As I plan my upgrade to Windows 11 this summer, I am considering Microsoft 365 and its many, often confusing, features.
I have been using Microsoft Office for nearly 30 years. Longer, if you consider starting with Word in 1983 and Excel a few years later. While I was still working, I could purchase Office as a “home user program” through work at a great discount. So, now I find myself with either Office 2007 or 2010 on all my home computers.
Over the years, I have considered moving to the Google Suite, or other open source replacements. But darn it, I like Office and am way down the learning curve for many features. Especially so for Outlook, which is my main personal organizer and e-mail client. I would hate to give that up.
Last week, I began considering Microsoft 365. Fundamentally, it provides a combination of Office and OneDrive (and much more) on a subscription basis. One of my sons provided me with a Guest Account on his Family subscription. This provides me with pretty much everything except the AI features, including a 1TB OneDrive.
So, I have been experimenting and considering three fundamental questions. First, should I adopt Microsoft 365 as a complete service, or just use the subscription to download the Office apps to my PC?
Second, should I rebuild all my workflow and file storage around OneDrive – that would be a big job – or just use OneDrive as another shared storage folder? And third, if I did adopt the modern Microsoft 365 paradigm, how do I manage the migration and ensure sustainability into the future? These are big questions.
Considering Microsoft 365 from a Hobby Radio and Making Perspective
You will find tons of articles about Microsoft 365 and OneDrive on the web. I won’t try to duplicate those. Instead, I will focus on what this all means to someone like me who already has a good legacy infrastructure devoted to my hobbies and personal use.
I have devices dedicated to radio and SDR activities, electronics, CAD, 3D printing and so on. Do I really want to try to migrate all of this to the cloud and the new paradigm? We will find out as I explore these questions over the next few weeks.
My workplace migrated to M365, and I despise it. It sends everything to the Cloud; upends all of one’s organization (I have lots of well-organized folders on my computer, but the Cloud changes everything… Luckily, I saved everything to a different drive); and disrupts workflow in general, such as suddenly stopping your typing while emailing and asking you if you are satisfied with M365! Messages pop up all the time, asking if you would like help (usually with an AI assistant or “Co-Pilot”). There is a whole M365 transition team at work, but it’s been months, and people are still calling in with issues. Maybe it’s different when you use it at home. But I hate it at work.
When I bought a new PC a few months ago and went to load MS365, it forced me to use the new version of Outlook, that looks a lot like the internet version. That was bad enough, but it also would not allow transfer of all your existing inbox or folders, with a statement saying the capability would come later. As such, the new Outlook was useless to me and I finally had to move to a program called eM Client, not quite as good as the old Outlook, but allowed me to import all of my inbox and folders. It may be better now, but be sure to check before you commit to M365 and Outlook in particular.
John, I’ve had a 365 Family subscription for about a year, completely replacing my old desktop Office Professional 2010(?). So far it has been mostly a breeze, and yes – downloaded to Windows as a desktop suite.
Being used to the “old” Outlook, I steer clear of the “new Outlook” app that gets accidentally invoked occasionally. Otherwise everything seems to work much like the desktop programs.
Office includes 1 TB OneDrive storage, much more than enough for a few “on the move” documents and occasional sharing. Upgrades may be expensive.
Something odd happened to my old (but still work-horse) Windows 10 laptop in the last few days, where Windows File Manager OneDrive tree navigation takes about 1.5 minutes to open each level. Seems to be a known problem that was not fixed by an Office 365 online repair. Have put that to bed for now as the new Windows 11 NUC mini is not affected.
My use of OneDrive is pretty basic (dumb), with dedicated folders for my current purposes, though it could also be useful for backing up e.g. \Documents or Pictures to OneDrive. Maybe will explore that later.
Perhaps the best outcome of Office 365 for me was that, even with Personal, it can be installed on as many devices as you like, using up to 5 concurrently. With Family, that can be multiplied by up to 6 individuals.
Having recently upgraded my Android phone, I installed Office and now have access to emails (plus Word and Excel documents) on the move – not to mention getting authentication codes conveniently.
My only irritation with Android Outlook is apparently not being able to distinguish bwtween the many linked accounts. Maybe just my ignorance?
And did I say Outlook on the iPad? That’s now become my lightweight replacement for a travel laptop.
Don’t know what you mean by “adopt the modern Microsoft 365 paradigm, how do I manage the migration”. TBH I haven’t “migrated” anything. With the desktop version, everything stays the same in my little world.
Regards, Paul