Off Topic Laptop software

[askewshair]

I hastily bought a laptop this time last year when my previous one packed up. I didn’t take much notice but it has microsoft365 on subscription After my free trial, it is due for renewal. I’ve always had Office.software for free so loathe to renew. I’m not. exactly sure what 365 does, though am led to believe without it I wouldn’t be able to access office software or my cloud storage. I do some consultancy work so have to have both. There are some good deals on normal (non subscription) Offfice software atm. Don’t really have.the time to research. So thought I’d ask the wise old heads on here (more likely young heads on this topic?)

• is there anything I have missed re 365’s functions, or is just direct replacement for Office?
• Is it easy to switch?

Also, getting similar from McAfee. Are there any equally good free replacements.?
I’ve just received an email from McAfee suggesting my password details are available on the dark web, suggesting I change all passwords which would be a pain. Haven’t had chance to look, so don’t know. If it’s

• Genuine
• A scam from McAfee to frighten me into renewing
• A clever scam from a third party trying to get into from me

 

[bradymk2]

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

good site to see if any where you've signed up has had data breaches

 

[PLT]

I personally think most people don't need Office, and it's more hassle and cost than it's worth.

I use Google Drive for all my documents. It's all cloud based and includes 15GB of storage for free. It has equivalents of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and so on and they're all free to use. And honestly, I think they're better. I haven't used Office stuff for years and whenever I see it now I just think it seems so cumbersome and old-fashioned compared to the simplicity of Google Docs. To me it's weird that Office remains so ubiquitous and that people will actually pay for it.

 

[AlRawdah]

Office 365 is a subscription version of the Office software. Rather than stumping up up front for it, you pay £42 per annum. You get software upgrades included as part of that.

if you have a version of the Office suite already then you can install that and ditch 365. Suggest you uninstall 365 first though or things will get complicated.

 

[Plum]

I hastily bought a laptop this time last year when my previous one packed up. I didn’t take much notice but it has microsoft365 on subscription After my free trial, it is due for renewal. I’ve always had Office.software for free so loathe to renew. I’m not. exactly sure what 365 does, though am led to believe without it I wouldn’t be able to access office software or my cloud storage. I do some consultancy work so have to have both. There are some good deals on normal (non subscription) Offfice software atm. Don’t really have.the time to research. So thought I’d ask the wise old heads on here (more likely young heads on this topic?)

• is there anything I have missed re 365’s functions, or is just direct replacement for Office?
• Is it easy to switch?

Also, getting similar from McAfee. Are there any equally good free replacements.?
I’ve just received an email from McAfee suggesting my password details are available on the dark web, suggesting I change all passwords which would be a pain. Haven’t had chance to look, so don’t know. If it’s

• Genuine
• A scam from McAfee to frighten me into renewing
• A clever scam from a third party trying to get into from me

I'm in the same boat. I have conventional Microsoft Office on my old laptop, license bought for about £100 6 or 7 years ago. New laptop has 365 trial version and McAfee trial same as you. I don't believe there's a right or wrong way forward but this is my thinking.
1. No functional difference between 365 and conventional office that I can see except that the 365 offering is the latest version, my old stuff is old and unsupported.
2. 365 comes in at £60 pa and that can cover upto 5 of your own machines. It can be used online or offline. Conventional Office is about £100 as a once off license fee for the latest version.
3. Don't see why cloud access should be affected. I have allsorts of documents in the cloud which 365 in it's trial version could access. I don't know what your 'Office.software' is.
4. McAfee. Just spent 30 minutes looking at the same McAfee email you had about the dark web. I've chosen to ignore it. I'm not using McAfee, I've been using Eset for years now and I trust it completely but it isn't free.

I've decided to try 365 on the new laptop just for a change, and I'm leaving my old laptop with the old Office software so all bases are covered.

I have a friend who runs a business with 4 or 5 laptops. She chose 365 years ago because at £60pa for 5 laptops it's cheap and she says she's had no issues with 365 at all.

If I had just the one laptop I think I'd be going for a license for conventional Microsoft Office at £100-ish, which is cheaper than 365 at £60pa. I think the McAfee email is just a bit of heavy-handed marketing.

Hope this helps more than it hinders!

 

[AlRawdah]

Regarding the McAfee password message, I get that one too from time to time. But I change my passwords on critical items (banking, online shopping, porn, etc) every year or so anyway, so it’s not a problem for me. If you stick to the same passwords for years on end, you are asking for trouble.

 

[AlRawdah]

Regarding the McAfee password message, I get that one too from time to time. But I change my passwords on critical items (banking, online shopping, porn, etc) every year or so anyway, so it’s not a problem for me. If you stick to the same passwords for years on end, you are asking for trouble.

Wait. Not porn. Obviously. Just joking there….

 

[Cityzen]

Regarding the McAfee password message, I get that one too from time to time. But I change my passwords on critical items (banking, online shopping, porn, etc) every year or so anyway, so it’s not a problem for me. If you stick to the same passwords for years on end, you are asking for trouble.

Virtually everyday an email telling me my McAfee subscription has run out and how to renew it. Always from different email addresses so putting a block on doesn’t work. Quite amazing as I have never had a subscription with them. Nord VPN showed up some data breaches on the email address I used to register with Not606 (And CityIndependent showed up as well among others). Which is why I ended up reregistering and changing my username.

 

[dennisboothstash]

I hastily bought a laptop this time last year when my previous one packed up. I didn’t take much notice but it has microsoft365 on subscription After my free trial, it is due for renewal. I’ve always had Office.software for free so loathe to renew. I’m not. exactly sure what 365 does, though am led to believe without it I wouldn’t be able to access office software or my cloud storage. I do some consultancy work so have to have both. There are some good deals on normal (non subscription) Offfice software atm. Don’t really have.the time to research. So thought I’d ask the wise old heads on here (more likely young heads on this topic?)

• is there anything I have missed re 365’s functions, or is just direct replacement for Office?
• Is it easy to switch?

Also, getting similar from McAfee. Are there any equally good free replacements.?
I’ve just received an email from McAfee suggesting my password details are available on the dark web, suggesting I change all passwords which would be a pain. Haven’t had chance to look, so don’t know. If it’s

• Genuine
• A scam from McAfee to frighten me into renewing
• A clever scam from a third party trying to get into from me

I have Office 365
Its just a cloud based version of Office, and seemed reasonable to me, but I'm having a problem editing stuff on a MacBook now (file storage on cloud fine, but editing presentations etc isn't working)...so if anyone knows what to do to stop that problem I'd appreciate it!

 

[Gone For A Walk]

McAfee. Assuming it's a Windows laptop, your really don't need Anti virus software (like McAfee and numerous others touting for your money - don't fall for it). Just make sure Microsoft Defender, which comes free & pre-installed on all Windows machines, is switched on. These days MS Defender gives you the protection you need, without extra cost of a 3rd party AV which likely also slows the laptop down. MS Defender nowadays is nothing like the MS Defender of years ago that got some stick. If you think about it, MS have a big vested interest in making sure your laptop is safe. I also have Malwarebytes free version installed and run that around once a month just as a check (nb free version and NOT with live functions, just used to scan once a month). The local paper has a bloke who does a fortnightly PC column. The above is also his very strong advice.

MS 365. I have the subscription family version. To my mind it's excellent value. Not only do you get full access to the latest version of the Office Suite programs, but the big thing for me is the 1TB per person of on-line storage (i.e. One Drive). I don't have that many documents anymore, or need for working from home (as I'm early retired), but for those documents that I do have then they are all automatically saved to the Cloud on MS One Drive at the same time as they are saved to my PC, Laptop and Tablet, but I do have quite a lot of photos and videos. I have my phone set so that photos & videos are automatically backed up to the Cloud (One Drive).

Yes, you could probably save some money by using free Google Docs, or such as Libre Office (free), but you would still likely need to find a way to back everything up (including photos) to the Cloud or else have the hassle of very regular back ups to spare drives or whatever all of which would cost money. I could go that way but I really don't see the point when I'd likely only save a few pounds in return for more hassle. An annual subscription, either individual if it's just for you, or family if you have others that could use it, really is cost effective and easy.

IMO.

 

[spesupersydera]

**** Windows off and install Linux; it's free to use with a ridiculous amount of free software that Microsoft would charge you a fortune for, Libre Office being one in question, it's a brilliant alternative to M. Office.

 

[x]

**** Windows off and install Linux; it's free to use with a ridiculous amount of free software that Microsoft would charge you a fortune for, Libre Office being one in question, it's a brilliant alternative to M. Office.

or, alternatively, keep windows and get libre office.

 

[spesupersydera]

or, alternatively, keep windows and get libre office.

Once you try Linux you'll never use Windows again ...

 

[x]

Once you try Linux you'll never use Windows again ...

i've tried it several times and will again, but i know too much about windows and i've bought software that's vital to me and won't run on linux. i've also had pita problems trying to install stuff on linux and got fed up of trying. but i will again when i get round to it.

 

[PLT]

Yes, you could probably save some money by using free Google Docs, or such as Libre Office (free), but you would still likely need to find a way to back everything up (including photos) to the Cloud or else have the hassle of very regular back ups to spare drives or whatever all of which would cost money. I could go that way but I really don't see the point when I'd likely only save a few pounds in return for more hassle. An annual subscription, either individual if it's just for you, or family if you have others that could use it, really is cost effective and easy.

IMO.

Re Google Docs, as I mentioned it comes with 15GB of cloud storage for free and is all cloud based. So there isn't any messing about with what device your files are stored on and where the backups are, it's all just held in the cloud and Google are responsible for looking after it. And it handles photos in a separate area too, which again are all held in the cloud, are automatically kept backed up and can be accessed easily from any device. I think this is miles smoother than dealing with Office and OneDrive.

They have paid options if you need more storage. I pay about £10 a year or something to make it 100GB, which still isn't a huge amount but there are higher tiers if you need more.

Leaving everything online at the behest of a tech giant won't be everyone's cup of tea but that's another matter.

 

[Gone For A Walk]

Re Google Docs, as I mentioned it comes with 15GB of cloud storage for free and is all cloud based. So there isn't any messing about with what device your files are stored on and where the backups are, it's all just held in the cloud and Google are responsible for looking after it. And it handles photos in a separate area too, which again are all held in the cloud, are automatically kept backed up and can be accessed easily from any device. I think this is miles smoother than dealing with Office and OneDrive.

They have paid options if you need more storage. I pay about £10 a year or something to make it 100GB, which still isn't a huge amount but there are higher tiers if you need more.

Leaving everything online at the behest of a tech giant won't be everyone's cup of tea but that's another matter.

Yep, it's a decent option for sure. As you say, 100 gb isn't a lot if you do have a lot of photos, videos and documents, so you would have then to pay more.
Personally I find MS (365/OneDrive) very easy and smooth, and does all that you say with Google above (syncs across all devices, auto backup to clould, easily accessed, etc). Maybe a case of what you are or get used to.

 

[askewshair]

Thanks everyone for the advice. That’s really cleared things up
Just noticed a groupon offer on Office 2021 for £39 quid. No subs, which has made my mind up. Gonna bin 365.
Also gonna bin McAfee and rely on Windows Defender + malware bytes.
I just need to think about what to do about storage.

 

[Ron Burguvdy]

Thanks everyone for the advice. That’s really cleared things up
Just noticed a groupon offer on Office 2021 for £39 quid. No subs, which has made my mind up. Gonna bin 365.
Also gonna bin McAfee and rely on Windows Defender + malware bytes.
I just need to think about what to do about storage.

Make sure you completely delete McAfee off your laptop and unsubscribe from everything with them...

 

[dennisboothstash]

Thanks everyone for the advice. That’s really cleared things up
Just noticed a groupon offer on Office 2021 for £39 quid. No subs, which has made my mind up. Gonna bin 365.
Also gonna bin McAfee and rely on Windows Defender + malware bytes.
I just need to think about what to do about storage.

Just check you haven’t been saving stuff in your one drive cloud during the free bit, in case you lose it if you ditch it?

 

[x]

Thanks everyone for the advice. That’s really cleared things up
Just noticed a groupon offer on Office 2021 for £39 quid. No subs, which has made my mind up. Gonna bin 365.
Also gonna bin McAfee and rely on Windows Defender + malware bytes.
I just need to think about what to do about storage.

a suggestion about storage: i buy from ebuyer, which, as you may know is based near hedon and visible from boothferry bridge. i have several ssd drives; they're daftly cheap, many bought with the intention of reviving older pcs for reuse, perhaps with whatever version of linux i can persuade them to accept. if you get a usb to sata cable, you can plug them into almost any computer. the last time i bought ssds a 120GB one could be had for £14-£18 but a look on ebuyer shows 240 or 250GB for under £22 (one on offer for £18.47 atm), a 512GB one for £25.98 and another for £25.99, and even some 1TB ones for £45-£50. surprisingly, given the upward rush of most prices, these have actually got cheaper lately.

they're fast.

on a slight downside, i had one plugged into my router as it was a simple way to pass files between computers. unfortunately it got corrupted and i haven't been able to either reset it or retrieve the data on it (it probably wasn't important). i had no idea where it stood regarding its warranty. actual hard drives with spinning platters have rarely if ever failed for me.

incidentally, the two biggest gains for my laptop - my main machine - were swapping the hdd for an ssd (that said, i have another, better brand ssd to put in when i get round to it, and i might alternate between the two big ssds) and getting kcom's fibre. ideally i'd have added more ram, but this one will only go up to 12GB (from 8), but to do that i have to buy 8GB and stop using an existing 4GB chunk, which doesn't sit well with my yorkshire instincts. might do it in the future, but current price of £46 is a bit much.

all that said, my pc (now about 8 years old) has fairly recently taken to freezing for several seconds or more at a time and i'm hoping putting the newer ssd in will stop this happening.

hope some of this is of use to somebody.