Install O&O Shutup10 and enable the default options. Also, turn on "Allow deferred upgrades".

Install Classic Shell, likely through Ninite.

• Press Win + I to open System settings
• Personalization > Colors.
• "Show color on Start, Taskbar, action center and title bar" → on

• View tab → Item checkboxes = OFF (if you want)
• View tab → File name extensions = ON
• View tab → Options
  • General tab
    • Open File Explorer to: This PC
    • Show recently used files in Quick access = off
    • Show frequently used folders in Quick access = off
  • View tab
    • Navigation pane (these were formerly in the general tab)
      • Show all folders → on
      • Expand to current folder → on
    • Display the full path in the title bar → on

right click recycle bin | properties

• don't move files to the recycle bin → enable (maybe)
• Display delete confirmation dialog → YES (jesus christ how is that not default?)

win+pause/break to get to system properties

• "advanced system settings" on the left to get to the REAL system properties
  • advanced tab
    • performance | setttings | turn off candy as desired
    • startup and recovery | settings | automatically restart → off

1. Start, type "ease", select 'Ease of Access Center'.
2. Click 'Make the keyboard easier to use'.
3. Tick ‘Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys’
4. While you're here, you can turn off sticky keys shortcut, etc.

Win10 calculator sucks. I made a whole website to expedite getting old calculator: https://calcexe.com

There's a bunch of nonsense folders forced on you in your home directory. These can be managed with WinAero Tweaker.

This INI file for it will remove dumb folders and add Dropbox and Google Drive to the "This PC" view in explorer.

OLD: Info on manually removing just the '3D Objects' folder.

If you want…

1. Click Start, click Run, and type "control userpasswords2". This is a shortcut instead of having to click on Start → Control Panel → User Accounts.
2. Uncheck the "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer" check box.
3. Click Apply.
4. Enter the user name and password you wish to automatically log on with, and then click OK.
5. Click OK again and you're all done.

(from http://8help.osu.edu/2063.html)

Note: Modern Windows 10/11 actually has decent cursor settings, so you can just make a big gold cursor yourself with the built-in options. Here's this old approach in case you still want it:

If you are a crazy person and want the 3D bronze cursors from Windows XP:

1. Extract this file somewhere
2. Start | "mouse" | Pointers tab
3. Save a new profile "3D Bronze"
4. For each cursor in the ZIP, change the corresponding entry to it

Superseded by O&O Shutup described above

based on this.

• start → settings → privacy → feedback and diagnostics
  • stare with shocked amazement as the lowest setting is "basic", and "off" is not an option; you literally dont have that choice in the interface
  • set it to "basic", and proceed with the rest of the steps to really turn it off
• regedit:
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection
  • make dword "AllowTelemetry" = 0
• in services, set the following to "disabled" and stop:
  • Diagnostics Tracking Service (early win10)
  • Connected User Experiences and Telemetry (later win10)
  • dmwappushsvc