Windows 8 Internet Explorer will not display www.microsoft.com pages

If you you try to open https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows, you get a message saying:

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage.

There is a button to diagnose problems which checks for connectivity and comes back to report that it cannot connect to the internet using HTTP, HTTPS or FTP. It advises me to check the firewall settings for port (80) (443) and (21).

Since by virtue of the fact that I am entering text here using Firefox, there are no connectivity problems. I can ping www.microsoft.com from the command shell.

There is also this section of text:
This problem can be caused by a variety of issues, including:

• Internet connectivity has been lost.
• The website is temporarily unavailable.
• The Domain Name Server (DNS) is not reachable.
• The Domain Name Server (DNS) does not have a listing for the website's domain.
• There might be a typing error in the address.
• If this is an HTTPS (secure) address, click Tools, click Internet Options, click Advanced, and check to be sure the SSL and TLS protocols are enabled under the security section.

None of these is the problem. No the problem is WINDOWs and IE 8.

If anyone has any light to shed on this truly absurd problem, one which only MS could have, I would be glad to try it out.

Thanks.