Well, it happened again. My Windows 10 office desktop has bitten the dust. This time a mysterious "disc error" that I'm not entirely convinced is a coincidence. Why suspicious? Because right around the same time, I noticed OneDrive (personal) had quietly crept onto the machine and started doing its thing: silently squirrelling files away into its own little kingdom, and generally slowing everything to a crawl.
I'd already watched this happen on my two other Windows 11 computers, after updates, but at least I caught it eventually. After it had renamed/moved My Documents, Pictures, and Download folders and was filling its secret directory and also making a copy on the cloud. Once I untangled the mess, which involved copying files back to where they belonged (not moving, because some weren't being picked up properly). It was a tedious, several frustrating afternoons I'll never get back. Not cool, Microsoft.
This is the fifth time a computer of mine has died shortly after an update. Fifth!!!!! At some point, that stops being bad luck.
As a retiree, I'm done throwing good money after bad. So here's where I stand: two Windows 11 machines still running, one ancient Toshiba notebook happily air-gapped and ticking along on Debian Linux (doing backups beautifully, no drama), and five dead Windows machines gathering dust in a cupboard.
The dead ones are hanging around partly because they once held client data from my consulting days. I occasionally pull out a hard drive, wipe it, and repurpose it for storage. So there is no chance that their data is accidentally revealed to the public.
But honestly? This feels like the nudge I needed. I'm seriously considering tinkering with Linux or even a Chromebook setup to get at least one or two machines revitalised. Once I summon the enthusiasm, that is.
Microsoft, that was your last chance.
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