but it had a small risk associated with it - that risk can no longer be taken apparently, so the one fix of value has been removed
Yeah, a lot of good ideas have removed because a very few had problems. I really like some of the gadgets out there (Pandora, for example) but MS no longer supports any gadgets. I guess it is good to err on the side of caution, and certainly MS has a right be tired of being bashed for everything, but frankly, I am tired of good ideas going away, and bad ones never dying.
But I do sympathize with MS too. The problem with most any tool that tweaks or resets Registry settings is they assume existing settings are wrong. Then the tool fixes it, when it was not broken. For 20+ years, all my personal builds have had the OS and hardware drivers on C drive, and everything else on D. I change the defaults for My Documents, temp files, backups, downloads, etc. to D drive too. I can't tell you how many times some tool changed the Registry back to stuffing everything on C.
Windows' greatest advantage, IMO, is it is so highly user customizable. In just a few seconds after first boot, virtually every computer (and Registry) becomes unique with this security program, that printer, the user's favorite background image and font, interfacing with hardware from 1000s of different makers.
Windows' greatest disadvantage, IMO, is it is so highly user customizable.
For that reason, I don't like running special tools on systems, unless they are sitting on my bench and I can see what is happening for myself.
I am however, working on a fix-it for this issue
For which issue, exactly? There have been several mentioned. Windows Update constantly calling for a reboot, Windows Update not working, unable to install other programs.