I have learned that I hate Microsoft
 

I did a reset because of a virus (at least that's what I believe as my C drive would fill up overnight every night and finally they locked me out of being able to delete SSDXflashlog files). The reset cleaned everything out.

So I go through the whole set up like I bought new machine. I didn't see an option to not use a PIN after even it going to sleep. So I look it up how to remove that option. No can do. So I check to see who the admin is — me.

Go back and the remove option is locked.

And pop ups galore. Buy this, buy that, McAffee installed—I don't want that—can't delete from programs. I think after starting out with Win '95 I'm done. Never used a Mac. I have Linux Mint installed on a laptop and I'm not impressed.

So is Mac the solution? Can I have some control for a change? I'm after the ultimate simplicity, the equivalent of a senior flip phone. All I do is watch YT, do emails and come here. Oh, I use Google and Wiki a lot. That's it.

Surprising, but then I haven't used Windows since Win 7. Maybe things have changed.

No real computer is going to be that simple these days. I switched from MS to Apple a few years back, and love it, but there is a learning curve and plenty of stuff is different in a way that you may find annoying. I think, IMO, MacOS is better than modern Windows, and I was a diehard Windows guy for a long time and have tried lots of flavors of Linux over the years.
Watch Youtube, email, and surf the web...

Sounds to me like you need an iPad. But there are/will be limitations on a 'pad' compared to a real computer.

You can always reimage it as a Chromebook for free and do away with the MS BS.

I was an apple & mac guy back in the 80's & early 90's. Then they were just too expensive, and I needed compatibility with my office.

Now I'm back. Mac Mini, Macbook, and Ipad.

I have an iPad and use it a lot casually. I like a big monitor and I also hate touch pads. The first thing I do with any laptop is dock it with a large screen (if I can with a monitor port) and use the USB's to connect a mouse and keyboard if there's room. A piggyback USB connector seems to not have any conflict with both.

I'm really a desktop kinda guy. I'm really not a phone kinda guy. I'm surprised at myself every time I use Google on a phone. However, the whole page as I would see it is not there. I guess pages can be optimized for phones.

The worst thing about a pad is the speakers. I need Bluetooth speakers to even manage.
So maybe not the best for me unless I'm at my workbench with a radio schematic open.

I have one of the last Sony laptops that I don't mind. But I lost the windows OS by installing a new HD without a license. Not buying Win for a LT that is 10 years old that they don't even make anymore. The other LT is on Win7 and does well for me if playing around before going to sleep. It's a 3rd party installation and I'm reminded every 10 minutes. Annoying as hell.

Exactly. BS. Get off my lawn MS!

Linux Mint (with the default MATE desktop) is unimpressively dull for me in that it just works. Sure, I can and do go off the deep end with virtualization of small networks, RAID arrays for my /home partition, etc but at the same time it can be incredibly simplified as far as desktop use/interface goes.

Edit the Favorites on the menu to take off the stuff you don't use/care about, add the stuff you do, and rock on.

I'm also a desktop kid of guy. I've never purchased/owned a laptop. I've been issued a laptop for work at a couple of jobs.
I think Apple/Mac is a good way to go, but... 1 Apple/Mac are more expensive than MS Win stuff. 2 Apple/Mac will have a learning curve for someone that's used to Windows that may be frustrating.

Chrome or the Linux recommended by Id10t may be the best, cheap options. I'm not sure what the learning curve would be on those, but they'd be cheap, and I don't think either would be as obnoxious as MS.
Exactly. I was a diehard for MS Windows for a long time, thought it was far superior to most other OS for general user use with full compatibility. But the BS seems to have increased exponentially in the last several years.

I was a desktop guy, but with high speed USB there is no more need to plug in expansion boards. USB docking station with a large 4k monitor, and the laptop gives me the added benefit of not losing my work with a power failure.

Linux does not support my Canon software. Or better put, Canon makes PC and Mac only. IDK know about the video editing I use, Wondershare. But I have a copy of Photoshop Essentials which supposedly has video capabilities.''

About done with that anyway. No one wants to see anything be me having a disaster in the shop. Success is not rewarded. Foolishness is. Well, I'm not going to be foolish with my power tools, so no TikTok bait here.

You know, when you get frustrated and cheated out of your data, expense means a lot less.

What do I mean about cheated? I had several letters I did in Notepad. After a time, MS converted them to Word. I didn't have Office so my docs were gone to me. I've been told to use Google docs. I have and it's fine, just not as familiar. And it in the cloud, another way to hook me into buying (renting) storage. I won't. Ever.

Anyone remember Photo Bucket? That should teach all how to treat off site storage. Shoot, a new phone is as big as PB it seems.

Ah. My frustration with MS started back in '97 and '98 when I was taking windows admin courses so I could get my MCSE cert. What got me was that most of the sample exam questions were regarding licensing, not things like rights management and such. Then I found Linux and the GNU software and ... well, screw MS and screw proprietary things. I'll be in control of my own stuff, thank you.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1715634921.jpg

Yep, gotta love certs that include licensing stuff, sales presentation stuff, and the like instead of good technical info.

Everything can be too old to update. I had a buddy that finally got rid of his Macbook at 8 yo because he wanted something new. He'd been waiting for it to die, but it wouldn't.

My wife had the cheapest, most low end Macbook Air (lowest specification available) and it lasted to something like 8-9 years, but had stopped updating at 7 years. It still ran fine. We only upgraded because our daughter upgraded and gave my wife her old Macbook that was newer and with higher specs.

My old HP machine is still going and is 11 years old. I don't know if it would still support updates because I stuck with Windows 7 on it. Win 7 ran great, but it was pestering me to upgrade to Win 10 when I had it.

Good to know. I didn't even realize they have silly names. Oh, I've got a Monterey. What do you have? A Morro Bay? Hahahahaha.

I'd still like to get rid of that dame sign in. But I think I know how. I'll just do another total reset after I get done with the Bat auction. It takes 4 hours.

Yep, they've been using silly names for many years, probably easier for folks to remember than a bunch of numbers. Google used to do the same for Android. No idea if they still do.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1715637247.jpg

Android's naming is better and easier IMO, since it's alphabetical.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1715637749.jpg

And none of the stuff in this link works for you?

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-remove-windows-11-password-login-i-want-to/182a06be-263f-4e7d-9be6-9d21c7f6f6f2

Just wait till next fall when MS stops supporting Win10 for free, they will charge exorbitant fess for the the next year then double the fee for the next year etc.

Oh and most wWn10 machines cannot go to Win11

I have 3 relatively new and expensive dos machines that are soon to become useless

I gave up on Microsoft years ago, still have two laptops for cad and car software. If you have a decent screen a Mac mini is a pretty solid unit. But as others have mentioned some things are done different to a PC.

MS is the devil. Garbage products and an anti consumer business model. ****ing miserable little ****ers.

I had a Linux box. Debian. Bought into the reliability spiel.
I found I needed a windows laptop to google how to fix things when it went wrong. And it did. A lot. I’m not alone at least two of my peers - who use Linux machines for production software - had the same issue.

I’ve used a Mac for 15 years. I’m never going back to windows.
Unless you have windows software - which even then you could emulate - I’d say bite the bullet.

I have my own fresh peeve with MS. A month ago I spent half a day writing a macro in Excel to do something that made 6 hours of monthly work into 20 minutes. So this month I go to use my macro, and it’s gone. The button is there, but the macro it calls is gone. I have no idea what happened. So I have to do that work again. Irritated, very irritated.

I started with DOS 1.1 and I still have a copy on 5.25 inch floppies of Windows 386 (Win 2.0) that came with a Microsoft mouse with a steel roller ball and patent pending.

I am running Win 11 Pro now, and I do any update ASAP. No doubt Windows is annoying on many features. I am the only person to use my computer, so I do NOT want to have to use a password just to use my computer. I also have an older laptop and a really old computer I built for the new Win7. Both are on Win 10 now as they can't run Win 11.

I have software on the old tower that is useful on occasion, and an upgrade would be many thousands of dollars. My main machine has mapping software that requires Win 11 Pro. It uses all 32 processors, and has used up to 220 GIG of the 256 gig RAM memory and both high end video cards.

I will admit I have to search the web for solutions to some Windows issues. The answers are out there. One of the most annoying is keeping the three computers talking and sharing to each other. By default Microsoft seems to think I play games at public places on a laptop where others can us it. I never play video games, and killing them off is a pain. And to keep the three machines sharing drives and files with each other is really very annoying.

I have used a Mac to deal with customer files in the past. It was just a velvet collar and I hated the inability to customize the computer.

I tried Linux Mint for a while, and without a mentor to tell me how to do some tasks, I was lost. It was too frustrating.

My Mac is definitely my preferred PC, and I can run windows in Virtual Box if I need to. Yes Microsoft is a terrible OS, just wait until Copilot invades everything in it then all your use/data will be theirs…

I still have an SE/30 from the 80’s that still works :)

I opened my old 20 YO Dell LT a week or so ago and all my bookmarks and tool bar had migrated from my desktop in another building. I do not have a home network set up but they obviously determined my router and did this. The thing is, I use the old Dell for different reasons and I had another set of bookmarks on the address bar.

That's just too invasive. Got to let this siht go.