Hi there:
Thank you for the response, I am truly appreciative of your understanding in the situation. I am going to try exactly what you said and once everything turns out, that should do the trick. I would sure love to get my hands on the update roll ups for CRM… However, they just don’t exist anymore.
And yes, there are quite a few medical reasons why I’m still using what by today’s standards is ancient technology. The first reason, is that I don’t do change very well thanks to autism and other medical conditions, the next reason is that because all of my appointments are scheduled through CRM including critical medical appointments… I really don’t like to change or risk anything when it comes to health information.
Should there be any problems, I will follow up. But if all goes well, I shall mark your solution as the answer.
Edit: I still run xp, server 03, and win7 in VMs on my windows 8/8.1 laptops and still use "modern" conveniences like an iPhone 12s (more than one), AirPods Pro, (Apple Watch),, google pixel 4a, verizon, Samsung Galaxy, MacOS, iPad Pro 12.9 inch tablet, and many others too numerous to name here.. so I'm not totally in the stone age. However due to my absolute reliance on this "ancient" technologies for medical reasons; the only role windows 8/8.1 really plays is as a "launcher" of sorts for VMware workstation 14, office 2003 or 2007 apps, FileMaker Pro 12, and a web browser (and occasionally the odd "modern" program that refuses to run in my rats nest of VMs such as Sims 3.)... and from the road I just take my laptop with me or remote into it via TeamViewer or whatever thus I can have an always-familiar desktop environment that doesn't cause an absolute meltdown...
Further Ive given colleagues, support staff, and even my fiancee remote access to this strange ensemble of VMs to get their work done in managing me... so yes, a lot truly is riding on what most would call an "oddity" or "just a lab" for me these old systems rarely if ever let me down, will never change, and support my entire world.
and before I get the security guy in the back... no, I don't do online banking from this odd mess (remote into the laptop from where ever (doctors office, the train, a clients office, etc.), then RDP from the laptop into an windows 2003 terminal server to get access to my mission critical apps (internal exchange, IM, CRM, etc.) and all the VMs are backed up regularly and passwords changed frequently through AD policy... so it's not "I'll never get hacked..." but rather "it's enough to keep the casual internet troll, or punk script kiddie out; any determined attacker can get physical access to the laptop, try hard enough/long enough, etc. so backup and backup some more"