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Configuring Win 10 for a senior citizen...just wants basics!

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588 views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  SpywareDr 
#1 ·
Hi, folks. One of my wife's friends, who is in her 70s, just bought a new Dell laptop with Windows 10 (sorry, I did not get the model number.) She asked me to come over and set it up for her.

I retired from the IT biz about a year ago, but I am in no way a tech or OS expert. We use Win 7 at home, but just before I retired, we rolled out new Win 10 desktops and notebooks, so I have a bit of experience on Win 10--but I've forgotten most of the config stuff I learned then.

The new Dell has a really nice setup program that quickly got her accounts set up and got her connected to wifi and ISP (Frontier). I installed her favorite browser, Chrome, and imported browser favorites. At that point, she was pretty much good to go--except for the Windows 10 interface and all the free/junk programs that come with it. She has no interest in the games and other stuff, and she would like to have as close as possible to the look and feel of the Win 7 desktop and start menu. All she wants to do is get to email and browser via desktop icons.

I was able to silence Cortana and stop most of the popups from that. But I need advice on the following:
  1. How can I get close to a Win7 look for desktop and smart menu? I want to shut down the tile interface especially.
  2. Can I get the Win7 program/file search box back (preferably only showing on Start Programs, not pinned to taskbar) without reawaking Cortana? Default search tool on taskbar takes up too much room and looks bad.
  3. Are there any Win 10 programs/components I should NOT uninstall? I assume games are safe to delete I'd like to totally get rid of the Edge browser, and Bing if I can do that.
  4. What Dell utilities and junkware would be safe to uninstall?
  5. There is no DVD drive in this notebook. I assume best alternative for recovery media is a USB drive. But I'm trying to talk her into an external HD for backups--would system recovery work from that?
  6. Does requiring 16GB for recovery imply that it would fully reinstall Windows, or is that just enough to boot the machine?
  7. Any thoughts on creating recovery drive via Dell's utility vs. Windows Backup?
Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.
 
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#5 ·
Just F.Y.I. Classic Shell is no longer, since Dec. 2017, being supported.

Open Shell, with support, is now the continuation of Classic Shell. For all intent & purposes it is an exact copy of Classic Shell.
It is available here: https://www.techspot.com/downloads/7103-open-shell.html
https://www.techspot.com/downloads/7103-open-shell.html
Although I'm quite comfortable with the default Win 10 interface, I still much prefer the Classic feel, performance & appearance of Open Shell. I'm simply 2 clicks away from the Win 10 default if needed.
 
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