Windows XP was the last good Windows. It had zero bloat, and heck, it encouraged you to use an admin account as your daily account. It didn’t have those pesky UAC notifications, and it would allow you to install each individual Windows KB Update. It didn’t have that high RAM usage that the Aero design had. There was no built in firewall until a later service pack, but you could just opt out of that update.
Windows XP was the last good Windows. It had zero bloat, and heck, it encouraged you to use an admin account as your daily account. It didn’t have those pesky UAC notifications, and it would allow you to install each individual Windows KB Update. It didn’t have that high RAM usage that the Aero design had. There was no built in firewall until a later service pack, but you could just opt out of that update.