugliest gui OS they've ever used.
Can you get a .zip of the Vista drivers instead of an executable. 95% of the time, Vista drivers will work in Windows 7, it's just sometimes if you install via the executable, they detect it's not Vista and crap out.
Had this with one of my Dell laptops, had to end up going to their business...
With AMD, you can get TOLERABLE onboard graphics, since it's ATI graphics. But I'd still rather have a mid-range discrete GPU than even AMD's best onboard.
If you don't need a lot of power though, yeah, AMD onboard is tolerable.
I just recently picked up the regular Black Widow. Although a bit on the expensive side (ok, cheap for mechanical keyboards), I love it. I ended up buying 3 of them. 2 for at home and I took 1 to work for my use. I really like this keyboard.
I have one (different manufacturer) in my main desktop. Handles what few games I play quite well (I don't game much, still do AOE II and Diablo II as my most recent games), and looks fantastic. Also never bothered overclocking.
Here's the laptop I'm on right now, Debian Wheezy 64-bit. I pointed out to my wife that if I tried setting like that she'd be calling the ambulance since I wouldn't be able to breathe. :)
I'd agree with Arch, or Debian netinstall. Either is going to be as small as possible, and they both perform REALLY well. My personal favorite 2 OS's.
Just avoid KDE4 or Gnome3...use something smaller.
Personally, thought it was boring. Had to force myself to set through it, telling myself the whole time "it'll get interesting any second!!" But it never did.