AdwCleaner won't have deleted anything yet.
is it the Vista laptop we are trying to fix or the Desktop.
On my Toshiba Win 7 laptop I have to press FN+ALT+PRTSC together and sometimes a couple of times then go to Paint to see if the Paste button is active.
I'll then click on Paste - straighten the frame up and go File/SaveAS to save it with a name.
You can then use the Attachments as I've previously described to post the pic.
The programs that appear in the lower pane are programs that AdwCleaner considers to be adware, but can be legitimate programs that have been installed - does your husband recognise any of them ?
Just uncheck the boxes for any you want to keep, otherwise they will be included in the delete list when you click on Cleaning, but prior to doing that, click on the Report button to see what else it has found and when you close that to return to the UI - you would then click on Cleaning.
Post a screen shot of what else it finds as well and wait before hitting the Cleaning button, but anything it lists in the report, you can trust the program with to delete.
Some have gone straight from Vista to Win 10 without any problems - however, you would still need to run a compatibility test first should there be anything that is no longer supported for Win 10 - such as graphics drivers being the main thing.
While there isn't a free upgrade route from Vista to Win 10, MS reckon that if your machine can run Win 8.1 then it can run Win 10.
As you can't get the free upgrade then you won't be able to use its inbuilt compatibility check.
However, MS reckon that if your machine can run Win 8.1 then it can run Win 10, but another snag - the Win 8.1 Upgrade Assistant doesn't support Vista or XP so you have to use the checker for Win 8 in this article -
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-8/upgrade-assistant-download-online-faqIf you have any doubt as to whether your laptop will run Win 10 then I would contact HP support.