[ewzimm]

I'm also a long-time Linux user, but there are some things that still need Windows, so here are my cheat codes to make it usable:

O&O Shutup: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

All the missing privacy switches you'd want. Run it after any updates.

PowerToys: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/

The real utilities you'll want to control your UI as a power user. Just autohide the taskbar and disable showing badges and flashing. It's a lost cause, and you can mostly just forget it exists. Use alt+space to launch things and keyboard or mouse shortcuts for window management. It's actually pretty good at mixing floating and tiling.

WSL: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install

I'm sure you know about it, but it works well even for most GUI apps these days, although it still doesn't support fractional scaling.