diff --git a/.emacs.d/early-init.el b/.emacs.d/early-init.el
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..532e4f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.emacs.d/early-init.el
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+;;; early-init.el --- Early Init File -*- lexical-binding: t -*-
+;;; Commentary:
+
+;; Prior to Emacs 27, the `init.el' was supposed to handle the
+;; initialisation of the package manager, by means of calling
+;; `package-initialize'.  Starting with Emacs 27, the default
+;; behaviour is to start the package manager before loading the init
+;; file.
+
+;;; Code:
+;; Initialise installed packages
+(setq package-enable-at-startup t)
+
+(defvar package-quickstart)
+
+;; Allow loading from the package cache
+(setq package-quickstart t)
+
+;; Do not resize the frame at this early stage.
+(setq frame-inhibit-implied-resize t)
+
+;; Disable GUI elements
+(menu-bar-mode -1)
+(tool-bar-mode -1)
+(scroll-bar-mode -1)
+(setq inhibit-splash-screen t)
+(setq use-dialog-box t)                 ; only for mouse events
+(setq use-file-dialog nil)
+
+(setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message "prot") ; read the docstring
+(setq inhibit-startup-screen t)
+(setq inhibit-startup-buffer-menu t)
+
+;;; early-init.el ends here
diff --git a/.emacs.d/jlj-generic.el b/.emacs.d/jlj-generic.el
index 8538935..637e905 100644
--- a/.emacs.d/jlj-generic.el
+++ b/.emacs.d/jlj-generic.el
@@ -3,9 +3,6 @@
 ;;   (global-display-line-numbers-mode)); show line numbers; use this instead of linum if you can
 
 (global-visual-line-mode t)          ; turn on word-wrap globally
-(menu-bar-mode -1)                   ; disable visual menu on emacs
-(tool-bar-mode -1)                   ; disable toolbar
-
 (setq case-fold-search t)            ; ignore case when searching
 (fset 'yes-or-no-p 'y-or-n-p)        ; make it easier to answer qs.
 ;; set default font