Question electronics

IMHO anything to do with microsoft* is guaranteed to either not work at all or not work after a few days, and if the item is a PC (IBM-compatible or not) it will scramble the OS on what was originally a working PC. I have direct experience of this; my main PC (the one that I am using now) will no longer work with my slide scanner, so I have to keep an old netbook with windoze seven on it in order to retain the slide scanner driver function. The antics of bill gates must have cost world-wide industry trillions over the years purely by forcing office computer managers to upgrade their departmental computers and then forcing them to install further upgrades to correct the numerous bugs in the original upgrade. I have also experienced 'housekeeping', a little-known feature of early microsoft OS's whereby if there wasn't enough memory space on board (including hard drives) the computer would just stop - no warnings, no alarms, no 'STOP' commands to prevent loss of data, no nothing. Meanwhile, incoming data would be lost forever.

* - The use of unexpected lower-case letters in parts of the contribution above is deliberate; my method of implying that those words do not deserve capitals.

Any tips for preserving and storing these electronic devices without needing to constantly change the silica gel in each device's box and without a vacuum?

cloudff7 Please forgive me for making this like a Reddit post, but unless you want to preserve the electronics for a nostalgic reason, why?
Yes, the question is rhetorical.
I ask because so many of the components become "No Longer Available".
This isn't always a bad thing as components get better and better.  There are folks that actually stuff new capacitors into old capacitor shells to preserve the appearance.  What is the goal?  (Again, rhetorical)

I only ask because anything made by man will break.  You can tell I'm in the repair business.   Is your time and money better spent in integrating the newer technology?  Again, nostalgia changes the equation - but you fight Father Time and obsolescence.  I have seen hospitals have to replace 100kW generators because their starter failed.  (Yes.  There's more to the story, but it's long.  No, there have been no replacement starters for a decade.)

Again, I apologize for not answering the actual question, but you can't stop entropy.  You might delay it, but you cannot stop it.  This is why Engineers exist.

cloudff7 Please forgive me for making this like a Reddit post, but unless you want to preserve the electronics for a nostalgic reason, why?
Yes, the question is rhetorical.
I ask because so many of the components become "No Longer Available".
This isn't always a bad thing as components get better and better.  There are folks that actually stuff new capacitors into old capacitor shells to preserve the appearance.  What is the goal?  (Again, rhetorical)

I only ask because anything made by man will break.  You can tell I'm in the repair business.   Is your time and money better spent in integrating the newer technology?  Again, nostalgia changes the equation - but you fight Father Time and obsolescence.  I have seen hospitals have to replace 100kW generators because their starter failed.  (Yes.  There's more to the story, but it's long.  No, there have been no replacement starters for a decade.)

Again, I apologize for not answering the actual question, but you can't stop entropy.  You might delay it, but you cannot stop it.  This is why Engineers exist.

The elixir of ever lasting life, grandchildren. Looking after them for an eight hour day requires sixteen hours of sleep afterwards.

Put them in the box with Schroeder's cat warranties them for a lifetime.