Still using Adobe CS3 collection - mine, and it does everything I need. Sure, newer versions have more bells and whistles but I'm proficient and quick and experienced.

Same with MS office, although Word and Excel are the only ones I use regularly. Have a 2002 version. OK for letters and stuff that doesn't require InDesign.

Both run just fine on Win 10. I block Adobe updates in Services, so they don't bother me. My theory is, don't update unless you absolutely need to.

Well, that and Photoshop.

But your words do give me hope. Like you, I don't need the new bells and whistles.

I have managed to adapt to Windows 10 on my work machine although it remains a supremely annoying experience.

unenthusiastically,
Bright

Classic Shell
http://classicshell.net/

Freebie. You can restore the familar start menu and customise it to hell. I have it running on Win10. Makes it just like XP

Strangely, I loathed Window 7, but with a bit of work, some tweaks and reg. edits you can get 10 to look just like the more familiar versions.

There are even one or two things I like about W10, but not enough to compensate for all that's wrong with it.

A desktop is a desktop is a desktop machine, stop trying to make it into a smartphone full of appy shit.

irritatedly,
Bright

several version back (I have CS4 which is all I need) but adobe stuff is all subscription now except for photoshop elements which you can still buy on a disc

www.tenforums.com

I'm not too up on lappies but I just finally replaced my trusty first-gen i7 mobo/cpu/ram (which was still actually going strong with a Xeon X5675 6c/12t, which is a server chip with 3.33GHz on all cores ... still has the juice to handle anything just not super fast).

Ergo, I'm pretty up on the latest stuff ATM as I did a ton of research after being out of the market for a good while (except for GFX cards, I'm a gamer so I've upgraded GPU like 8 times with that same platform over the time I've had it).

If you wanna pick my brain on hardware, feel free to fire away, can even PM me.

The value king for chips right now is the one I got: AMD 3600, which is Ryzen 3rd Gen. $200, goes on sale for 190/195. It's 6c/12th, and it's a monster for that price, esp. for productivity apps.

At the moment, I'm scavenging a used replacement for the fried board in my current rig, both to give me time to do an orderly take-off of data (I got a bit careless with backups over the holiday, bad me) and to allow me to resurrect it long enough to deactivate the disc-based software installs so that I can activate them on a new machine.

Since the old ASRock Z87 board I'm looking to replace isn't exactly a common item (I did manage to locate one "used, in good condition&quot that's going to take a while, which will give me time to look around at the options of finding a ready-built that will meet my needs but will have to be de-bloated and disinfected, versus a build.

I don't do as much gaming as I used to, but I still do graphics-heavy tasks a fair bit.

I do tend to have a lot of big crunchy productivity apps running in multiple windows, run dual UHD monitors, things like working up multiple-overlay high detailed map images in one application while I'm listening to music on a media player while I'm fiddling with a database in another window, and testing user interfaces in two browsers open at the same time with lots of tabs going.

And so forth.

I have been hearing good things about the Ryzen chip series as opposed to Intel's generation 10 stuff, so I'm glad to know about someone's real-life experience.

I'm also thinking about moving the main storage location to a connected dedicated storage drive, but I'd still like plenty of RAM and enough solid state memory to manage two partitions with lots of active software, and not rub elbows or stutter.

So, yeah, anything you want to tell me about the latest and greatest will be most welcome.

appreciatively,
Bright

hit me up.

Sounds like you might be enough of a power user to benefit from the 3900X Ryzen, which is the 12c/24t part. Things a BEAST for not that much, around $500.

You're gonna love having M.2 nvme SSD(s) if you've never had 'em ... they freaking rock ... everything is so snappy.

P.S. your Z87 is downright modern compared to the X58 Asus Rampage III Extreme I just took out of my case (well, next generation anyway).

When you purchase the subscription from Microsoft, Adobe, etc, all the software is installed locally on your hard drive. All your data is also stored locally on your hard drives, but with the option of putting it in the cloud.

You just need an internet connection once per month or so to verify that the subscription is still active.
Yes, the software subscriptions can be a pain in the ass at times....