I get where you’re coming from as someone who has no option but to use Microsoft for everything at work, and no admin permissions to turn off spyware.

There are probably Windows Registry tricks, Group Policy edits, de-bloaters and ad blockers you can acquire to get around every awful change Microsoft makes, I know a few have been posted in the past (being able to uninstall Edge as an example)

However, the issue is that you remain at the mercy of Microsoft to allow a trick to keep working. They have every ability to change your setting back after an update or simply ignore your settings and put whatever on Windows it pleases.

(The until recently uninstallable) Edge, Teams, the new mail-stealing version of Windows Mail/Outlook, the Github Copilot shoehorned in, so on and so forth. Needing to come up with clever ways to block every shitty thing thrown into Windows is going to be a losing battle. The best strategy is not to play, so I’ve stopped spending energy on it. The only area worth actioning is to pester companies to stop using Microsoft rubbish and governments to stop contracting with them and stop their abuse of their position in the market.

Linux isn’t perfect, it’s not for everyone either and perhaps Windows is more suitable for some, but I’m long over trying to “fix” Windows and fully into helping people use Linux.