What to do with an old Lenovo Thinkpad running Windows 7

[Firefox98]

I have an old (Slightly damaged... okay very damaged) Lenovo Thinkpad running Windows 7, as the title says. It is loaded with viruses and a forgotten adminstrator password. It's also got a few missing keys, but I have an extra keyboard or two hanging around, and with a bit of luck, I may have the keys themselves. With some work, I may be able to fix it up. I've been thinking about restoring it to factory settings to get rid of the viruses I can't remove because of the admin password, but what else can I do with it? I can say I know computers pretty well, but compared to the experts who can take apart a laptop and put it back together with it still working flawlessly, I'm pretty new. So anything I can do with it?

 

[B00kWyrm]

First, I will assume you are not locked out at the bios level.
Second, I will assume you do not have restore/reinstall media.
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Here's what I'd consider doing.
Swap out the drive, and start clean... no worries about rootkits.
If you have done any building, you should be able to do this.
You can probably find a how-to video on YouTube for your exact Lenovo.
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Then... saving money ($100 +/-, plus Win10 issues etc) ,
I'd load a version of Linux, maybe Mint, maybe Ubuntu.
Forget MS-Office, and go with Libre-Office.
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As my machines age out this is the direction I will likely be moving.
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If you don't want to do this...
Well, you can ask Broni for help in our Malware forum.
But, from your narrative, you may need first to do your
"restoring it to factory settings" .
I am having difficulty understanding exactly your situation.
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If your question is "what is this machine good for?"
Well, that is another matter....
Simple office tasks, surfing, email, even streaming may still do fine on it.
You might find it sluggish on more demanding programs,
and it may not do gaming well...
but that really depends on system specs.
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Does this help at all?

 

[Firefox98]

I've done a system restore and it went from a cross between Windows 98 and Windows 7 to good as new and all updated! I'm just thinking about installing Linux now. Now, here's the problem. There's a few missing keys and the touchpad doesn't work (I use an external mouse for it). It works amazingly other than that. What can I do about the keys and touchpad?

 

[Firefox98]

Oops, I just found out the battery's not too good either and obviously reads the wrong amount. It said it had 19 minutes left, but then I got a warning that there was only 6% left, and a few seconds after I got the warning, it died.

 

[B00kWyrm]

I use an external keyboard and mouse with my laptop...
on the road even.
Battery... well, you can get replacements.
Some are more difficult to replace than others.
Lenovo model #?
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It reaches a point tho'...
do you really want to throw more money at this,
or just invest in new hardware.