I hear your annoyance, and I get it, because the "real" question is "How do I stop this from ever happening again on Windows?"

But the bottom line is, no matter what workaround or registry fix is found, nothing stops MS from making changes and popping this crap up yet again in some other obnoxious and shitty way.

If you run Windows, you have to accept some level of this bullshittery.

I'm right though.

No amount of registry editing and weird app installing will permanently remove the obnoxious ads from Windows. And Linux is the only OS that can feel like Windows. (Zorin, Mint, any old KDE distro etc)

And honestly? Linux isn't that hard anymore. Like, installing stuff can be done through graphical app stores that are easier than using Windows. Gaming on Linux works out of the box and has done for 5 years now.

This post is more like an apple user asking why their phone screen can't be replaced without buying a new device, or a ford f150 owner asking how to get more than 5mpg in fuel economy: you tell them to (consider) a different choice of product

Clicking "Play" in Steam or Epic launcher is hacking the Pentagon for you?