The advice to move to a Mac Mini is correct. You probably can keep the same keyboard and display you have if you wish.

First step is to make sure you have a full backup of your entire system. That helps protect against accidents during migration to any new system.

If you can make a list of applications which you use (email, web, Photoshop, or whatever), that list would be a big help anyone you get to help. It is nearly certain you will need to buy new copies of most of your applications. MacOS includes a modern web browser and a modern email application and a few other things, so you might not need new copies of everything. For most people, I would suggest getting Microsoft Office “Home Edition”, but be sure to get the perpetual license version rather than the 12-month “subscription” which will expire.

Also write down your existing Mac model name and so forth. If unsure, take a picture of the back label of the existing Mac.

Also, if you can figure out what size disk your old system has, that will help determine a reasonable disk size for the new machine. This should not be much harder than clicking on the disk icon.

If you buy a new Mac from the official Apple Store (e.g., at Tysons 1), they should be willing to help you migrate files (e.g., email) from your old Mac at no extra cost. Any purchased software will be extra cost for the software, but they might install it for free on a new Mac. Anyone can go online and make an appointment with the Apple “Genius Bar” at no cost. I suggest doing that, AFTER you get your list of applications, disk size, etc.

My guess is Apple will help you migrate at little or no cost, if you do the homework above first.

The issue that you are going to run into is that software is not coded efficiently. So while your 20+ year old hardware is probably fine with a little tune up, it simply has no chance to run today's software.

I know that it seems like a waste, but you will be well served buying another computer, either Mac or PC.

It sounds like you want easy. All of the modern stuff is easy to set up and you will not need any assistance. Just follow the wizards when starting up for the first time.

Spend a weekend ensuring that you are backing up all of the files you need. Store to both a hard drive and the cloud. Then put all of the old stuff in a milk crate and let your husband (or you if you want to feel great about it) drill a few holes through all of the storage components when he gets time down the road and then give it to e recycling.

Your system is 20+ years old. You do not need to replace it with a several thousand dollar state of the art system. Get a last years model new for dirt cheap and you will be blown away by the improvements.

Oh and your kid will think you are a hero again, for the weekend, at least.

I agree all of the services mentioned again are great, but they are just going to spend too much time trying to recreate a bad computing experience from the last century all the while recommending that you update. Just do it.

Yes, there are people who do that, including Ari, the Tech Mensch. Some will even help you to shop for what you need.
You need to start from scratch. At a certain point, you won’t be able to update your operating system, then other programs and applications won’t be able to work properly with your old OS. I’m guessing that you’re way past that point now.

There are several people who regularly advertise their tech help services in the Friendship Heights Village newsletter. You may have to go back to pre-Covid issues to see all of them. I took a workshop with Ari, the Tech Mensch through the JCA, and I found him to be knowledgeable, patient, and kind.


http://thetechmensch.com/

https://www.friendshipheightsmd.gov/new/village-news/

I agree, start from scratch if your system is really that old and you are using band aids to make it work. You are probably going to need something with at least 16gb of Ram as the programs you mentioned are need a lot of processing power. I am not sure about how much memory as that depends on the software, whether you are going to store things on the computer versus cloud versus an external hard drive.

I believe the Apple stores are open. Go there or make an appointment. Tell them what you want to do and see what they recommend. You can then take that recommendation and buy from them or get it elsewhere.

If it is old, I would just get a Mac Mini.

Best case you pay someone a couple hundred to fix it.

Worst case you pay some a couple hundred to fix and they can’t. Or your machine is to old to work with current software. Then you need buy a new machine anyway.

Mac Mini is $700.

My husband set us up with a MAC system 20+ years ago. We had laptops and we used minimally as most do (emails, internet searches, social media).

Now we have a lot more going on. And his MAC knowledge has dwindled as he switched to HP at work. We've kept MAC at home and that's not going to change. Now we use it much more: school work (child), Adobe Photoshop and my daughter just started using After Effects. (All for fun, not professionally). The computer is slow. We are getting all sorts of error messages. Nothing works quite right.

The thing is, I'm not IT savvy. At all. And my husband is a tinker-with-it-until-it-works type of person. I am no help whatsoever. I really feel like we need someone to come in, look at our setup, clean things out, reset things up properly and in a way that is synchronous. Further, I need someone who knows the tech behind the Adobe products (not how to edit a photograph or make a video). Where should I be saving things? Are they fine or isthere another rec? Etc. etc.

Does something like this exist? I'd need them to come in and talk to me like I'm in elementary school. This is partly b/c i don't have the knowledge and partly b/c I have ZERO patience with IT. I just want the $%$# to work. I just need someone to standardize and tell me what to do.

Thanks.