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Note the second sentence in Microsoft’s “We’ll ask you to download updates” statement.

That’s Microsoft’s “get out of jail” free card to install an update anytime they decide it’s necessary!

BTW, it “appears” the update might have been for the Windows Update Agent itself.

Downgrading to Windows 10 works (i.e. the Win 11 license will activate Win 10) but it requires a clean install (i.e. you won’t be able to keep any of the other software that comes preinstalled on the new PC.)

How to downgrade from Windows 11 to Windows 10 (there’s a catch)

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Paul T

On my PC, there is a noticeable delay before the cursor actually appears in the address bar (but only slight more than a sec) so I’m surprised you had to setup what’s basically a timing loop to get it to work?

Maybe a difference in CPU clock speeds (my runs at 4.9 GHz).

I knew about the AutoIt.WinMove command but, since I preferred MSIE to start maximized, didn’t use it. Glad to see you figured it out.

How if only we could figure what MS did to disable the MSIE Favorites and get them reactivated?

I know it’s not something they changed in the Internet Explorer folder itself because I restored both the x86 and x64 versions from my Jan 2023 backup and MSIE was still hamstrung.

Like many others on the internet, I suspect it has something to do with the new ie_to_edge_bho.dll that was added during the Oct update but, so far, no one’s been able to figure out how to disable it from working (even renaming all versions of it on a PC to ie_to_edge_bho.dll.DISABLED doesn’t restore full MSIE functionality.)

Anyway, glad I could help!

Ascaris wrote:

I think if you have that and no text number present, it will use the email.

Actually, it’ll use it even if you do have a text number!

I get 3 alerts any time I login to Google from my PC indicating I logged in from an “unknown” device.

One to my cellphone, one to my actual Gmail account (which makes absolutely no sense to me), and one to my backup/recovery email address.

From personal experience I can answer that.

Yes, a Repair Install (AKA In-place Update) will overwrite/delete some registry settings.

A few examples of “tweaked” registry settings on my system.

• I removed several of the “right-click” context menu items I never use.
• I use WinRAR and set Explorer to always treat compressed files as files, not folders.
• I set all video/audio files to use VLC.
• I hide all the Libraries and User folders in the left-hand pane of Explorer.
• I replaced the default MS locations in the Save as popup with my locations.

A lot, but not all, of the various registry “tweaks” I’ve made over the years, get reverted back to their MS defaults after doing such an install.

After the first time this happened to me (many, many, years ago) I made a point of saving .reg files for all those tweaks so I can reset them back to my preferences anytime I need to do a Repair Install.

FYI, I’ve never encountered any Group Policy changes after such an update so it seems it leaves those alone.

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windbg, gwt10

Actually, it looks like for some reason the AutoItX3.Control class which provides the I/F between AutoIt and processes that call it wasn’t properly registered when you installed AutoIt.

To manually register it, open an elevated cmd.exe prompt (i.e. Run as administrator) and enter the following:

regsvr32 "full path to AutoItX3_x64.dll"

If you installed AutoIt in the default location, the command would be:

regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\AutoIt3\AutoItX\AutoItX3_x64.dll"

Press Enter and you “should” see a message similar to this:

With the text indicting “DllRegisterService in C:\Program Files\AutoIt3\AutoItX\AutoItX3_x64.dll suceeded”.

Your script should now work.

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AusJohn

Susan Bradley wrote:

download the ADML and ADMX file to the central store

That only applies if your using a Domain Controller.

For normal Windows 10/11 Pro users who want to add this option to their Group Policy, copy the 2 files as follows:

WindowsCopilot.admx ⇒ C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions

WindowsCopilot.adml ⇒ C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US

Of course the easier option is to simply download and run the registry key to disable CoPilot in Windows

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Mark, windbg

Installing Motorola Device Manager 2.5.4 would update your PC’s “Motorola USB drivers” to the latest version and might help.

Another option would be to use Bluetooth to transfer the files to the phone.

You can solve items 1 – 4 by using a combination of the following vbscript & AutoIt to open Internet Explorer.

' Enable Object Commands for VBscript & AutoIt
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set oAutoIt = WScript.CreateObject("AutoItX3.Control")

' Open Internet Explorer 11
CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application").Visible=true

' Set AutoIt windows title match option to "EXACT"
oAutoIt.Opt "WinTitleMatchMode", 3

' Maximize MSIE11 window & activate it
oAutoIt.WinSetState "Internet Explorer", "", oAutoIt.SW_MAXIMIZE
oAutoIt.WinActivate "Internet Explorer"

' Set focus to address bar
WshShell.SendKeys "%D"

The oAutoIt commands in the script bring the MSIE11 window to the front, maximize it, and set the focus (i.e. cursor) to the address bar.

Note: AutoIt has other options for controlling the Window size and position but my preference is to have it maximized.

I created a shortcut to the vbscript that I use to start MSIE and, so far, it still works.

As for the Favorites & Bookmarks…

Whatever Microsoft did during their last update to disable MSIE now prevents them from working, even if you disable the MSIE ⇒ Edge redirection they put in place, so now you have to manually enter an address to get it to open in MSIE.

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AusJohn, Cybertooth

Alex5723 wrote:

Why are these marked as needed update ?

Because whatever program you used to check for updates (the second image from your OP) indicates the versions currently installed are outdated (i.e. newer versions are available.)

A LOT of different 3rd party programs over the years have required one or more different versions of Visual C++ modules (which typically get install by that program if it finds one missing from your PC.)

Whenever Microsoft issues an update for one that’s installed on your PC, it’ll get flagged as requiring an update but, in most cases, the program that required that particular module will still work just fine using the older version.

However, the updates are “normally” only issued when there’s a security issue that needs to be fixed so you should install them.

BTW, DO NOT uninstall any of those modules! Doing so will break whatever program required it.

A Gmail account is a Google account; i.e. your Gmail login will also work for all the other Google Services!

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Ascaris

Try disabling Hardware Acceleration and see if that helps.

Having it enabled (it’s enabled by default) is know to sometimes cause Audio/Video problems; especially viewing videos from YouTube.

My bad

It should have read “and not have it disabled on the entire PC”

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WCHS

PKCano wrote:

And the installation will require a Clean Install

Not sure that’s actually true.

When you run the Media Creation Tool on a PC containing an older/different version of Windows and select the Upgrade this PC now option, there’s a point during the process where it asks you to input your Product Key (i.e. License key).

If you’ve purchased a valid Windows 10 key, entering it at this point “should” allow the installation to proceed, activate Windows 10, and keep all your existing software/settings intact.

An alternate would be to enter the proper “generic product key” for the version of Windows 10 you want at that point which “should” also allow the installation to succeed, but Windows 10 would be in an unactivated/unlicensed state and you’d need to activate it using your real Windows 10 key.

Of course, the Windows 10 key would need to be a retail not OEM version for either of those to work.

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And Terry D,

If either of those methods work, it would keep all you existing software/settings without having to reinstall them.