@CoastGuard71
Licensing has been a part of Windows since at least Windows 95. Activation being tied to the computer's hardware has been a part of Windows since Windows XP. These are not new things. It is expected behavior if Windows asks for reactivation when used on hardware that is too different from the hardware on which it was installed.
If updates are being pushed onto Windows 7 it is because it is set to automatically download and install them or that they were not manually checked before downloading and installing them.
I suggest and myself use the third option, "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them", as shown here:
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/pictures/windowsupdate.png
When updates are available I can then view them in the list, and for each and every one of them there is a link to that specific update's information page which I then click on so that I can check for myself what each update does before downloading it. For this it helps to have another browser installed, such as the Windows 7 version of Chrome or Firefox ESR. If an update adds something undesirable I right-click on it and choose to "hide" the update so that it won't show up anymore, won't be downloaded, and won't be installed.
Yes, it is tedious to do and takes a lot of time, but by doing this I have a properly updated system without any telemetry or "Get Windows 10" stuff on any of my Windows 7 computers and nothing gets pushed onto them.
From what I understand all of your drives with Windows installations on them have
clone installations. Clone installations are supposed to only be used on computers with
identical firmware and hardware - same BIOS/UEFI version and settings, same model of motherboard, chipset, CPU, and other hardware. When transferred to other firmware and hardware the installation is not valid as the system environment has references to settings and hardware that are not present, and this is likely to lead to errors.
It is also not strange if Windows then asks for reactivation as it correctly detects that the hardware is too different from the hardware on which it was originally installed. Windows licenses typically are for one license per computer and as such the same license key cannot be used on more than one computer. A license
can be transferred from one computer to another provided that the Windows installation and thus the license key are removed from the previous computer and that a reactivation is done on the new computer. One can have opinions on whether or not it should be allowed to use the same license key on more than one computer, but at least it is possible to transfer a license.
If I have then understood correctly and your Windows installations are clone installations - or installed on one computer and then simply moved to another computer with different firmware and hardware - it is because of this likely that you get errors. A
clean installation is always preferred as the circumstances are then as good as possible for the lowest likelihood of errors.
Yes, it is strange that it seemingly works when the drive is connected via USB, but as I said errors and weird behavior are likely to occur when the system environment in itself is not correct.
Here are some examples of things I have seen that don't make sense:
- A game running too slow
unless a joystick was connected to the game port, despite not being configured to use a joystick.
- A computer being unable to connect to a certain wireless network, even though both computer and network followed the same 802.11 standard, even though it was able to connect to other networks, even though other computers were able to connect to the network, and no hindrances were in place on the access point.
- Wi-Fi routers of the exact same model behaving differently even though they were configured with the same firmware version and settings.
Weird things happen and if the sensible solutions don't work it can sometimes be worthwhile to try something else. It might not make sense to you that you have these problems and you are free to keep trying to solve them in your preferred way, but seeing as apparently no one else has these problems, I think it wouldn't hurt to try a clean install. It would give the best possible conditions as it is a fresh start with the lowest likelihood of errors and it just might solve the problems, and even if it doesn't it would at least be an attempted solution and at this point it might be worthwhile to try since the previous attempts at solving the problems haven't worked.
I do however have understanding for a reluctance to do it since it
is tedious to zero-fill the HDD/secure erase the SSD, install Windows, have the proper drivers prepared beforehand and install them, manually check each update and wait for them to download and install, and everything else associated with a clean install of Windows 7. But, if it is what is necessary, then unfortunately it has to be done.
As I've said I myself don't get any of the problems in my limited testing and I don't play the Build Mod, but we can do a direct question to people who
do have more experience with the Build Mod, such as the current maintainer of Build Mod version 14:
@Grey Roger himself.
We can also ask people such as
@Pieter Boelen,
@AkrimalS,
@Hammie, and
@DH27.
Do any of you have any of the problems that CoastGuard71 is having? Can you reproduce the problems? Do you have any ideas of what in the code or anything else that could be looked at to try to solve the problems? Do you think something in the code might be the problem or do you think the problem is somewhere else?
It is of course these individuals' own choice if they want to reply at all or if they even
read or even
see this post - just like how it is for everyone else - but the question can be asked. Since I do know that people have reported problems before it is reasonable that they would also report these problems if they experienced them.
What is an NVIDIA graphics app doing in a game program meant for Intel965 W7 use when NVIDIA ended win7 support and is likely the "bug" that is crashing this game?
This I don't quite understand what you mean. An NVIDIA graphics driver for Windows 7 can be installed regardless of support for Windows 7 having ended. The game is supposed to work with GeForce and Radeon graphics chips. The "Intel compatibility fix" adds a workaround so that Intel graphics chips can also be used.
In any case, I think I have done what is reasonable in this matter, and I'm not a Build Mod developer so any issue that might exist in it in regards to these problems will not be handled by me.