As fishy as it sounds, Ultimate Windows Tweaker is actually pretty useful to get rid of some annoying UI elements.
Some useful setting (as organized in UWT):
- disable "recent files" in quick access (explorer)
- to still be able to pin favorites (Downloads, home, code, docs, work)
in quick access, do not disable "frequent folder" in UWT, but rather:
- explorer → context menu on "quick access" → options
- disable "show recently used files" / "show freq. used folders"
- → only explicitly pinned directories will be listed
- Tweak Drive Letters: "Before Labels"
- "-Shortcut" Suffix for New Shortcuts → Remove
- File Explorer Startup: "This PC"
- Customize Inbuilt Folders: disable all the crap (Desktop, 3D Objects, Music, …)
- disable OneDrive
- disable pretty much everything
- keep enabled where it makes sense:
- Windows Update Sharing
- password reveal button
- app access to location
- app access to camera
- app access to microphone
- app access to user account info
- disable "Use Autoplay for All Media and Devices"
- enable NTLM 2 support