I used the focusrite guide (optimize for background processes, quit/kill unnecessary start-up stuff, etc.), the decrapifier script (from spiceworks) to clean up a lot of the junk and spyware that's installed by default and switch to something like the LTSB experience, and switched to AMD graphics after fighting with an Nvidia card for a while (not necessary for a more modern system...my IGFX won't run my display correctly) and possibly not necessary for a more modern nvidia card.
At the very minimum, there's an update setting to switch to the business/organization branch rather than the "most people" branch that seems to avoid a lot of the update issues.
Windows, in general, is really not as bad as it used to be.
|