Hi Eddie1, its seems odd that if there was enough HD space to update from Win 8.1 to Win 10 then logically speaking at least there should be enough space on your HD to erase the previous contents and do a new reinstallation of OS's 8.1 or Win 10. Did your contact with 'techs' suggest reinstalling 8.1 and then updating to Win 10 to see if you could regain the audio?

That said, 'built in obsolescence' is another one of those grey ethical areas that software companies just skirt around and use to generate continued profits at our expense.

As one example, I recently had advice that my Trend Micro virus software in a virtual environment was no longer supported and I needed to upgrade. That would have meant not only upgrading my OS but also other mainstream software and apps and then losing use of other legacy software that will not run on later OS's. So my choice was to be forced to go to all that bother, or buy another product that was still compatible or disconnect from the Internet whenever I wanted to use that particular machine. Not too hard to work out the simplest option there.

Oh and by the way, great article DaveRo. Had a look through at some of the other links referred to in the article you cited and thought they might be useful in highlighting some of the issues under discussion in this thread above.

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/09/14/microsoft-downloads-windows-10-to-your-computer-even-if-you-dont-want-it-yet/

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/what-is-the-windows-bt-folder-on-my-hard-drive/

Cheers,

Andrez