Windows 11

If you're using mostly web-based stuff, tThe best solution is to unplug the old hard drive, buy and plop in a new hard drive, and install a Linux distro. 

As Coke said, you no longer have no 'right' to your machine- you ceeded that right to Microsoft when they forced you to WIN10.

Also realize, that when they force you to cloud storage, NOTHING you have, is private.

There IS NO 'CLOUD'.... it is simply someone else's computer.  If you want good, solid, protected storage, grab and old computer, fill it with big hard drives, and load FreeNAS on a bootable USB 'thumb drive', and start it up.  If you've never set up server shares, it'll take a little learning-curve, but once it's set up, it will be yours, secure, and on your premises.

Many many years ago, I disabled all updates; updates are mostly just a scare tactic to allow Microsoft more invasion into your privacy and usually have ill effect on the operability of the machine that you bought and paid for.

Way back when people were waking up to find crap Windows 10 had been installed in their sleep, I installed a free program = Never 10 = and it must have worked as my machine was immune from in-the-night takeovers.

My nightmare from hell mother has a laptop that originally came with Windows 10, which is plenty bad enough to have to deal with; a few weeks ago, she brought it to me to fix on account of it had reverted itself back to as-new condition, demanding she create a Microsoft account and establish herself as a User; I fought that hateful thing for two days before I could get past that foolishness and get her re-established --- losing everything she had on it prior to this situation --- only to discover that it was now no longer Windows 10, but Windows 11 had moved in --- and, when Windows 11 had installed itself, it had reverted the machine to an as-delivered state, the same as would happen if one re-installed the system and started all over.

I have Linux Mint as dual-boot on a couple machines; and, if one doesn't use any after-market programs, and only ever browses the internet and shops Amazon and E-Bay and uses E-Mail, then the free Linux operating systems (there are countless many to choose from) walk all over Microsoft Windows of any version and do so without you being spied upon at your every move.

However, especially if one is into photo editing and related programs, Windows is the Small Block Chevrolet of the computing world; and, all of the really good programs are Windows Only; and, all of the good photography program "plug-ins" are Windows Only; so, if one is using Linux, one misses out on the really good stuff and must make do with less capable programs --- or very capable programs with a tremendously steep learning curve that only born and bred geniuses will ever be able to conquer.

As for Dual-Boot (or Triple Boot or more), it works and works well with one big drawback = it is extremely aggravating to live with in that one cannot seamlessly move back and forth between Windows and the dual-boot system; each switch from one system to the other requires the entire machine to reboot --- and, as soon as the newly chosen system settles in and ready for action you will think of something you forgot to do while in the other system --- and often something that must have been or should have been done --- and here you are in the wrong system to do so.

I will stay with Windows 7; I have several install discs and also have my system saved in numerous back-ups; I don't need an internet connection for any of my programs to work --- save one = Google Earth Pro (which I strongly recommend).

As for internet browsing, when the day ever comes that I can no longer use the internet with Windows 7, I will keep Windows 7 and get another machine to run Linux Mint for any internet needs.

I will say this = Linux is not for simpletons and wooden-heads and one is better off learning Linux if they never have before ever used anything else; as, mostly, anything you know about using a Windows machine will only ever serve as a stumbling block when you start using Linux; to complicate matters further, Linux insists on using entirely different terminology for everything, so you have to forget English and learn a completely new language.

Most of the Linux programs are way far ahead of anything Windows; but, you have to be way far ahead of most Windows users to achieve that benefit; sadly, I am more in the simpletons and wooden-heads category.     

BuckSkin wrote: ...However, especially if one is into photo editing and related programs, Windows is the Small Block Chevrolet of the computing world; and, all of the really good programs are Windows Only; and, all of the good photography program "plug-ins" are Windows Only; so, if one is using Linux, one misses out on the really good stuff and must make do with less capable programs --- or very capable programs with a tremendously steep learning curve that only born and bred geniuses will ever be able to conquer.

I haven't found this to be the case...  my music and video production station is all NCH's stuff, which I originally used on WIN7.  It runs perfectly (even my MIDI and audio mixer's interface hardware) through WINE, which was a native component of Kubuntu.

I didn't have to learn anything special to install Kubuntu... downloaded the installer image iso, burned it onto a thumb-drive with Rufus, stuffed it in the machine, and followed the instructions.

Once it was running, I used the menu's installer features to open WINE, then installed NCH like it was a Windows box.

Only difference, is that it's FASTER...

And Apache OpenOffice does what MS Office does... but better, with out all the crap, and it's not ransomware.

Anyway, this thread was revived by a spammer, it can go to bed now.

 Well, I surely cannot claim to have much of the computer knowledge some of the guys here have ,,,,so my attempts to stifle the "cloud" feature was to buy a 5T external hard drive that my son used some special rat's and rabbit fur tails dipped in some female donkey pee for 11 days to prevent any intrusions without a 29 character password ,,,,,so far I'm good,,,,,

I plan to upgrade my home computer soon.