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Bypass Microsoft Geoblocking

Microsoft blocks services in certain countries due to U.S. laws and local legal regulations. For example, users in Russia may not be able to download Windows or Office.

Countries with broad restrictions:
Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Venezuela

Countries with limited Microsoft Store app functionality:
CU, IR, KP, SS, SD, SY
MR, VE, EH, AS, BQ, FK, TF, GG, IM, JE, LB, CW, ME, YT, BL, SH, MF, PM, ST, SX, UM, AX

These lists are not exhaustive.

Windows Download​

Users from blocked countries, such as Russia and Belarus, may encounter an error when trying to download Windows ISOs from the official Microsoft page.

Error​

We are unable to complete your request at this time. Some users, entities and locations are banned from using this service. For this reason, leveraging anonymous or location hiding technologies when connecting to this service is not generally allowed. If you believe that you encountered this problem in error, please try again. If the problem persists you may contact Microsoft Support – Contact Us page for assistance. Refer to message code 715-123130 and 150506a6-3ed5-4d99-8b41-3d4de0f2620b.

Solution​

MSDL

It uses shared sessions/proxy to generate official download links in Russia and all other blocked places.

Office Download​

Users from blocked countries, such as Russia and Belarus, may encounter an error when trying to download Office C2R with the online installer or ODT.

Error​

Command not supported
We're sorry, we can't continue because we weren't able to download a required file. Please make sure you're connected to the internet or connect to a different network, then try again.

How is Microsoft blocking it?​

Primarily, it checks for Russian IP addresses, and based on that, the above error is shown to users. However that's not the end of it. Once it find out that Russian IP is used, the installer creates the registry key below to remember it. After that, even if you use a VPN, the installer will still keep showing the error.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\Ecs]
"CountryCode"="std::wstring|RU"

Solution 1​

  • Open command prompt as admin and enter,
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\Ecs" /v "CountryCode" /t REG_SZ /d "std::wstring|US" /f

After that, the office installer won't show any related errors. You can apply this before or after running the Office installer and you can download Office without any VPN with your Russian IP address.

Or

Solution 2​

Microsoft Store App​

If the Microsoft Store app isn’t working in your region, you can try changing your region in Windows settings to access it.