Boy, the good ole days are gone when it comes to Windows. I am posting just to help anybody that doesn’t know. This is like a creepy wire tap. If you are actually using Windows 11, make sure to disable and or reduce telemetry in Windows 11 (Privacy). If that actually helps, I am sure there are more ways they send data back but the video link is a simple how to for the telemetry. Here is more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtg_s1GQiMU


Linux I’ve had to fight and beat into submission just to try and install it without accidentally overwriting my windows installation, and have all my hardware working. I’ve tried and failed 6 times now
That sounds like you had difficulty determining the correct instructions. Given the wrong instructions, computers will do the wrong thing, and that’s OK. They’re not supposed to think, but do what they’re told.
I’ll admit that Linux still occasionally suffers from UI/UX issues, in that its not always obvious what the correct choice is in a given circumstances. A bit like Micro$lop trained their users for decades to completely ignore any and all error messages and just try what they were doing again, by making their error messages needlessly cryptic and borderline useless.
So which one is the trouble? Windows or Hardware? If its windows, well maybe get rid of the problem first. Microsoft is actively hostile to your plans.
If its hardware, that can be tricky, but it sure seems infrequent these days.
Refined is probably the best method of dealing with windows. Give windows and linux their own drives, let refined manage the booting and you choose which environment to launch. Windows will never know the other os or bootloader exists. Also turn off fastboot in windows, the cause of a lot of problems.
I need to keep a windows installation because I need MS Office. LibreOffice is fine 98% of the time, but I’ve got a handful of complex documents and spreadsheets that just don’t render correctly in LO, and I’m not going to spend the weeks it takes to correct them.
I’ll look into refined, but currently can’t afford anything but essentials so it’ll be a ways off before I can get a new HD
The office problem. I moved over a long time ago. Word at that time couldnt handle large documents, and excel was a pain in the ass for the csv data we were getting at the time.
Either deal with that pain over a few weeks, or deal with that pain forever! Maybe the fork of onlyoffice will do what you want.
If its only office you can just run windows inside of linux without issue and have it launch the office application when needed using winapps. https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps
Personally I just keep windows in a docker container for that ultra rare time I need windows.