What makes this even worse is that MSFT doesn't just do it with their "free", subsidized or bundled versions. They also do it to users who are using the full paid versions of the OS and Office. I paid an extra hundred dollars to get Windows Pro pre-installed on my laptop and a key reason I did so was to avoid this crap. But they still have all the same upsells and dark patterns.
All Windows Pro gives me is the very complex enterprise policy manager with its thousands of options but all the upsell nags, user privacy and other "good for MSFT monetization" options are still defaulted on in Windows Pro. And these options are buried deep in separate tree nodes. It's the same dark pattern Facebook uses around privacy settings. Whenever they have to provide privacy options that allow opting out they adopt "malicious compliance" and over do it in as granular and complex a way as possible - with no "opt out of everything" macro option.
Now I know that I can change all the policy manager options in the registry editor too, and frankly, it's not really much more complex. A couple years ago I realized I make so many changes fixing a new Windows install to be livable and useful that I'd never remember them all. So every time I make a registry change to fix something, I store a registry script that'll make the edit automatically in dedicated folder on my server (it's easy to export a single registry key as a script). As of today there are over a hundred scripts there. I'm getting to the point where I'm probably going to switch to Linux soon. Which sucks because I used to really like Windows (with a few notable exceptions which can be addressed with fixes and helper apps). But the level of work required to keep Windows usable and useful has skyrocketed in recent years. Before I was just dealing with occasional random bugs, regressions and feature oversights by a generally well intentioned OS vendor. Now I'm fighting a rapidly escalating battle against a malicious opponent. It's so dumb because I'd actually pay $100/yr for a "Power Windows" version with no ads, upsells, agenda promotions, dark patterns and a full restoration of all the power user features they keep dropping from Windows 11 (like advanced taskbar functionality).
I hear where you're coming from. The corporate shops customize fleets with group policy and InTune, and it's a hassle to do the same one-off at home.
You might get traction with trying the IOT LTSC versions, which are often very stripped down. Used to be LTSB, then LTSC, but now on 11 I think you need to opt for IOT LTSC which is different than just LTSC.
IOT LTSC will have half the processes out of the box and less bullshit that you hate. It's possible apps that do OS checks will grump at you - Adobe Lightroom for example comes to mind, but it's an idea.
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll put it on the list for when I'm next forced to reinstall. That's when I'll take a hard look at how well I can replicate the Windows experience (back when it was still good) on Linux.
All Windows Pro gives me is the very complex enterprise policy manager with its thousands of options but all the upsell nags, user privacy and other "good for MSFT monetization" options are still defaulted on in Windows Pro. And these options are buried deep in separate tree nodes. It's the same dark pattern Facebook uses around privacy settings. Whenever they have to provide privacy options that allow opting out they adopt "malicious compliance" and over do it in as granular and complex a way as possible - with no "opt out of everything" macro option.
Now I know that I can change all the policy manager options in the registry editor too, and frankly, it's not really much more complex. A couple years ago I realized I make so many changes fixing a new Windows install to be livable and useful that I'd never remember them all. So every time I make a registry change to fix something, I store a registry script that'll make the edit automatically in dedicated folder on my server (it's easy to export a single registry key as a script). As of today there are over a hundred scripts there. I'm getting to the point where I'm probably going to switch to Linux soon. Which sucks because I used to really like Windows (with a few notable exceptions which can be addressed with fixes and helper apps). But the level of work required to keep Windows usable and useful has skyrocketed in recent years. Before I was just dealing with occasional random bugs, regressions and feature oversights by a generally well intentioned OS vendor. Now I'm fighting a rapidly escalating battle against a malicious opponent. It's so dumb because I'd actually pay $100/yr for a "Power Windows" version with no ads, upsells, agenda promotions, dark patterns and a full restoration of all the power user features they keep dropping from Windows 11 (like advanced taskbar functionality).