Use Brave. Fast. Has a Tor set up. You can add vpn extension etc.. I am using linux mint and everything flies, aside from when there is fuckery afoot.
linux feels a lot like older windows. Very simple.
WIndows is a mess now. Get a cheap PC and you can easily find someone in your area to install linux. It will be way faster than what you are doing now, especially for this stuff. Look up best vpn on Duckduckgo. I use Nord which seems fine and is inexpensive and you can add the extension to brave. BTW even the Open office(open source office programs) work great and you can save as word or excel files on linux mint.