Resurrecting my computer *sigh*

[dreamshark]

So my computer suddenly quit working - Windows login screen just kept flashing on and off but you couldn't do anything. After much trouble-shooting I concluded that it wasn't hardware: my installation of Windows 10 had gotten corrupted  somehow. So I reinstalled Windows, selecting the option to preserve my files. To my unutterable astonishment, it worked!  My files ARE still there, although the desktop shortcuts are a mess and my monitors are reversed. But all my installed programs (or "apps" as Microsoft is now calling them) are gone. As are most of my settings and customizations, of which there are too many to count. For the record, here are the installations and customizations that I absolutely cannot function without.

• Download Chrome and make it my default browser. Microsoft tries really really really hard to talk you out of this. Do you REALLY want to download this POS browser? Why not use Edge? No, wait, you don't want to make Chrome your default! Edge is so much better! But I persevered and I'm back in Chrome world and logged in to Google.
• My Vault files! This is a little old piece of freeware that lets you create simple text files organized hierarchically. I have almost 50 of these files, each with dozens or even hundreds of subfolders and directories. Everything I know is in these files, including how to set up my computers. Do you see a small error in judgment here?  Yup, when the computer is down, I can't get to those notes. Fortunately, those files are all backed up online in iDrive. But wait - how do I login to iDrive? It's in that vault file! Fortunately I didn't need to restore from iDrive, since this scary process actually DID save all my files. 
• Customized mouse buttons. Okay, I found the relevant vault file and am updating it as I proceed. But the Cut/Copy/Paste buttons on my fancy mouse aren't set up and it is driving me crazy! Okay, set up the mouse. Wait, can't do that without installing the special Logitech software. It's on this computer somewhere, but where? All my desktop shortcuts are a mess. 
• Okay, the installer must be in the Downloads directory. But... what is this mishmash? Oh, fer... Windows Explorer has defaulted to some incomprehensible format where it's classifying all my files by ones I really like, ones I don't really care about, etc. WTF? How do I fix this? Google it. Oh Christ, there's now a huge "ribbon" for configuring folders and it has a Group By category that has to be disabled. Okay, that's better. Install. Oh no.... it's restarting my computer! And when it came back up my shortcuts were scattered all over again. 
• Open Logitech G Hub and configure buttons. Hey, it's working! I can cut and paste again without thinking about it!

It's going to be a  long day....

NOTE TO SELF  
Start a list of essential logins and contact numbers and write them down on paper! 

Comments

[quadong]

"Start a list of essential logins and contact numbers and write them down on paper!"

Yes. My most important ones are written down on paper and kept in my filing cabinet. The ones of middling importance are in a text file on an external hard drive.

[mdlbear]

The important ones should be in that file as well -- paper is combustible. (A password manager like 1Password or KeePass-2 also works. A browser's password manager is pretty good)

[quadong]

Paper is combustible, but hard drives are hackable. So you have to balance those. A while back, I tried to figure out (for a different reason) how often houses burned down. This is a surprisingly difficult figure to find, but the best answer I could come up with was about a 1/300 chance per year per house. Higher than I would have thought, but still means that my remaining lifetime chance of losing my filing cabinet to fire is likely not over one in seven. Maybe substantially lower. Hard to believe it is higher.

What's my lifetime chance of having all the files on my hard drive lifted one day? Even harder to estimate, but it could easily be 50%. Also, if my house burns down, I'll certainly know that. It will be a major life event and re-establishing online access to my retirement accounts, and such, will just be one of many things I'll have to do. I'm sure it can be accomplished with some annoying, but perfectly possible in-person visits to various places. If my files are stolen, I probably won't know. The consequences may be subtle and hard to fix.

Low/medium importance passwords go in my browser's password manager. Actually, I realized that now I no longer re-use my bad password for low importance websites like I said before. I just have Firefox auto-generate and save a password. So that's a win, I guess, except it means I can only ever use those sites on my laptop. Which is generally fine, because I've pretty much given up the concept of having separate home and work computers. This would *not* have worked well for me before the pandemic.