New Laptop - setup questions

[RCW]

I'm a novice, so be gentle.

I just got a Lenovo 2-in-1 blah, blah, blah machine to replace our antique Dell laptop. Using it right now.

My IT SIL spec'd it. Pretty capable machine, according to SIL.

I've bugged SIL a lot lately. I bought another HP from Amazon that didn't work out. He got a lot of text messages last week... good kid; he helped me as much as he could....

I copied "My Documents" to the new machine via thumb drive....pretty shortly, I get messages my 50 GB "One-Drive" is full.

One-Drive is a Microsoft 365 product, to get you to store your stuff on the cloud, along with the $70-100/year subscription for MS 365?

There is also a "Documents" folder on the C: drive that looks like it's got my stuff. Hard drive on this is a 500 +/- GB SSD drive.. lots of room.

How do I just save to the C: and not One-Drive?

Do I need a MS 365 account to survive...used Open Office for years...?

I have a paid AVG subscription I've been happy with. Can I transfer that to the new machine?

Along with Windows Defender, MacAfee seems to come on the computer, but a trial...I hate trials....

I see many AV apps, any I should look to go to, or stay away from?

 

[foobert]

The answer sorta depends on what you want (if anything) from OneDrive. Kinda sounds like you don't really want your files to be automatically backed up to the "cloud". If that's the case, you can just stop OneDrive, and un-install it. Assuming you have Window's 10 this article will walk you though the steps:

How to Disable or Uninstall OneDrive in Windows 10

If required, you can Uninstall OneDrive on your Windows 10 computer or disable OneDrive from starting up with your computer.

www.techbout.com

 

[ccoon520]

Windows computers now a days come with One Drive as the default save location, which is mostly pointless, unless you use it so that you can access documents on 2 different computers (because apparently carrying around a thumb drive is too much work). Personally I rerouted my save location to my computer's document folder so it is stored on the physical computer itself.

I am sure there are some amazing features but I am not about paying for subscriptions when I can just buy a permanent license which at the time I could for Microsoft Office (I do not know if you still can or not) and pocket the savings in under 2 years. I am just stubborn in that instance and do not like the idea of my documents, pictures or videos not on my physical machine.

 

[dlsmith]

Copy your files to the My Documents folder on the new machine and you'll be good.
I believe you can uninstall One Drive, so it doesn't keep bugging you about using it.

Uninstall MccAffe, (Go to control panel, scrool down to MacAffee and click on it to uninstall it, there may be more than one instance of it.) and you don't need AVG either. They wil both slow down your machine considerably. Windows 10 comes with it's own anti-virus, Microsoft security Essentials.

No you most certainly don't need Office 365. If you like Open Office ( I like and use it) download and install it on the new machine.

The next time the SIL looks at you computer, have him check for crapware in the system startup tab in Task Manager. A lot of times they put stuff in there that doesn't need to be running.

Hope this helps.

 

[Fordtech86]

Not much help with your questions, but my work laptop is a lenovo 2n1 flip screen. Its been used and abused since 2015 and still holding up perfectly. It gets tossed around vehicles all day. We were running HPs but they didn’t last a year in the shop environment.
Think the SIL got you a good machine.

 

[sagor]

In my "humble" opinion, the "cloud" is about as useful as teats on a bull. You are relying on the Internet to be good, and always there. In other words, you are putting your trust in the Internet infrastructure and Microsoft. Let alone the license agreements that allow MS to read/view everything you put up on their systems. Not for me...
If something is important, get external USB drives or disks and back up your important stuff every week, at least. Use 2 or more drives, and save one in another location. I don't know how many times I've seen people crying in their beer because their system crashed and they lost "everything". The "cloud" is not a great answer compared to full system image backups on external drives.
Same of Office. OpenOffice is good, as is its spin off, LibreOffice. For most home users, either is good.
I find one only needs things like MS Office and such if working with a company that insists you use those products.
Been in IT since 1979, including mini computers, PC's and various *nix systems. Been chasing viruses since the early 80's, cracked a few games, and been watching the Microsoft juggernaut take over a lot of things since they started with DOS 1.0 (which btw was a operating system structure rip-off copy of CP/M). I digress, just my rant...

 

[Creature Meadow]

Appears your questions have been answered.

Side note! Lost my hard drive at work and all my records once. Cost was 2K to get my data back, company paid for it though but it was a painful process.

For my home computer I have a 1TB external hard drive I use to back of my Jay's Data Folder from my C: drive. I name the folder on my external had drive the year and month. Copy files to it and after couple of backups, I then delete the old folders.

Am I always current no but usually by doing this every couple of months I'm ok with it. I start the backup before going to bed and presto in the morning it's done.

Just some food for thought and the 1TB drive was about $120.00 when I bought it couple years ago. It is a Seagate brand.

Good luck.

Jay

 

[MNVikingsGuy]

The key info you are missing is how much data (word documents, spreadsheets, emails, music, etc) do you have on your current computer - minus all the system files Microsoft and other programs use. A typical old Windows machine can have 50-80 gig of system and application files - you don't want to transfer these. Typical users can have from 1 gig to hundreds of gigs depending on your uses. You will need a thumb/USB drive(s) big enough to hold all your data plus 15% (thumb drives often are less efficient at file storage than hard drives). If all of your files are in "My Documents" it is simple, but lots of programs such as photo managers, email programs, media players will scatter files all over the place. I would not trash my current computer until I was really confident all my stuff got moved. You can get USB drive up to 2,000 gigs on Amazon so you should have no trouble getting enough space to transfer once you know what and where you are transferring.

 

[MNVikingsGuy]

One other thought from a person who ends up doing tech support for all of his older relatives and in-laws. Have both you and your SIL install "TeamViewer" on his computer and both your old and new computers. It is a free tool that lets your SIL see and control your screen/mouse from his home. I find it way easier to help this way versus, "do you see the green check box on the left? No, the green one. Are you sure you clicked on the "options tab", no - it should be right there . . . . . . "

 

[BruceP]

I started my career at IBM the same year they invented the personal-computer... in that sense, I have been there since the beginning.

Were you aware that IBM selected uSoft as SECOND choice for the operating-system?... only because a meeting with the other company (Intergalactic Digital Research) was cancelled. (The man chose to go fly his plane that day.... I am sure he regretted this decision for many years)

It would have been a very different outcome if IBM did not choose uSoft to provide MS-DOS on the first computers. The world works in mysterious ways....

------------------------ To help answer your questions ----------------------
Instead of using 'thumb drives' (aka "sneakernet") I usually put BOTH my new and old 'puter on the network and 'share' the data on the old 'puter.

In this way, I can sit at my new 'puter, view EVERYTHING on the old one and freely copy what I wish into the new one thru the network.

I concur with your assessment of Lenovo . IBM sold its computer-buisness to Lenovo and the quality still stands above the others.

oh...and I agree with others and NEVER EVER use "one drive" or any other cloud storage. It is one of the very first things I unInstall when I get a new 'puter.

 

[RCW]

Guys - I appreciate the recommendations.

Don't take this as a closed book....offer away if you have more!

My next question is Anti-virus...SIL said Windows Defender is good for now (I verified it's fully enabled). What do you suggest for Anti-virus, or is Defender okay long-term?

Someone suggested uninstalling MacAfee. I'm okay with that, but what about a replacement, if needed? I do have the AVG subscription from the old machine.

 

[sagor]

Windows defender is "reasonable" for Win10. You can look at other vendors if you wish. I've used Avast, Avira, AVG and Kaspersky. All have been reasonably good as well, including the free versions. McAfee and Norton (especially Norton) seem to be heavy resource hogs.
What most people miss for security however, is a good firewall. MS firewall is somewhat useless for "outgoing" messages. Sure, they block incoming things, but then most good routers with firewalls do the same thing. It is the outgoing messages that have to be monitored. That is when a virus "calls home" with your personal information. I've trapped a few viruses that my AV misses, only because the virus was new, just out for a day or two. But the firewall trapped an unexpected message trying to connect to an address that I normally never used. There are a few free firewalls, like Zonealarm or Comodo. However,, they all try to provide it "all", including AV and web protection. You can (usually) just install the firewall component - skip the rest of the package.
That all said, the best firewall is a Linux based firewall on a dedicated PC or hardware box, usually replacing your typical home router. A linux firewall has lots of power and the smarts to detect things like repeated intrusion attempts and block it permanently. Also, one can block incoming attacks by country in some of these firewalls (Hackers can mask that sometimes with certain proxies). But, Linux firewalls are not for the faint of heart, it does take some know-how to set those up.
So, stick to a good AV product and look into a good firewall on your PC. Between those two, you will be fairly well protected.

 

[jimh406]

If you insist on using Windows or simply have to because of the software needs you have, don’t depend on backups to your local drives that are permanently attached to the computer. If Windows becomes unbootable due to an update (which is unfortunately common now), the “recovery” is to delete your local files in many cases as they reimage the drive. Obviously that wouldn’t be good for your “backup”. In that respect, the cloud is a better solution for a Windows user.

There is a learning curve, but I’d go with a Mac book if you want local storage.

There is a big benefit of a cloud backup especially to a couple of different locations. That is, if your computer is stolen, house burns down, or otherwise destroyed, you still have a copy in the “cloud”. I’m not a fan of an automatic backup although an autosync that keeps the same folder structure is actually pretty good. Again, use “two” locations and also create copies to USB etc.

A good way to have offsite storage is to simply make a copy and leave at your family/friends house if you want to avoid the cloud.