[who_would_fardels_bear]

I recently purchased a Dell computer from Frys. I had similar troubles. Even with 8Gig of RAM my computer would halt at the strangest times.

I couldn't watch movies, even DVDs I put in the DVD drive, without them halting.

Over time, though, things have cleared up. My thinking is that it is mostly due to Windows 10. Windows 10 is a total hog and is a gossip. It is constantly talking to the internet to tell everyone what I'm doing and downloading the latest versions of software.

I was going to get a Linux box, but got a Windows box because I was going to do some contract work that required Windows. I wish I had stuck to my original idea and went with Linux.

I might still download a Linux OS and boot from that.

[1066AD]

You can set your PC to dual boot to either Windows or Linux. Works well. I used Linux for a while after XP expired, trouble was, some hobby software was Windows only or, sometimes, the Linux version was way behind the Windows version (example: Gnucash).

I used Linux Mint (Mate) and still do on my old Dell laptop.

For an office suite LibreOffice does great for both Windows and Linux.

https://linuxmint.com/documentation/user-guide/MATE/english_17.3.pdf