+1 for Rufus. I bought NTLite a few years ago to scrape all the bloat out of Windows 11. It is not a perfect solution as there is a steep learning curve if you don't really know what you are doing (me included). I have finally got a Windows install that just works. I only keep things I use and nothing else.

Personally ive been using searxng, self hosted, although there are public instances out there too (https://searx.space).  Its shocking when I occasionally go into google or bing and see how bad they've become in the last year 

You guys claim everyone you don't like is Hitler, so you've already ruined that. Boy who cried wolf and all that.

Were they as crash-prone as VIA chipsets?