Laptops With Windows 8 And Microsoft Office

[35 Wh] I've been using Microsoft Surface laptops for personal and business use for years, and I've got no complaints. I like my hardware and software to be made by the same company so there's less bloatware. I don't use the laptop to game, edit videos, or anything intensive. (Unless you count having multiple tabs of Google Chrome open.) The machine runs smoothly. No complaints there. The angular metal exterior looks and feels great. It says professional without being as boxy as a ThinkPad.

[Single] I use this to make system images on Win 7 Pro... before I do windows update (just to be safe, because, you know, microsoft).  Priced right and works for me.  Generally takes two of these to make a system image of my C: drive with 115 GB on it.  Good safety net.

I use this to make system images on Win 7 Pro... before I do windows update (just to be safe, because, you know, microsoft).  Priced right and works for me.  Generally takes two of these to make a system image of my C: drive with 115 GB on it.  Good safety net.

[64 GB] I ordered this barebones kit with 16 gb of Crucial memory from B&H, and, of course it was delivered promptly. I got the Intel Pentium Silver N6005 version. I have built several NUCs over the years, and this compact unit was easy to open up. I installed the memory and a Samsung 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD, and downloaded Windows 11 home and used the Microsoft Media creation tool to create a bootable USB drive. I then booted from the USB stick and installed Windows on the Samsung drive in minutes. I already had a key to use to activate. This device adds Windows to my set up, and takes up very little space on the desktop. I am feeding a 4K monitor and I am able to stream sources in 4K HDR with no difficulty. This is not a high performance machine, but it handles Microsoft Office tasks and media comsumption to meet my personal needs. The price was right and I am very pleased.

[192 GB] When Microsoft banned computer hardware that didn't have the TPM chip and therefore would not run Windows 11, I said, That's it. Fool me once Microsoft. shame on you... What's to stop Microsoft from doing this again in the future? I began looking at alternatives and decided that running Windows 11 as a Virtual Machine (VM) inside a product called Parallels Desktop on a Mac was the way to go. I'm one who always assembled his own PC's and keeping my budget at $1000 for the box (no new monitor, keyboard, mouse, external devices) BUT, if I was going to run Windows 11 inside of my new Mac, the Mac had better be on the robust end of the spectrum. My former Macs have always had 8 to 16GB of RAM which was adequate for my usage. But since Windows 11 doesn't thrive until reaching 16GB, I decided that 32GB should be fine with this new Mac (it's perfect) Next, storage. VM's require a lot of storage space. I'm running a Windows 11 VM, Mac Sonoma (this is an additional Mac VM) and a Linux VM. My Mac now has 850GB free on a 2TB drive. Yes, get the 2TB storage! I have no storage insecurity which counts for a lot. Perhaps I'll try moving the VM's to external storage someday but I don't have resources for trying experiments now - using RAID arrays, etc. So now I have an expensive Mac (it's all relative, I know). I justify it by saying that I was going to have to buy my $1000 Windows box anyway plus I wanted the new Mac silicon. Installing Parallels Desktop and the Windows 11 VM is mostly an automated experience. Everything is fast.

When Microsoft banned computer hardware that didn't have the TPM chip and therefore would not run Windows 11, I said, That's it. Fool me once Microsoft. shame on you... What's to stop Microsoft from doing this again in the future? I began looking at alternatives and decided that running Windows 11 as a Virtual Machine (VM) inside a product called Parallels Desktop on a Mac was the way to go. I'm one who always assembled his own PC's and keeping my budget at $1000 for the box (no new monitor, keyboard, mouse, external devices) BUT, if I was going to run Windows 11 inside of my new Mac, the Mac had better be on the robust end of the spectrum. My former Macs have always had 8 to 16GB of RAM which was adequate for my usage. But since Windows 11 doesn't thrive until reaching 16GB, I decided that 32GB should be fine with this new Mac (it's perfect) Next, storage. VM's require a lot of storage space. I'm running a Windows 11 VM, Mac Sonoma (this is an additional Mac VM) and a Linux VM. My Mac now has 850GB free on a 2TB drive. Yes, get the 2TB storage! I have no storage insecurity which counts for a lot. Perhaps I'll try moving the VM's to external storage someday but I don't have resources for trying experiments now - using RAID arrays, etc. So now I have an expensive Mac (it's all relative, I know). I justify it by saying that I was going to have to buy my $1000 Windows box anyway plus I wanted the new Mac silicon. Installing Parallels Desktop and the Windows 11 VM is mostly an automated experience. Everything is fast.

[Perpetual] SoftMaker Office seems to be a straightforward non-subscription and cheaper replacement to Microsoft Office. Needed a decent program suite to edit and save all my Microsoft Docs (Word and Excel). I know there are free open source alternatives, but I was more comfortable working in SoftMaker vs them. It is working well so far and is very familiar to use coming from Microsoft Office. SoftMaker Office doesn’t have has robust review tools built in as Microsoft Office does. However, it didn’t seem like the extra grammar review alone was worth the additional money for the full non-subscription desktop Microsoft Office purchase to me.

[1x USB-A Female] This is a great product. I'm using it in my office to connect my new work monitors to the Microsoft Dock. Will definitely purchase if needed in the future.

[Download] If you don't want to have a credit card saved with Microsoft, I think this is the easiest way to license Office on computers for personal use. B&H emailed me a digital code that I entered into my Microsoft account for a 12-month subscription. Done for another year.

SoftMaker Office seems to be a straightforward non-subscription and cheaper replacement to Microsoft Office. Needed a decent program suite to edit and save all my Microsoft Docs (Word and Excel). I know there are free open source alternatives, but I was more comfortable working in SoftMaker vs them. It is working well so far and is very familiar to use coming from Microsoft Office. SoftMaker Office doesn’t have has robust review tools built in as Microsoft Office does. However, it didn’t seem like the extra grammar review alone was worth the additional money for the full non-subscription desktop Microsoft Office purchase to me.