I have been thinking the same thing as you in that MS are messing up updates on purpose but this isn't funny as it places many people with and without IS suites in a more dangerous situation in a more precarious online world.

I am on their forum and a contributor insists that I should clean install using their link, for which I will have to enter a valid product key: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows7? Then miraculously Windows update will work. I haven't tested this as I am on the edge of my download allowance at the moment...

I reluctantly use Windows 10 1803 on one computer and have had my own learning curve getting to grips with minor aspects of it. MS want so much of our data and we have to say no in the system settings in Windows 10. They want to sell us products, use our data and advertise to us.

But I have found it difficult to accept a situation where updates stop working. Any financial transactions should have the benefit of the maximum security that is available and this is why I have pushed the point that the operating system should be regularly updated with security patches. IS suites can't do everything.

Outside of MS, I have never used Mac and have experimented with Ubuntu but have yet to understand which is the safest operating system. I like testing different software and am a fan of exe's which is why I am still with MS and did not move on to Ubuntu as their emulators like Play on Linux never worked properly for me.

We are still living in a Windows world and most desktop users still use Microsoft.