Windows needs to stop showing tabloid news

Every last update is adding just a little bit more intrusion, from the news articles, the required user accounts, the updates without asking any form of permission from the user, and more.

The only reason, and I mean the only reason, that I continue running it on any of my machines is that software often won't support Linux for edge case situations like VR games.

Also performance is just trash. If you've tried to run windows on a non ssd in the last decade, it's an absolute slog.

I'm slowly but surely trying to cut this windows software out of my life.

This is also making me strongly consider moving off of .net and looking into any alternative I can find for it, which the only real option at this point is probably Kotlin.

What I don't understand is how _file explorer_ can be so slow. It's visibly lagging between directories, first-opening etc. That's a fundamental part of the OS. I believe there is so much phone-home going on that nothing on Windows is slick anymore.