I had to replace my phone this year and now this.

sad part phones tend be not made to last now of days.

A big pain indeed.

yep

To be fair, I have used this laptop a lot. I was planning on getting a new one when support for Windows 10 ends in late 2025 as this laptop cannot run Windows 11.

Nevertheless, when I get my new laptop, I'm not going with Windows 11 just yet as it was released last month and it will likely have some kinks that will likely be ironed out by the time I go to it in 2025.

That seems to be the case with Windows 10 with updates breaking certain features for people though I never seem to encounter any of these as I don't use them.

Something I forgot to mention why I'm not going with Windows 11 yet is that Microsoft is putting pressure on users of that system to use their Edge browser.

I agree, it should be the user's decision on whatever internet browser they wish to use be it Edge, Chrome, Firefox or any other browsers for that matter. Microsoft should not be forcing Windows 11 users to just use their own browser Edge. Microsoft got a lot of flak for forcing people to upgrade to Windows 10 after it had released.

To throw more salt in the wound, Windows 10 allows you to choose the default programs on your computer for things like music player, picture/photo viewers, internet browser and so on. For me, I use Firefox as my default internet browser. That's not the case for Windows 11.

Have you tried to get into contact with Microsoft about being locked out of your Outlook account?