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Thanks, same info as before.

15645 GB on Crystal Disk Info

-1548659851 GB on Clear Disk Info (yes, minus…)

Well, for me “every few years” has been closer to 5 – I think the versions I bought were 2023, 2019, 2014, and then one or two before that.

I did notice that you can still use the Organizer, but I suppose I can just keep using the 2023 one as well. And I do occasionally edit as well, though seldom in a major way.

That said, I remain curious about alternatives that do the same job locally on my computer (not in the cloud) but are less clunky.

A question about Organizer…

I’m in a situation similar to others here – I have upgraded Elements every few years over the last 20-odd years as enough new features accumulated to be useful to me. This new “subscription” model holds no appeal for me at all and I am happy with the 2023 version I’m currently using. With luck it will serve me well for many more years!

That said, the main reason I’ve used the software has been for the Organizer. I can imagine it’s not the best in class, I can see how clunky it is, it’s a resource hog, and yes, I find it frustrating at times, but it’s what I started using 20 years ago so I’m used to it. What are the alternatives? Some say Lightroom, but that’s a subscription again, right? Any other choices? I’d like to be able to search and organize by person, date, location, etc. and do it easily without giving Google all my photos (and paying for the pleasure)…

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Will Fastie

For what it’s worth, my update went smoothly.

But on my Windows 11 lock screen I am getting NHL factoids rather than NBA. I suppose Windows is clever enough to know that I’m in Canada but not clever enough to know that I’m as interested in hockey as the Patch Lady is in basketball.

Maybe that newfangled Recall AI will figure it out whilst looking over my shoulder?

Chris, my Quicken file is 85 MB – and I do worry occasionally about what happens if the file goes seriously awry. Over the years I’ve occasionally had Quicken crash for whatever reason and needed to use the validate function to tidy things up, but (so far) haven’t lost any data.

I’ve been using Quicken since forever (and Managing Your Money before that). The version I’m on now is H&B from 2011 and it seems to work just fine and installed with no issues on my newest Windows 11 computer last year. As you say, accounting principles haven’t changed much lately so what do upgrades actually offer?

I don’t know whether you’d be able to move your data from your later version to an older one that installs without issue – I have no idea whether the data files changed in the interim or not.

I appreciate everyone’s thoughtful comments.

I do need the color printing, and if the printer died tomorrow I’d have no problem shopping for an alternative such as the Brother. The HP was the right choice at the time, and it’s old enough that the newer issues surrounding HP re phoning home and toner don’t apply.

But it still works fine and it just seems wrong to throw out a bulky piece of hardware when it still does the job – except that, yes, it doesn’t seem to be cost-effective (and increasingly difficult) to get supplies. So yes, on a cost-benefit basis, it may make sense to move on but it still somehow offends my sense of frugality.

I have an old laptop that for some reason refuses to upgrade to Windows 10. It’s probably near the end of its physical life anyway – old battery, old drive – so I’m getting ready to retire it. That said, does anyone know whether the January 10 date for ending 8.1 support means that the December updates were the last ones or are there January ones as well?

Thanks to everyone once again for the advice.

Was finally able to get a tech person in who confirmed that the PSU was dead and swapped in a new one. All is well now!

His one comment was that in his experience Dell tends to use under-powered units in its machines and that after 4 years this one had just worn out.

With luck I’ll manage a few more years out of this one.

Nope, no lights of any kind anywhere. I suppose this particular power unit has just expired…

@MrChaz, could you tell me (a non-techie person) how to find the “computer mains cable plug fuse” and how to check it?

@joep517, yes, the outlet is fine and everything else is getting power – monitor, printer, etc. No change to this set-up in a couple of years.

@Susan Bradley, I will try a different cable – a great suggestion – but am not optimistic. This is a very well used computer, so I could imagine that after 3 years it’s just worn out.

I appreciate everyone’ suggestions. Nothing seems to have worked so far and it may not be worth the additional effort to hunt down a mysterious setting just for the occasional print job etc. I think I will just use the cable when needed.

Thanks, no, they’re on the same network.

This is a very helpful suggestion. I will check, but I’m pretty sure work is set to a domain server and I’ll see what the home workgroup is.

I assume there’s some way to change the settings on the laptop to reflect both of these, correct?