The first thing I use is Windows 10 decrapifier.
To use this, open up Powershell ISE as an administrator, and paste the script into a new editor window, then run it. It will automatically remove all the garbage Windows 10 installs by default. It works pretty well with Windows 11 as well.
https://community.spiceworks.com/scripts/show/4378-windows-10-decrapifier-18xx-19xx-2xxx
Next, O&O Shutup10
This tool shuts down a lot of the different telemetry stuff to keep windows 10 your own. It also works with Windows 11.
https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
Finally, I like to install OpenShell, a start menu replacement for Windows 10. Right now it doesn't easily work on Windows 11, I use Start11 on windows 11. Openshell doesn't just replace the start menu with a windows 7 style start menu, it reimplements search so the search works much better and doesn't rely on windows search service.
https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
Here's a bonus tip that only applies to Windows 11: If you use the open source tool rufus to create your installation media, you can tell rufus to create installation media that bypasses all the new TPM requirements. I have a computer capable of running windows 11, but I don't want to give them access to my TPM, I don't want secure boot, I don't want any of this stuff. I want to run my computer the way I want to, and this install media allows that. You lose some minor features here and there.
https://rufus.ie/en/
Oh, right, another unothordox solution involving comes to mind, though theorethical as I don't have a baremetal Windows 10 or 11 with me to test.
If an older program runs on full screen, it can mess the resolution of the system, be it on Linux or Windows.
Though on Windows there are tools specifically for running full screen programs windowed, Wine through WSL could help too with its virtual desktop flag, while also tackling another of Windows' problems, its backwards compatibility is spotty at best, specially the older a program is.
The command is:
wine explorer /desktop=some_name,window_size /path/to/executable.exe"some_name" can be anything, and "window_size" is the size of the virtual desktop and ideally should be the same as the size of the fullscreen program.
Example:
wine explorer /desktop=MyDesktop,800x600 Game.exeAnother thing, LibreOffice Calc is much, much lighter than Excel. And I say that despite using both the 2010 or 2016 versions of Excel, depending on the Windows edition I need to use, and having tested LibreOffice Calc on Windows.
From my experience, the more stuff you put on an Excel sheet, the more of a memory hog it becomes. But if you save the sheet and then open it on LibreOffice Calc, suddenly it becomes perfectly browsable, and it takes much longer to have LibreOffice be a memory hog too.