Windows 10: The despotic arrogance of Microsoft

The despotic arrogance of Microsoft came once again to show over this weekend. On Tuesday evening, August 17 2021 I started QuickBooks as I urgently needed to prepare some statements to be presented Wednesday morning. I last worked on QuickBooks on Friday, August 13, 2021 and everything worked fine. On Tuesday starting up QuickBooks (Version affected are 2012 -13 -14 -16 -17 -18 and 2019, and maybe further) I received the following message: "QuickBooks requires Internet Explorer 6.0 to work...." What? WTF? (Please don't tell me I need to go to update QuickBooks so that Intuit can make some money delivering the same crock over and over with a few added bells and whistles every year.) I know that since I'm running Windows 10 there always is been a copy of Internet Explorer 11 on the system. So I started looking for it and guess what? It's gone and so is the registry entry for it as well! The registry entry: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\IEXPLORE.EXE] @="C:\\Program Files\\Internet Explorer\\IEXPLORE.EXE" "Path"="C:\\Program Files\\Internet Explorer;" was gone, nonexistent so was the folder and any executable therein. In Windows features the entry was unchecked and checking it, it would not react or respond to it. Oddly enough you can still find and download and Internet Explorer 32 or 64 version from Microsoft. Attempting to installing the 32-bit version does not work as it claims that you need a 32-bit/64-bit OS.... DUH... The 64-bit version installs but appears to have connectivity issues. All this courtesy of a recent Microsoft Windows update either over the weekend or on Tuesday "forced down my throat again" without any announcement or warning. With a little research I found out I'm not alone with this problem and of course the World Wide Web of disinformation dishes out either outdated and irrelevant information en galore about it i.e. referring to Windows 7 or 8 or being almost 10 years old posts... or refers to links that refer to Microsoft which are of course typically either 404 "this page does not exist" or give you the plane Microsoft welcome support website... Trying to sell you their newest hardware crap. Just because Microsoft ends the support of Internet explorer and pushes their decrepit "edge" does not, should not allow them to simply going into my system and without warning unannounced delete Internet Explorer 11! Seriously ask yourself, by comparison would you buy a car which the manufacturer disables the car after they deemed it outdated and not supported a longer by simply disabling the vehicle? In other words your '68 Mustang no longer works at all...? Because Ford decided so? I feared the day coming in 2025 when Microsoft decides to end support for Windows 10. Punishing all those who were not interested in this marketing push of Windows 11, being just a "reheated" souped-up bells and whistles minimum dual core minimum this and that bloatware of its predecessor. Will Microsoft then in its despotic top down arrogance just going to render all Windows 10 machines as inoperable and useless by deleting the operating system? Or force update you to Windows 11? (Of course you will only be able to download apps from the Microsoft store and of course you will have to pay "rent" to Microsoft for using it) Seriously! What saved the day was doing a system restore back to or prior Friday, August 13, 2021. Everything worked fine again. Now I need to seriously find a way to absolutely block any kind of imposed and pushed Microsoft windows updates!

:)

 

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.

 

MS arrogant or dumb?

I really don't know what you expect of this forum.

The answer is as already EXPERTLY stated above and wiping is the inbuilt security feature adopted quite correctly by Microsoft

It is not Microsoft fault that your sister has forgotten her email address DESPITE IT BEING PERMANENTLY SHOWN IN SETTINGS EMAIL +ACCOUNT on the actual phone!

Typo really Microsoft fault?

Email addresses are not dropped on a whim so the erm Microsoft email something other address not used for e-mail. I use my Gmail account for emails.

There is of course syncing.

However your sister has opted for the NON mandatory option

NOT backing up...OK.

I had phone contacts which are now on my Lumia phone, which is recoverable because it really is not an excuse to call the use YOUR OWN handset being geeky but familiarisation.

The failures you list are due to your sisters omissions which if implemented would not require this attempt to circumvent security.

E.g. backing up to the cloud less than 60 seconds

I guess therefore Microsoft is arrogant and btw so is Google

If you don't follow basic procedures and make mistakes in posting your recovery options then you should NOT come onto help forums and ask for exceptions that you could equally omit

SETTINGS / EMAIL + ACCOUNTS THE EMAIL ADDRESS associated with the phone.