When I stopped using Windows, it was because it required so much constant upkeep and maintenance to stay usable. You had to stay on top of the latest tool that disables tracking, things like Cortana you'd want to remove, the latest toggles you have to disable, what toggles revert themselves when you update. These all exist behind different shifting UI toggles which are not accessibly automatable. And all the while, you have to hope your registry edits don't force you to a lengthy reinstall where you have to redo all of these.
I could be wrong, but as far as I know there's not one "Fix Windows 11" tool maintained to do all this for you.
"You have to toggle AI features off in Notepad, and they changed the name to Advanced Features now," is just another heaving brick on the pile.
> When I stopped using Windows, it was because it required so much constant upkeep and maintenance to stay usable.
i actually had to spin up a windows vm last week to fix some dumb excel workbook vba nonsense a coworker was having issues with.
i laughed so hard at the amount of "debloat" powershell tools out there for windows that are basically a non-negotiable now to have a normal operating system experience. just surfing around the web and seeing people say "yeah install OS then run _ tool" like that is a normal "this is fine" thing was so entertaining.
i destroyed that VM when i was done. then took a shower
You do you, but I never bothered with anything like that and just used Windows as it is. It works. Yes, it probably tracks me and sends some stuff to MS servers but I don't care. I trust them enough to run their proprietary code on my machine with the highest privileges, anyway.
The problems with VM experience is because Windows seems to perform some tasks after installation or after long absence, like installing updates and stuff. That makes it slow for a while. But when you use it every day, it's not an issue.
That's the same reason I deleted my Facebook account.