Just got a Microsoft Surface Pro 9, need help

Microsoft has added a whole lot of ads to Windows since the 7/Vista era. Here’s a good guide on how to remove or minimize them.

And here’s a good guide on how to disable as much Microsoft telemetry and tracking as possible. There’s a little overlap but it’s still a helpful guide.

I’d also suggest checking out the various Windows debloating tools out there to remove any of the extra stuff that you might not need that comes with Windows nowadays.

Microsoft has a good list of general Windows shortcuts.

As for useful apps, Microsoft still makes PowerToys, which is a helpful collection of tools.

I got it because I wanted to throw myself into a couple of different programming/coding courses.

This is fairly broad as goals go. I think you would get more specific advice if you could choose a goal or project and share that with us.

However, there are computer literacy things you could do to make sure your environment is useful. This is a list of tasks to consider, not how to do each thing, but searching online should yield ample tutorials for each one.

• Choose a browser, install it, and set it as default - Edge (the default) is not that good. Chrome is probably the most common choice, but Google is getting increasingly heavyhanded with pushing ads into the experience, so you may consider Firefox or one of the other alternatives.
  • Second level - install an adblocker plugin
  • Third level - configure the browser on your phone and computer to sync your browser between your phone and your computer.
• Figure out how your going to get email (through the browser or a client like Thunderbird). If you're going with a client, install and configure it for your email.
• Figure out how you're going to create and view documents, then install the needed software, if any (e.g. MS Office). If you're using online solutions (e.g. Google Docs), set up bookmarks in your browser.
• Set up backups - since you said you've been doing everything on your phone, I'm assuming you have some kind of cloud-based service. You should be able to set that up for your PC to sync and back up files, unless it's Apple's I-Cloud. You should consider whether you need to back up the whole disk, or it's enough to have your working files synced. This just scratches the surface of backup topics.
• Familiarize yourself with the privacy and permissions features of Windows and turn off anything you don't need.
• Learn keyboard shortcuts. My favorites are:
  • Windows-L - lock your machine
  • Windows-Shift-S - screen snipping tool
  • Windows+Up/Down/Left/Right - dock windows to half or quarter screen areas, or move windows across multiple monitors.
  • Ctrl-Win-Shift-B - reset the graphics driver -- handy if your screen freezes

The "power" of a PC vs a phone is the filesystem.

So one thing that future you will greatly appreciate is planning where you will put your files, and how you will organize them.

My recommendation is to create a folder called Stuff that you sync with your preferred cloud storage provider. Then you create as many subfolders in Stuff as you need, like Records (where I keep random pdf receipts, bank statements, etc.), Pictures, Screenshots, etc.

In general, avoid making folders inside folders inside folders inside folders. More than a few levels deep, and it gets very hard to find things.

On Windows you can actually change the default location for all of the "Libraries" that show up. You can move your Desktop library into Stuff\Desktop, or set Pictures to Stuff\Pictures, or have Downloads point to Stuff\Downloads for example. You should do this for all of the various libraries in Explorer that you put things in.

The beauty of this approach is that it makes backups, cloud storage, and recovering from disaster very easy. You only have one folder where all your important things are! Manual backups to an external drive are also simple: just copy and paste, and rename with the date. Also, now all of your PC's important files are available on your phone, all the time!

Beside that, I also recommend using O&O Shut up to reduce telemetry and tamp down on the annoyances and intrusions on newer versions of Windows.

Ooh boy. I could give a bunch of tips. I love the windows tablet + stylus form factor. These still might be a bit too much:

Ditch the detachable keyboard, and get a Bluetooth keyboard, ideally with built in touch pad (or ThinkPad TrackPoint red nubbin). This way you can use the keyboard while the tablet is at a decent stylus writing angle.

If you like hand written notes or annotations on PDFs/diagrams OneNote is actually really good. Unfortunately they have discontinued OneNote for Windows 10, but with some fidling with the settings you can make the newest version more stylus friendly (turn on the compact/icon ribbon, get rid of the desktop style ribbon). Setup an outlook account so you can sync your notes to MS's servers so you don't lose them, and can open them on your phone.

With a GaN charger and decent USB-C dongle you create a portable mini-work station. You can charge the tablet, your phone, and headphones from the charger, and mirror or extend your desktop through an HDMI (+ USB + card reader) dongle to any TV or projector.

Play with the Windows settings to get the Taskbar arranged how you want it, also Vivaldi browser can be customized extensively to make your browsing experience more streamlined. Set up virtual desktops to divide your workspaces into related areas to make workflow easier when you don't have multiple screens.