Windows 10: Microsoft surprise

I had an old laptop that came with Vista, got upgraded to 7 and then 10, all Home versions. A friend who works in IT gave me a fully legal and unused 8.1 Pro retail key he had no need for. It upgraded the old laptop to Windows 10 Pro. But that antique got so slow that it became a problem, so I got a new laptop with 10 Home to replace it. I expected the 8.1 Pro key would work on it, but thought I would at least have to resort to Activation Troubleshooter or maybe even a phone call to Microsoft to explain this was a replacement. But nothing. The laptop smoothly upgraded to Pro and was activated just as if the key had never been used before. Is Microsoft slipping or don't they keep track of used keys after a period of time?

:)

 

Edge Search Does Not Permit Change of Region


I got these suggestions from the Microsoft Community forum.No. 1 worked for me:

Thank you for posting the query on Microsoft Community. I am glad to assist you on this.
We have reproduce the issue here and we are able to access non-regional search for google using Microsoft Edge.
I would suggest you to try the below steps and check if it helps.
Step 1:
Clear browsing data option of Microsoft Edge and check if you face the issue. To do so perform the steps below.

1. Click on the More actions icon next to the feedback icon present on top right corner of the Project Spartan homepage.
2. Select Settings and click on Choose what to clear.
3. Check the boxes Browsing history, Cookies and saved website data and Cached data and files and click on Clear.

Step 2:
I suggest you to create a new user account and check if the issue occurs.

1. Go to Settings.
2. Choose Accounts and then select Family and other users.
3. Select add someone else on this PC.
4. Enter a user name and hit next.
5. Click on Finish.
6. Sign out from the current Account and Log into the new account.

Step 3:
It could also happen because of network issue. I suggest you to try with different network connection and check if it helps.

 

Microsoft Edge TLS Security

After trying everything (not a lot of steps) listed in the Microsoft Edge support site, I did a wider search and found this very simple youtube video that fixed it immediately:

For those who prefer not to click links the steps are simple:

1. Click in the Cortana search bar next to the Win 10 Start button

2. Type internet options

3. Select internet options (control panel) from the list

4. Click on the advanced tab

5. Scroll down to the security section

6. Make sure the following are all clicked:
Use SSL 3.0
Use TLS 1.0
Use TLS 1.1
Use TLS 1.2

7. Click apply

8. Refresh the page that was giving the error and it should now connect.

Hope this helps, it was a 30 second fix after hours of pounding my head against the error with the Support site suggestions.

 

Not Surprising

Not surprising, as most desktops (worldwide) are running W7.

Also MS' has behaviour has guaranteed this outcome:

• The GWX fiascos encouraged lots of users to disable Windows Update
• To make sure WU wasn't turned back on MS switched to cumulative updates
• For additional insurance they made sure that everyone knew cumulative updates contained modified telemetry