Windows 10: Recent upgrade

After recent update I now have an "activate Windows" watermark. My computer is a laptop that came with Windows pre-installed then I did the free upgrade to W10. I have no idea what the original product key was. Everything was fine until this last upgrade. The upgrade is also taking forever and seems to crash. Any ideas other than rolling back to my original Windows version?

:)

 

Recent File List

Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file1

Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file2
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file3
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file4
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file5
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file6
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file7
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file8
Remove-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Applets\Paint\Recent File List" -name file9
...

you get the idea. ( too lazy to put it in a for loop and test it.

or just open regedit and remove all the fileX from that key.

 

Recent (Save Files) - Change Default Settings to OneDrive


Have you tried the following? how to disable "recent places" in MS Word? - Super User

 

Recent (Save Files) - Change Default Settings to OneDrive


Hello -
Thanks for the return. Before I undertake changing the Registry, I have a question.
The steps in my Registry, for my version of Windows 10, were a bit different, but I think I eventually got to the right spot.
The last step is to change the number of places you want to list in Recent Places. In my case, the default Max Display listed 50 as the number. So, if I were to change that number, how do I know the Save As page will be one of those places? Or, a similar question, will this registry change delete the tab Recent from my Save As page? This is what I would like to happen.
When I received my computer in Nov. 2016, the Recent tab was not listed in the Save As page. Something caused it to be added over time. Which brings me to this second question. Would there be any benefit in deleting the changed registry listing and reverting back to the default listing? See attachment.
Jerry