I totally agree! I am forever amazed at why people think it makes sense to abstract the entire computer through a browser. Software distribution isn't the challenge it once was, but it seems people are still trying to work around a problem that no longer exists.

The "cleaning" options don't have any thing to do with paper handling, so not sure why that's what you tried. We run a fleet of Epson printers in our office, several of the smaller desktop models (3 Color MFP's, 2 monochrome MFP's and 3 monochrome printers) and even one of the full size Enterprise models that prints 100 PPM in color (that's not a typo, it's really that fast). The printer in our warehouse has printed around 100 pages per day since it was installed nearly two years ago, and the Enterprise series copier prints about 25K pagers per month and hasn't seen a tech since it was installed nearly two years ago. We did have one printer that was jamming constantly when printing card stock. We tried the card stock in a HP LaserJet printer too and it still jammed, turned out it was the stock. So, you might have gotten a bad one or you might have bad paper, but I can personally attest that Epson printers are usually quite reliable.

This isn't accurate for the current version of Window 10 Pro. I believe MS toyed with this in the past and finally stopped it. With Windows 10 Pro you can tell it you're joining a LOCAL AD domain. The other tricky thing, and probably what is leading to the understanding that an account is required, is that Windows will have you connect to wifi right away or use your network connection. DO NOT setup your wifi connection until AFTER you can see the Windows desktop, and make sure your internet connection is disconnected BEFORE starting the setup process. Once Windows realizes it can phone home the Local AD domain is the only way out, which of course, only works on Windows Pro.

I too have struggled with this missing feature in Windows 11. The grouped setup is the default in Windows 10, so I'm guessing that's why so many who have replied do not know what you are talking about. It really is wild how much more time it takes to switch between windows that are part of the same application takes with the default (grouped) taskbar setup. But then again, I'm always amazed at how many technology professionals and developers don't really know how to use Windows and primary work in applications that do not have multiple windows at the top level.

The only reason I've ever needed to use WinZip is when I had the need to create a self-extracting archive. I don't believe 7zip does that. Other than that, one use case, I really prefer 7zip.

Except that WinForms tends to fall on its face when scaling is involved and more and more people are using scaling. WPF solves that problem quite nicely.

I don't think the lack of WiFi will be an issue because I believe the StarLink gives a wired connection on the LAN side. If you want WiFi, you have to add it. I'm not sure if it has it's own router/firewall, so you'll probably want at least that anyway.

I say ditch the ultrawide all together! I went with a 43" monitor at UHD. It's big enough that all of the pixels are useful (in other words, I run it at standard DPI @ 3840 x 2160 pixels). I have a 32" UHD monitor at work and I've found that 125% is needed in order to be useful. Also, the 43" monitor I'm referring to is made to be a monitor and comes with a stand and doesn't look weird like it does when you plug a PC into a TV.

I had had a similar need. I really liked the Lenovo M75N IOT, but they have been difficult to get, so we've been using the Quieter2 from MeLE. It's about $260 from Amazon, has no moving parts, can run Windows 11 (it comes with a Windows 11 pro license, but I've installed Windows 10 Pro and it still activates). Getting the drivers for Windows 10 was a little annoying, but so far we've been really happy with how they've run. Because the storage is EMM, I would recommend getting a M.2 SSD and installing Windows on that, but it's probably not totally necessary. I have six of these currently running in an industrial application connected to a Touchscreen, barcode scanner, and a [Omron] PLC via a USB to Serial adaptor.