does a repair-install fix the registry?  

RolandJS said:

Bob1212, I really do not know how the W10's version of that utility will work...please, if you dnld and use it, let us know how that worked for you.

Okay, I will do so. For now, I can't successfully perform any updates at all, and I'm also leery of doing the repair-install because Cryptographic Services routinely now is interfering with and monopolizing the HDD. I think CS will probably ruin a repair attempt, or even cause more damage.

This started March 10th.

Berton said:

But most of those 'flavors' of Linux are free. As for a monopoly, back in the latter half of the '90s there was an investment by a man of about $140,000,000 for non-voting stock in Apple, prevented a monopoly existing in the industry.

Free stuff hasn't been able to measure up to M$ based on market share as far as I can tell.

Bob1212 said:

Yep, after 20+ years with Windows, now with Win10 it seems a necessity. The way that MS behaves should be illegal. I can't think of any other industry where the maker forces you to make modifications, which then often harm the product and the maker is not in the tiniest bit responsible. Or even cares much.

Bob1212 said:

That doesn't address at all what I'd said about forced updates harming the product.
And owning or not doesn't change a thing, either. We still pay for it.

Hi Bob,

It doesn't change a thing, that is the point.

But first, you really-really do have my commiserations when a MS update screws with your system, the anger, frustration and the time required, that you're not getting paid for to resolve it.

None the less, it is their product they are updating, not your system, you are an end license user of their product and they can and do make alterations to it without the need for individuals permissions to do so.

Where I can totally agree with your position is where one of their updates is not compatible with an added but one of their own products, that gets my goad, there should be some financial compensation scheme for such scenarios.

But as Steve wrote, considering all the 3rd party vendors and other things that might take place to alter a raw Win OS product, it does show how far MS go out of its way to make their OS, their product as flexible as possible.

But you don't own, you agree to use Windows,--it's a big difference but MS should always be upfront and transparent as to their updates and reasons for.