You're comment I came looking for. You get a standing ovation or something.

Couldn't be more right. I went 100% on GoG after not being able to play the Steam games I wanted to play during an internet outage because of dumb always online requirement.

Yup on 4. Mess at all with the hostfile and Windows Defende won't stop harassing you about a threat. User autonomy is a threat to Windows.

Oh so much better. I've relegated Windows only programs to a virtual machine. I haven't touched it in a long time but it's there just in case.

About a month ago Windows 11 started forcing ads for apps and services I didn't need. Immediately installed a popular Linux distribution to have some peace of mind. There's every flavor of desktop out there. I picked one for work and games (pop_os). It's out of my way most of the time and it's not trying to sell me anything. I recommend it, specially, if you're someone that doesn't fiddle with settings too much, it just work.

Oh boy. That thing is the steering wheel of the Windows system.

Handwritten assignments are going to make a comeback. It's hard to cheat through an essay you have to write on the spot.