My new PC will be delivered this week. I've never used 11. I've had 8 all this time. I spent the extra money to get Windows 11 Pro in the hopes I could avoid more annoyances that way. I just wasn't willing to jump into Unix.

I just want the desktop and not whatever new horrors Windows tries to force on you since 8. I have a Charms Bar killer app for 8. Why anybody would want super annoying non-desktop crap is beyond me.

  1. What can I do to eliminate annoyances - bloatware, spyware, etc.

  2. What should I do to protect my privacy from Microsoft? I want to turn everything off that reports to the fucking MS mothership.

  3. What apps, utilities, etc should I install? I'd like to use non-MS apps and utilities instead of whatever garbage comes with Windows.

  4. What apps, utilities, etc should I avoid?

  5. What am I forgetting to ask?

  • Des [she/her, they/them]
    ·
    19 hours ago

    commenting to save this post because im going to be building a new system soon and it will have to initially be a windows 11 build to get it going but im going to dual-boot some linux to try to learn (basically what i did when transitioning from chrome to firefox)