[Hank70SS]

If he is installing Windows 10 then yes it could take days to update. It's one update after the other, they don't bundle them together anymore. I think chevymaher meant ubuntu. Yes that or another Linux based OS doesn't have the bloat of Windows. I haven't looked at any of them in a long time but finding drivers was a problem before. Another problem is the learning curve and I know you. Let's face it you're not real tech savvy and you'd probably end up throwing it in the swamp.

As for the laptop, it really should be ok. I have an Acer laptop that's even older. You can't get much of a laptop for under $500 these days so $160 isn't too bad. I've found that my laptop and my wife's will grind to a halt when there's a WIndows update pending. Restarting and letting the update install fixes that. They will also slow down when there's a lot of cached data. Web form info, images, etc. You can download CCleaner, it's a free app and does a good job of cleaning things up. You can select what you want removed. Caution, removing cookies means you'll have to log into websites after cleaning as your login info is gone. Also cleanup the registry when you run it. Unless you want Avast antivirus software installed there's a checkbox on the install screen, uncheck it before the install.

Windows caches a lot of data that's supposed to speed things up when browsing the web. Problem is once it caches so much data it spends more time thrashing through it instead of just downloading it again. I'm looking for a new laptop, not too seriously though. This laptop started on Windows Vista, now Windows 10. When cleaned up it does what I need it too.