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Thanks for that information. I knew I would eventually have to upgrade my version of Lookout, but I just wasn’t sure how long that would be. Man, I just got this one; I hope I can keep using it for a while!

I sent my sister a link to the Microsoft article which told exactly what to do to fix it. She did just what they said, but it didn’t fix it. So I fixed it on my end.

I guess I’ll have to be on the “lookout” for when I need to upgrade!

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

Thanks for the heads up about Aptos fonts. When I get to work tomorrow, I’ll check my work copy of MS Office and make sure I change the default font to “Office 2013-2022 Calibri”.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

The MSA agreement is a contract in which Microsoft grants you the right to use their product and, in exchange, you grant them the right to use your content.

This sounds a lot like what John Deere was doing a while back (and may still be doing) — since their tractors were literally filled with computer chips which contained John Deere proprietary software, they pretty much claimed ownership of the tractor, even though you paid thousands of dollars for it — you weren’t allowed to do any repairs yourself; a John Deere rep had to do all repairs — the parts wouldn’t work if they didn’t activate them first.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

My computers stay on all the time, unless we have a power outage. My main computer runs Linux Mint, and the only time it reboots is if an update requires a reboot, or if I have so many Firefox pages open that the computer hangs.

I have two reasons for leaving them on all the time:

1. Convenience.

2. The inside of a computer is made out of different materials that expand and contract at different rates when the temperature goes up or down. This puts a bit of stress on the internal parts. To avoid that happening, I just leave the computers on all the time.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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Cybertooth, cyberSAR, TechTango

I think it is an excellent idea to turn on the old machines once every six months. More often than that is a risk that one of them will fail in some way. Less often than that is a risk that you will forget some critical detail.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

Microsoft Defender SmartScreen is going to protect you by preventing this app from running, because it doesn’t recognize it. (My humble, opinionated translation: Someone didn’t pay the guys in the Cadillac when they came around to collect the “protection fees.”)

Funny!

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

You might need to enable SMB1. I had a situation like that — one of my customers has an SMB1 server, and they aren’t going to change that anytime soon. I had to enable SMB1 on any new PC I was setting up, else it wouldn’t be able to log on to the domain.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

Very nice car! And a very reliable transmission – a lot better and more simple than the CVT transmissions of today.

Back then you could buy and install an aftermarket air conditioner for your car.

And back then, you could get a decent used muscle car for around $500.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

1 user thanked author for this post.

Charlie

There are lots of things I miss from the 60s and 70s. And there are a few things that I am glad are gone.

One thing I miss is 60s cars and 30c per gallon gasoline. As long as your car had an air conditioner and a stereo, you were good to go. You really didn’t need all of the hyper technology that they cram into cars and everything else these days.

Problem is, we didn’t know what we had in the 60s and 70s. By the time things had changed, that era was lost forever.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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Charlie, Cybertooth

My work computer is a laptop, and I have two large external monitors connected to it, as well as a mouse and a keyboard. So I have a pretty decent setup for my home office. With a keyboard, a mouse, and an external monitor, the only thing you are losing with a laptop these days is a bit of desk space. And even with the issue of internal expansion, you can add a big internal hard drive and lots of memory. And you’ll certainly have one or more digital video ports on the laptop.

So I basically agree with you. Even still, I prefer a desktop computer to a laptop computer. Probably because I go way back, and I still remember the “good old days”, when laptops were nowhere near what they are today.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

You can get your emails forwarded to your phone in the form of text messages.

* First: you need to find out the text message email address of your phone. For example, if you have T-Mobile, and your phone number is 123-456-7890, your phone’s text message email address would be 1234567890@tmomail.net. Any emails which come to that address would be received by your phone as text messages. If you get a lot of email, your phone will fill up fast, so you’ll need to delete these incoming emails after you read them. (If you don’t get a lot of email, this shouldn’t be a problem.)

* Next: you need to log onto your email’s webmail service and create a rule which forwards all incoming email to 1234567890@tmomail.net. (The reason you will set up a rule in webmail is so that it will always be on. If you set it up on your computer, and your computer goes off, the rule will be off.)

* You can reply to these emails simply by typing in a text message and sending it to whoever sent it to you. They will get your message in their email inbox.

Obviously this will have limitations. You can’t send or receive big emails using this method. But you can do short emails. Best of all, it is very easy to use this method.

While I don’t forward all email to my phone in this way, I forward some of my email to my phone; I forward the ones I need to know about immediately, such as emails from my boss.

By the way, one of T-Mobile’s selling points is that they work internationally, in a very long list of countries. You might get a T-Mobile pre-paid phone with international service, or you might want to switch to T-Mobile. I recently switched to T-Mobile, because their customer service is second to none.

Good luck!

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

I use Linux Mint and Windows 10. I use two separate hard drives, with a hard drive power switch. I power the computer down, push a couple of buttons, and power the computer up. So the two operating systems are completely independent of each other.

Actually, I have a third hard drive – my data drive. It stays on all the time, so that it is available in both situations. Actually, I would like for it to be available in both situations; but for some reason, Windows doesn’t see the drive. (Maybe because it is formatted for Linux?)

But that is a question for another thread, because I don’t want to hijack this thread.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

I’ll be traveling with my good old flip phone, which allows me to talk and text. It also will provide a wifi hot spot if needed, but since I won’t have any other devices, it won’t be needed.

I can stream internet radio to my car stereo, so I guess I should add that I’ll have a stereo in my car for the trip.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

I prefer a desktop computer – easier to work on, easier to add circuit boards, memory, large hard drives, etc. The one thing I do like about a laptop – built-in battery backup – is taken care of by my monster UPS, which will keep me up and running for about an hour, should the power go out.

Certain compromises had to be made in order to shrink a laptop down to where it is portable. These compromises are a lot less now than they were when laptops first came out. Still, with a desktop computer, you don’t have to have these compromises.

I simply prefer to work at a desk rather than wherever I happen to be at the time. Therefore, a desktop computer wins every time for me.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

The TV has three HDMI connections, but no wifi.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM