1. I use https://ninite.com/ whenever I have to set up a new computer. It loads many programs at once, with the standard settings so you don’t have to constantly click “next”.

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2. LibreOffice is Open Source, free, and will do basically everything MS Office does.

   https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/

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   1. LibreOffice works very well indeed, as long as you’re not passing documents back and forth with someone who’s stuck using the Microsoft product (MS Office doesn’t even play nice with itself, let alone with competing products).
      (There might also be issues if you’re trying to write in Chinese, or Ancient Egyptian, or possibly even Arabic – used to be MS Office was the only game in town for non-European languages. I don’t use any of those languages, so I don’t know to what extent LibreOffice has caught up.)

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   2. Oh, yes. The other thing about LibreOffice? Pay (nothing) once; use forever. None of this subscription-based licensing nonsense that’s so fashionable among software vendors nowadays. In the event of the May 9th festivities taking out the Internet, you’ll still be able to run LibreOffice forever on your solar-powered computer, with no need for it to check in with the central server to see if your license is still valid. (Also, your license can’t be revoked for badthink.)

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      1. Subscription-based licensing coming to a new vehicle near you, per month costs for heated seats/backup camera/GPS/extras on stereo/etc.

         1. Already happening with Tesla, you pay a monthly subscription for at least full self driving. I believe you also pay monthly for fast charge and plaid mode features.

3. I am sure I should know better than give advice on tech when I am barely able to tech myself. Have you considered using one of the free Linux operating systems? I know it’s hard to learn new stuff but that would sure beat feeding the Microsoft beast all of your information.
   Maybe some of your actual techie readers will weight in on this.

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   1. LibreOffice is a cross-platform office package. (Windows, Linux, etc …)

      It will open and create doc, docs, xls, xlsx, etc.

      It is free. They accept doantions. (I do since I have loaded it on dozens of computers.)

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4. I’d suggest you use the debloat tool from Chris Titus.

   It allows you to turn off system breaking updates and spying Microsoft telemetry.

   https://christitus.com/debloat-windows-10-2020/

   https://youtu.be/dKM8ZScbic8

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   1. It works for windows 11, too.

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5. My experience with Win11 so far, an a handful of customer computers, makes me think of it as a mass of annoyances.

   https://www.linuxmint.com/ , for the first baby steps away.

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6. Still using Windows 7 😀

   Clinging to it with tooth and nail.

   But the new “Microsoft Office” is not bad. I heard rumors that even Edge is not that bad…

   1. I still have a vintage copy of Office (2007 or thereabouts) on a Windows 7 VM, for those times when I have to exchange documents with someone who’s using MS Office. (Virtual machines are great for keeping locked-down, known-working environments… as long as none of the software is time-locked or anything obnoxious like that.)

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7. Take the C: drive out of your old computer and install it in the new one as another drive – D: drive for instance.

   Done. Copy what you want then use the drive as a backup.

   That makes app installs the only tedious thing left. Pro tip, screen shot your program files, or make a checklist.

   1. That assumes it can be installed in the new one. And that the software you have on the old one runs on the new OS.

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      1. There aren’t too many drive-compatibility issues the past several years, especially now that each drive gets its own cable with its own controller channel. I remember the days when sharing an IDE cable between two generations of drives could lead to massive headaches… and, even in the second generation of SATA, plugging in a drive that was supposed to be backward-compatible could give the entire system a comprehensive wedgie.
         My favored approach is to archive old drives, keeping handy a SATA-to-USB interface in case I actually do need to retrieve and data that I omitted to transfer over initially. They’re in that box over there, with the 9-track backup tapes from the 80s….

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8. Return the Windoze machine and buy an Apple Mac, larger upfront costs, way cheaper to run for years. Mine’s a 2013 model, all Operating System updates/upgrades have been for free, except the last one, old computers won’t run it. Blue screen of death? Never heard of it, on here. Screen lock up after/during an operation? Click the Apple logo and force it to stop that crap. Reinstalling Operating System? Did that twice because I like playing with things till they break, then fixing them. Paying for anti-virus/trojan software? Most of that capability is built into my iMac. Want more than one monitor? Plug in an adaptor and another monitor or two, no need for another video card. And yes, I can/did upgrade my hard drive to an SSD, no problems.
   Tried the Linux route several times on a windoze discarded machine, to much like microsoft. After owning microsoft crap from 1981 too 2013, using and building, screw it, bought an iMac. I can and have, installed Windoze on my iMac, with Bootcamp and Parallels, it ain’t worth the time or trouble. And LibreOffice will run on Mac, also.
   Let the flame wars begin! ;-))

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   1. Macbook Air is quite nice. I have the very similar Macbook Pro, which can run faster longer because it has a fan. Yes, somewhat more expensive, but the software quality difference is impressive.

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   2. Oh BTW: the newest Macs use their M1 chip, which does wonders for battery life and heat — vastly more efficient than Intel chips. But the consequence is that you can’t run Windows on them.

      1. If you just have to have Windoze;
         https://machow2.com/parallels-review/
         I don’t. ;-))

   3. Ditch the Microsoft spyware network for the Apple spyware network!

      Gain the added benefit of paying more for less hardware and impossible repairs!

9. I’ve started the great experiment of meaning Linux for my professional and personal life recently myself. So far so good about a week in.

   I cannot stand the idea of using Apple Windows 11.

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