Simple backup option non-techy person

In response to what Chris wrote :
A family friend wants to get herself a laptop to help get through
isolation. I can help with the choice of laptop, but what is a good,
effective and preferably cheap option for backups? She doesn't have
broadband (and is unlikely to get it anytime soon) so cloud options are
a non-starter. She will be using mobile data for her limited internet
needs (e.g. news and food shopping).

This person has never owned a computer before, is retired and used to
get her internet needs fulfilled by the local library. So it needs to be
as fire-and-forget as possible. I want her to get into good habits from
the start, but I'm not so familiar with range of options for Windows.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

For this question...
o Simple backup option non-techy person
https://alt.comp.os.windows-10.narkive.com/Ql5qvXi7/simple-backup-option-non-techy-person

I saw this last night and hesitated to answer because
(a) there is no easy solution for non-technical people
(b) everything depends on everything else anyway

Plus, "my" solution is only for the technically savvy, IMHO:
o *Philosophy on a tutorial for setting up Windows*
*in a well organized KISS philosophy such that*
*search is never needed & reinstall is trivial*
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/1Gf59YRkaI8/5MfQi5wMCQAJ

As noted by many, there are plenty of freeware solutions.
Yet... most non-technical people, essentially, want a HDD "dd" of sorts.

For me... on a single-user system...
a. I plan my backups a decade or more prior to the backup
b. Which means I break the backup into two components
1. Data I care about
2. Programs I care about
Nothing else matters.

From day one, I put all data I care about where it belongs.
From day one, I put all program installers where they belong.

When it comes time to back up, all I back up are two directories:
C:\data\{my hierarchy of data I care about}
C:\software\{my hierarchy of installers I care about}

Nothing else matters.
o Everything else can easily be replaced by a technical user.

Notice that some of the answers are essentially that if we count the
"Windows' built-in File History backup" that Frank Slootweg & mechanic
spoke about.

My only problem with any pre-defined folder in Windows (or in any operating
system) is they get polluted like you can't believe.

That's why, for example, I never use any pre-defined folder in Windows,
and, the ones that you can't avoid, I simply right click on them to move
them to where they belong if they will contain, usually momentarily,
something I care about.

a. For example, desktop, screenshots & downloads are moved into C:\data.
b. Yet 3D Objects, Music, and Saved Games, for example, are ignored.

When it comes time to re-install the operating system, as I did recently, I
simply re-install the software hierarchy, one by one.

And then I copy back the data hierarchy.
o I keep the "menu" in the data hierarchy, so it doesn't change in decades

I admit there are a few hundred tweaks, e.g., adding right-click context
menus to "open cmd window here" or setting the default for extensionless
files to open in vim, or disabling the window resizing upon hitting the
edges of the screen, or editing more than 15 files at once, etc..

Maybe a "system restore" might solve that but I have never really found
system restores to be of much value, where, lately, I don't even use an
add-on AV program - I don't know why I don't get viruses - maybe I do and I
don't know it - but I just don't. (famous last words, perhaps)

In short, only "some" of what I suggest can the lady use.

Probably the most prescient advice I can give her, and everyone, is to plan
your backup a decade before you buy the computer by having a plan to store
at least your data, if not your installers, in a place _outside_ the
(unfortunately polluted) Windows hierarch.

There's _more_ to my plan, but that's the summary.
a. Put data you care about where it belongs
b. Save all your program installers in a safe place
--
Together we have great solutions to offer for Usenet's public potluck.