My laptop had windows 10 pre installed when I bought it, but since then I screwed it up by disabling my admin account and now I have to reformat. Will I be able to buy windows 7 on usb and reformat and install it on my laptop?

windows 10 binds to the hardware id
you should be able to reinstall it and it will automatically verify itself.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10

use rufus to copy it to a usb drive.

I don't know what my key is for my windows 10 either. Will I need to buy a new one?

Also is Rufus a program? I can't even install programs on my laptop without admin

Once again windows 10 binds to your HARDWARE ID's

Secondly you don't NEED to activate windows 10 it works dine without a key.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psPWQy3-5B0

Lastly you have a laptop , search google and see if you have a recovery partition to reinstall with
unless you deleted the recover partition.

This post was edited by King Atrhur on Aug 13 2017 10:01am

To actually address the question OP asked: the answer is almost definitely yes.

there is no reason to down grade,
quite possibly make him buy & only to find out theres no driver compatible for some of the hardware.. then what?

i dont recommend buying 7 but i don't think it's a downgrade either. as for drivers that's why i said almost
i'd have to know which laptop it is

these driver issues would probably persist with a fresh install of windows 10 if they came pre-installed and aren't available elsewhere.

this is a way to deter people from doing this kind of fresh install stuff entirely without sending them in, totally against the spirit of pc's being an open platform and no one should support it

What's the worst case scenario though? He loses access to some kind of stupid proprietary extra button or useless display panel? Some sort of special 'gaming mode' or rbg functionality? That's usually all that's at stake with these kinds of laptop drivers. The core components of the machine should still work fine.

This post was edited by DCSS on Aug 13 2017 07:09pm

Fair point on the almost *

Though while not common he can lose function to key parts.
I more or less didn't entertain it knowing it could go south.