Sandyt, thank you for the detailed explanation. Now I understand it a lot better. My old, middling Toshiba Satellite with Win7 had way more functionality audio-wise than my current HP. So much for...

Thanks for your reply. The actual issue for me is that, although the B&O sound app(?) has an equalizer, one cannot save anything custom. The Realtek sound on my old Win7 laptop allowed me to save...

This is regarding the post https://www.tenforums.com/sound-audio/190023-win10update-21h2-deleted-all-my-graphic-equalizer-custom-profiles.html

I've never seen this graphic EQ before. I'm running...

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

I'll uninstall Sledgehammer then and see what happens.

- - - Updated - - -

Well, at the risk of celebrating prematurely -- it's activated! Removing Sledgehammer seems to have done it. I've...

OK, thanks again. The new 1809 install did indeed activate "with a digital license". Progress! So what do you folks suggest next?

And should I remove this new install before proceeding, or can I...

Thank you. A couple of maybe dumb questions:

1) For "Select location of the Boot drive", should I select my C: drive?

2) My ISO is in C:/Downloads, but when I select it in "Select location of...

I've created a second partition, but I'm afraid the rest is over my head. I understand your goal; however, I don't know how to get there from here. I'm downloading an ISO of 1809 Home; will that...

349105

Just gives an error number. Clicking on the "changed hardware recently" link only prompts me to create an MS account.

Sorry, I don't have a clue how to do a clean install like you said.

License Manager is set to Manual and it's running.

Does this mean that Sledgehammer isn't blocking activation after all? (I'm willing to uninstall it if you think it might help, once I remember...

I'll run the UEFI diagnostics tonight.

349103

The upper one is from the command prompt, and the lower is from command prompt (admin)

OK, I'm back on Win10 Home now after restoring the backup. It still won't activate. The installed key per ShowKeyPlus is now the same one you listed above (...8HVX7), but it too has the asterisk and...

I just did. Not sure how to proceed with them though.

- - - Updated - - -

Zbook: I installed those diagnostics. Not sure how to proceed with them though.

Bree: I'll report back when I've run...

My apologies to all. In condensing my original write-up, I left out an important detail: The laptop had 20H2 Home activated when I got it back from HP. When I initially called MS for help after my...

My laptop that was running Win 10 Home 1803 needed to go back to HP under extended warranty to fix several issues including a non-functioning USB-C port. I did a full disk backup first using AOMEI,...