Ownership and location (local vs cloud) of software aside, when was the last time anyone here had to - on a Windows computer - spend hours and follow 30+ step tutorials with manual patching and fixing, found deep in some user forum, to get current day software working?

I don't think I've had to do that in 15-20 years or so. At some point, shit just started working. Simple as. DLL hell is a thing of the past.