Will I have to reinstall Windows 7 if I restore my laptop to factory settings?

I bought my current laptop in April last year and it came with Windows Vista home premium, then I used my student discount to DOWNLOAD and update it to Windows 7, i've been having major Codec problems with it for months now and the only thing I havent tried is restoring it, I was just wondering if my laptop will return to windows vista? and will I have to purchase windows 7 again or can I use the same product key that was sent to me to reinstall it?

also, does anybody know whether or not restoring to factory settings will sort out my codec problem?

Thanks.

Hi and welcome to win7forums.

If you have successfully upgraded Vista to 7, then doing system restore won't return it to 7. What codec problem do you have, if you can't play video/audio then have you tried installing K-Lite or Shark's codecs ?

Originally Posted by cybercore

Hi and welcome to win7forums.

If you have successfully upgraded Vista to 7, then doing system restore won't return it to 7. What codec problem do you have, if you can't play video/audio then have you tried installing K-Lite or Shark's codecs ?

thanks for the reply, I installed a codec pack thinking it was for windows 7 but it was for Vista, and ever since anything media related or webcam related would crash and not play, ive tried system restores and the such but with no effect.