Cloudflare VPN

If you want the simplest VPN service that is free, super simple to set up, and provided by a well-known mainstream company, there is no service that satisfies all the criteria other than Cloudflare. Its offering is called WARP. You can go to its website at www.cloudflare.com, search for WARP, download and install its WARP program. You don't even need to provide it any names. Once installed, you would simply turn on the WARP service. This will create a VPN tunnel between your computer and its many relay servers on the Internet. When you browse the Internet under this WARP tunnel, the websites you visit see the Cloudflare's relay server instead of your actual computer's network. That's it. Because of its simplicity, this WARP service has one big disadvantage. You cannot control the "exit server" on Cloudflare end. So if you want the website you visit to think you are from a particular country, this is not possible. 

Cloudflare offers much more than this if you want to dig deeper with its Zero Trust network. With this, you can have two computers at two different geographical locations join a virtual network using Cloudflare as the middleman. This service does require 2 things: you have a custom domain such as yourdomain.com and that you use Cloudflare as your domain's DNS server. 

Create Custom Microsoft Office Installers

The majority of us get our Microsoft Office by going to the Microsoft website at www.microsoft.com.

1. Search for Office.
2. Pick the package of our choice.
3. Log in with our Microsoft account.
4. Pay for it.
5. Download and install it.

Do you know you can create customized Office installation packages that have exactly the programs you want. You don't even need to log in first with a Microsoft account. However, once all is done, you still need to activate the program(s) with a Microsoft account or a valid serial number. 

Few people use OneNote, OneDrive, and even PowerPoint. If you just want the installation to have only Word and Excel, you can. These are the steps as explained in this Youtube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v1dLC8H7_k&t=21s

The first main step:

Create a configuration with the Microsoft Office Customization Tool. This step creates an XML file (a glorified plain text file) that has the instruction on the programs you want in the installer. You would go to

https://config.office.com/deploymentsettings 

Pick and choose your version of Office.

Office LTSC is the perpetual version of Office for commercial customers, a device-based license available as a one-time, “perpetual” purchase, available on both macOS and Windows. See below for the nitty gritty of this license type:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/office-2021-and-office-ltsc-for-windows-and-mac-faq-d574cf0b-3ebc-42cf-9035-a3b837e0463c

https://office-watch.com/2021/the-good-and-bad-in-office-ltsc 

The second main step:

Using the Office Deployment Tool, you actually download a program that when run, will look into the configuration file to download what is dictated in the file. Make sure that the configuration file and the deployment tool are in the same folder on the computer. Strangely, the deployment tool is not the setup file in its final form. Running the tool will self-extract to create the setup tool. This setup tool is the one that is placed in the same folder as the configuration XML file. To make the next step simpler with less typing, you should put this folder on the root C drive by going to the C drive in File Explorer and put this folder there so that the path to this folder is C:\<folder name>

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49117 

Because this setup file is in the MSI format, the installation is done with the commandline. Open the commandline, that results in a black window. Type this:

cd c:\<folder name>

setup /configure Configuration.xml

Hit Enter on the keyboard

The setup program will run to go out to the Microsoft server to download just the programs listed in the configuration file. 

Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant

If you use Microsoft Office long enough, you will eventually run into seemingly intractable problems with it where a simple uninstallation and reinstallion does not fix the problem. Because the Office Suite is complex program, sometimes it needs another program, an insider also made by Microsoft, to fix it. This insider fixer is the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant program.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/100607

The Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant tool, aka SARA, is a scalpel uninstall support tool in the form of SetupProd_OffScrub.exe program.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/uninstall-office-from-a-pc-9dd49b83-264a-477a-8fcc-2fdf5dbf61d8

Strange may it seems, there are different installers for Office as explained by the support article above. The steps to uninstall Microsoft 365 depend on the type of installation you have. The most common installation types are Click-to-Run and Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI). The other type is a Microsoft 365 installation from the Microsoft Store app.

So there are different ways to get Office on your machine. As such, there are different ways to cleanly extricate Office from it. First, you have to know who Office got into your computer.

How to bypass internet connection to install Windows 11

Of all the annoying things Microsoft imposes on its customers, this one ranks near the top. With the latest Windows 11 version, namely 22H2, the computer getting it installed on is required to be connected to the Internet during the installation process so Microsoft can "download latest security updates" to incorporate into the installation. Well, what happens when you install Windows 11 where there is no Internet connection? Are you stuck? Not if you follow the instruction here:

https://pureinfotech.com/bypass-internet-connection-install-windows-11

Basically, on the “Oops, you’ve lost internet connection” or “Let’s connect you to a network” page, use the Shift + F10 keyboard to get out of this bind to bring up a command line window. On some laptops, you need to key in a third function key so the key sequence is Shift + fn + F10 

In Command Prompt, type the OOBE\BYPASSNRO command to bypass the network requirement on Windows 11 and press Enter.

The computer will restart automatically. Then you will see this:

Whew! Now you can proceed with the installation by clicking on "I don't have internet"and curse Microsoft for having to make you go through this step.