A Challenging Week with a Windows PC Made Me Appreciate Chromebooks More

Wow, what a week. Seriously, it felt like a never-ending saga with my PC. Trying to get DOOM: The Dark Ages to work—it was like fighting a dragon in my living room. First, the Start Menu wouldn’t open. No biggie, right? But then, the next morning, nothing. It’s dead, Jim. I spent five days—FIVE!—tinkering, poking, you name it. And stable? Ha, that’s a funny word now.

While this chaos unfolded, I had to switch to my sorta trusty Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook. I mean, why not? ChromeOS doesn’t seem to want to make my life a labyrinthine nightmare like Windows 11 does sometimes. Oh, Windows 11… You’re a box of mystery wrapped in a riddle.

Okay—wait, why did all this even start? Right, NVIDIA drivers. Just trying to get my machine, which is running an Intel i7 and an RTX 5080, to play nice with DOOM. Three, no, four different driver versions later, DOOM was still laughing at me like it was in on some cosmic joke. It all turned into a mess of MIA Start Menus and a PC that wouldn’t boot. SSD’s fine, by the way, not that it cares.

Couldn’t rely on much, just a USB with a Linux installer—as if that was going to save me. Spoiler: it kinda did, but even on Linux, my RTX 50 Series decided to play “will I work today?” Anyway, fast forward past numerous failed Windows installs, I gave up. Chromebook, it was.

Let’s talk Windows 11 complications. My USB wasn’t formatted as exFAT—oh, joy. Cue a few more hours of Googling. Why isn’t that the default? No clue. Anyway, this set off days of reinstall attempts. Corrupted Recycle Bin, read-only directories… Windows just feels like a sprawling city with hidden traps. One wrong click and—bam—you’re in a pit of despair.

In the end, the only thing that worked was essentially nuking everything, SSDs included, and pretending the whole thing just came out of a box. What a day, huh? Yeah, telemetry and Microsoft’s need for data. Fine, you win. Have it all.

Now, Chromebooks. Love ’em. Hate ’em? No, just love. They’re the simplicity antidote I needed. Little box that just works. Office, OneDrive, even games through Steam—yes, games! Just works. Like, out of the box. Why is that so hard for everything else?

Wish Microsoft would create a no-frills Windows. The market is crying out for it. But until then, my Chromebook stays. It gets me through the days when my Windows machine throws a tantrum. Take note, world: sometimes simple is just better.