Hakuna Matata
So here's the story. My Vista PC must be 7 or 8 years old. Yes, I said, "Vista". I think it was one of the last ones shipped. I remember being annoyed at the time that they did not upgrade me to Windows 7. But it is a high-powered computer with an Intel i-7 chip, and replacement would cost at least $700.
Vista has been fine, but Microsoft has stopped all support of the operating system, and my Chrome browser is also warning me that support has stopped and I believe Firefox support will stop this year. I am afraid if I just keep merrily using Vista operating system I will suddenly find I have no working browsers, not to mention the anti-virus software might not be working properly on the non-supported, non-updated operating system.
So I decide to bite the bullet and pay $120 or so to upgrade the operating system to Windows 10. Rather than just buy the OS I try to contact Microsoft to find out the best way to do the upgrade. Of course there is no good way to contact them. Then I try to contact Dell (Computer was purchased directly from Dell) and send an email explaining my situation, explain that the hardware is pretty good, and just want to find out the best way to upgrade to Windows 10. They reply claiming they don't know if my Vista computer (which is no longer supported) can handle Windows 10 and they recommend I buy a new computer and they would be glad to help me configure and purchase a new computer. Gee thanks!
So I research Ubuntu (Linux) operating system, and first I run it on my computer from a flash drive, and it seemed to work pretty well. It is completely free, although they ask for donations. One nice thing about running Ubuntu is I can still access files that are on the computer in the old Windows area. I have backed up everything just in case. So after running Ubuntu from a flash drive for a couple of weeks I finally installed it yesterday. I created a partition and installed it on my computer without deleting the Windows Vista operating system. So now when I boot up my computer I am given the choice of Ubuntu or Windows Vista, and if I do nothing it starts with Ubuntu. I can still access all my old files and the operating system works well. It comes with spreadsheet and word processing software that are compatible with MS excel and Word.
I am happy with this setup, I will even go back and pay for the software (I will make a small donation), and best of all I can say, "screw you" to Microsopht !