WIN 11-- OK, not really looking for help, just mostly bitching. Spilled a large cup of soup on my..

[TreasonousBastard]

laptop and had to get new one. Zoom meetings coming up and time was short.

Found an Asus laptop at Best Buy for 100 bucks but seemed like it would do Zoom and email good enough. At least until I set up a decent desktop. Doing actual work on a phone really sucks.

First thing I notice is it sorta comes with Win 11, even though I have to download it. I already knew 11 wouldn't let me put the menu on the side like 10 did, but I was soon to find out about Widgets. Seems I already have a bunch of them floating around, and one keeps sending me annoying messages filling the screen when I'm trying to do something. Then I find out that the file directory and lists of apps, programs, and utilities I used to get are hidden. If I remember what they are called, I can search for them, though.

I don't think I can fit LibreOffice on this tiny hard drive, and Gimp is out, too. I did manage to get Thunderbird, but it just doesn't work like it used to. So far, I've only got one of my four accounts open on it and have to use webmail for the rest.

Overall, I thought it would be easy, but it's not.

And everything depends upon being online all the time.

[Earth-shine]

1. On a $100 laptop, you might have a "restricted" version of Win 11, which doesn't allow such things

as access to the file system. Perhaps, it won't even let you deactivate those widgets.

As for myself, I was able to use old, unused Win 7 licenses to activate Win 11 pro on several new desktops.

I use a program called "StartAllBack," which restores functionality to the start menu and taskbar.

I have turned off all the widgets on all of the systems. Who needs them?

Good luck.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. I know I had Win S, which I immediately dumped. The Celeron processor certainly didn't help, but...

I think I have most of it under control now. I'll have to go with 11 on the next machine, but at least I'll be prepared.

Biggest thing now is the shit camera, but I may have a better one lying around, if I can find it. Meanwhile, I'll play with using a smartphone's camera.

[AnyFunctioningAdult]

5. I definitely recommend StartAllBack to everyone

For those that used StartIsBack with Windows 10, it is by the same company. It helps restore functionality that Windows 11 removed.

[viva la]

2. Google docs is online and free.

I don't like it. But it's OK for a while.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. So's Office and a dozen other suites. I guess I'll be using Office for a while, but I really liked..

WordPerfect, which is out for now.