The desktop can't take Win 11 Pro, according to Microsoft. Other downloads from the web (on the laptop) are working fine, if a bit slow - sometimes even the fiber optic lines from my ISP get bogged down a little, mid-day, but, Speedtest says I still have ~16 Mbps download speed (and, curiously, 45+ Mbps upload speed). Normally these are ~ 75 Mbps, but, even so, the darn download should work... Is there another legit source besides Microsoft? Should I try the download on yet another computer (basically, make sure wifey brings home her hot shot Win 11 laptop from work.)
And you do not create system backups, such as via Macrium (for non-commercial)? Get a 240GB HD for under $20 and a USB SSD adapter for under $10.
Meanwhile, this may help: How to Do a Repair Install of Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade. This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 10 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything.
Well, the restore points are supposed to get me back to where I was, system-wise, but they seem to have disappeared!
Again, all* my data such as images and documents are saved to a separate data drive, and that gets copied regularly to a 3rd drive, too, for backup.
*Very sensitive data like tax records go separately onto yet a 4th and 5th drive (both external) that are physically disconnected except when in use.