Don’t feel bad. When he fucked off to the U.S he renounced his Australian citizenship.

Clearly being a megalomaniac was more important to him.

Same here, and additionally NTLite.

Having the ability to build custom Windows installations, including ‘in-place’ editing, and the ability to update Windows without Microsoft silently reinstalling shit I don’t want or need, with NTLite’s ‘Host Update’ wizard, it has been well worth the 40€ for each version (no subscription too!)

I really don’t want to sound like an ad, though NTLite has really made Windows a decent operating system again.

It certainly notable that Windows, once all of Microsoft’s crud is stripped out, doesn’t touch the CPU at idle, whereas a fresh install of Windows without customisation always consumed 2-3% of the CPU at idle.

Same with Inkscape vs Affinity Designer.

I really wanted Inkscape to work for me, though I was constantly fighting the UI and some weird artifacting Inkscape produced exporting SVG files.

Affinity Designer was, and still is, especially since their licenses are perpetual/non-subscription, well worth the price and is a dream to use.

Best program I’ve bought was NTLite, which allows you to customise a Windows ISO before installation, or edit a ‘live’ environment though this isn’t recommended. It takes a bit to get used to, though it’s incredibly powerful.

You can strip out pretty much all of that crud, including Edge, and prevent it from coming back using NTLite’s Host Update wizard, rather than Windows Update.

I have no financial interest in NTLite, I hope this helps someone make Windows decent again. It’s worth the money (about $50 if I recall correctly).