It's super easy to activate Windows for free, and Microsoft doesn't care: https://massgrave.dev/.

If you were logged in with your Microsoft account before, that should also restore your real previous activation.

Horde here. If you get any Linux OS with KDE plasma as desktop it'll feel pretty much the same as Windows, if you're not a computer person you'll likely not even notice the difference. Install the KDE version of EndeavorOS for example. Horde end

Are you able to physically replace the HDD (preferably with an SSD)? If so, you can use the (Win10) Media Creation Tool to create a USB installer.

When it prompts for a key, just skip it. If you have an OEM mass activation laptop (i.e. anything from a major brand), it'll activate automatically after. If, for whatever reason it still doesn't activate, you'll have a nag screen telling you to activate. It won't significantly limit what you do.

Linux - if all you need is to write in a word processor Linux is easy. If you want to custom everything it's harder. Browsing or writing text should be easy.

You can also just not activate it. There’s nothing stopping you from using the computer with the water mark. It’s not like XP which was super picky and would legit lock you out. Vista + just makes it kinda ugly but it works.

Just install Win10 anyway. Only caveat of not activating is youre stuck with the default wallpaper

I’m not a Linux person.

[X] doubt

That's the secret

I always found fanfic easier to write because someone else did huge amounts of world building for me! I don't have to describe say, Luffy's powers because the person reading it ideally watched or read One Piece and knows stuff! Same with prestablished relationships.

175k is still insane! Best I did was 50k for nanowrimo like a decade ago for the Garrett Investigates fandom.

Writing well is hard.

Ask your friends and family as well. Someone has an old laptop/desktop from school or an old job stuck in a closet. A lot of people give up when their machines become too slow, but they don't bother with basic maintenance to see if that will speed it up: virus checks, uninstalling un-needed programs, clearing caches, defragging the hard drive, etc. I have one friend ditched a PC because it ran too slowly and when I checked it out they had two antivirus programs competing with each other, making it impossible to do anything else. Other people take the fact that the battery or charging cable died as a signal to get a replacement.

Ikr. I would be mediumley furiated if my laptop suffered any issues that caused substantial downtime. OP states cloud backups, so they're good for data. But you can't use that data without a device.

I don’t understand that first sentence, but doing this to bond with your child is amazing! I highly encourage you to have a second backup location of this! That’s almost two phd’s of writing!