Notice! The following is just my personal opinion. I don't trust anything Google.
Personally I'd get rid of Gmail totally. Personally I'd get rid of anything Google period. I don't trust them.

Yes, I know that changing to a different email account is a total pain and admit that it took me over six months to totally weed out Gmail. Still I consider the effort put out worth it. I have never had an email account that brought in as much spam as Gmail. Nor have I ever had so many issues with an email provider as I used to have with Gmail.

I have to admit that I am in a situation where my main email address is through my jaylach.com domain so I don't deal with the big email outfits as much as most must. Still I do have an old Hotmail.com account that gets a lot of use. I have never had the issues using a Microsoft email account that I had with Gmail. If I were asked to rate from 1-10 I'd have to give Gmail a 2 just due to the fact that it will deliver an email. In comparison I'd give my Hotmail ... or Live... whatever it is called today... a 9.

Not in any way telling you what to do, just stating an opinion and a bit of experience.

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Based on everything you've said, the issue is most likely the authentication protocol required by Gmail. Note that reducing to basic authentication is not a major security risk, but if you prefer not to take it, accessing your Gmail via the web interface is the way to go. I access my Gmail account in Outlook as IMAP using an App Password and my GMail account is set with 2 step verification, which I set up. See here for information -- https://www.outlook-tips.net/tips/gmail ... d-prompts/

Jay has already answered the Office 365 question regarding updates. As long as your Office 365 subscription is current/paid, you will receive regular updates to all of the Office apps installed -- they remain fully up to date, with small feature updates added long before the next full Office version.
You will have access to OneDrive storage, but you don't need to use it. What he means by accessing your files when away is that you can connect to your PC at home, assuming it is powered on and awake, to access files remotely. Of course, any files you sync to OneDrive would also be available from anywhere -- which to me is the greatest benefit. The second greatest benefit is that you can have your files (and settings for Windows 10) sync between multiple computers and the cloud.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Jay I've got an old hotmail.com account that I stopped using 10+ yrs ago because a spammer or something sent an advertising email to everybody in my address book. I like the gmail mostly for the short user name to give to people easier to not make a mistake. I think if I set up a new hotmail user name, it'll be already taken and they give me a really complicated one. I don't think user names need to be so complicated as a password does so that's why I keep the gmail. Have a yahoo email too but again it's got a complicated user name. Sure wish shorter names were not always all taken .

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“Don’t Underestimate The Power
Of Your Own Instinct.”
- Barbara Corcoran

Stephen, I went to Gmail account settings for this: "To do so, go to Gmail account settings and choose Allow less secure apps."

but could not find anywhere that this was addressed so I gave up. 2 step seemed like like another password complication. Sure is a lot of work to have fun on a computer anymore. I'll chk mail online until something else comes along.

And with Office 365 I'll give it a try (after I pay for Roboform) because its a good way to set up a new version of Outlook, calendar and Excel (hope it works). I am thinking of downloading it to a different laptop Win 7 (Dell) though, will that be a problem, 2 versions of Office on 2 diff machines even if I am buying both? as I recall, I would've had to pay for a Win 10 upgrade on the Win 7 Dell laptop. My Win 10 laptop (HP) is way too congested to try Office 365 on and the whole purpose is to gradually migrate to only the non-congested & newer Dell. I can't even remember the original Windows that was on this HP!!

Hope all of this isn't too confusing! Thank God I only have 2 PCs left! katy

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“Don’t Underestimate The Power
Of Your Own Instinct.”
- Barbara Corcoran

PS to Office 365: The Windows 7 laptop has Service Pack 1, Intel Core i3, 1.8 gHz, 64 bit and 4 GB ram.... 174 GB drive space free.

_________________
“Don’t Underestimate The Power
Of Your Own Instinct.”
- Barbara Corcoran

Office 365 will run on Windows 7 according to the following.
https://products.office.com/en-US/offic ... ck-cs9mei4
You are close to the minimum requirements but it looks like you do meet them.

If you go with Office 365 Home the license is actually good for multiple systems so you would have no need to buy 2 copies. Here are the plans for home usage.
https://products.office.com/en-US/compa ... O365SMB_NI

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I agree with Jay and Office 365, I bought a subscription and have it on all the computers here which is 2 desktops and 2 laptops, well 3 laptops but I don't use my Asus now since getting my HP I just keep it updated.

I believe the Home version, which is the one I pay for, you are allowed to have it installed on 5 computers plus mobiles.

I have RoboForm Everywhere Pro, which means I can use it on any machine. I started out with the free version many years ago but it would only allow you to have 10 passwords and as I started to need more I bought a subscription to the program.

I also have MalwareBytes Pro but have a Lifetime licence as I got it years ago so was grandfathered in.

I've started to use Mozilla Thunderbird for my email program and like it very much and have 6 email accounts and a group of RSS Feeds in it. I always used Outlook Express but when I got Office 365 thought I'd try out Outlook. It was OK in some ways but it just didn't do my RSS Feeds as their own group like before but stuck them in my Hotmail account, I didn't like that and usually missed getting them.
I didn't like the native Mail program that came with Windows 10 either and lots of times would keep getting a message that my settings were out of date.

Oh yes and I can backup Jay telling you that Office will run on 7, I was running that when I first got my subscription and went with it through Windows 8 and it's upgrade and now Windows 10.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

Yes, it is. I am guilty of password reuse on multiple sites. I've been working to eliminate that situation and use more secure passwords. And that is a major pain in the neck!

I use 2 step authentication for Google/Gmail. What it basically does is prompt me on my phone to allow the sign-in on a new device. Obviously, if it isn't me, I can deny it and my account remains secure. I do the same with other accounts where it is available. Once I set up the 2 step authentication, I then obtained an "app password" to use with Outlook. I don't believe that I went with the option I originally provided to allow less secure apps to have access. The idea of an app password is that it is unique to a single footprint/device/app, so it cannot be used by anyone/anything to access the account except the app you initially set it up for.
-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Thanks Steve and Joan! So glad all the replies and info are in CH so I can access anytime, since my memory has advanced with age I'll likely be back for more once I get MWB and Office 365. CU soon!

_________________
“Don’t Underestimate The Power
Of Your Own Instinct.”
- Barbara Corcoran