The strange relationship between Microsoft, and the companies who manufacture Windows computers

It seems to me, this should be simple.

Other companies would pay Microsoft to use its Windows software, anyway they please. But Microsoft would then test the computers they build, to see if they met its requirements. If they do - then it would certify them, as approved by Microsoft. If they do not pass these tests, they could not be sold as Windows computers.

But this does not happen. I have a Lenovo Windows 10 laptop, where the time and date function is defective, and cannot be fixed. The Windows software allows to complain about this, and I have done so. But Lenovo has not made any updates to fix this problem.

This laptop runs on a combination of Windows and Lenovo software - and the two are not compatible with each other. Lenovo was a Chinese company, and that made all the difference. The Chinese, had been making things forever. and were good at that. But making Software was a different skill entirely.