Not an affiliate post, let me just get that out of the way. Given the choice, I use Linux for my desktop, but have to use Windows for work. Linux gives you the cleanest, most work-focused environment you can imagine. Windows keeps pushing all sorts of distracting and annoying stuff.

Running my own business VelocityFlow and spending more than 12 hours a day on Windows, this is how I protect my sanity and stay productive in a daily avalanche of images, code, and documents.

First, replace the notification sounds

Search for "system sounds" in the Start menu, and bring up this app

Download the simple 'tick' sound from Ubuntu Linux, Balloon.wav, I've linked it below. Save it in a folder "Sanity" in your music folder.

Go through the list of Windows sounds and replace them with Ballon.wav. That includes the asterisk, exclamation, and the default beep. You're getting closer to nirvana. You might want to keep the low battery alarm if you're using a laptop.

Then, get a proper calculator

The developers describe SpeedCrunch as a scientific calculator, I find it outstanding for everyday calculations.

For my international clients I use it as currency converter - assign the exchange rate as a variable. SpeedCrunch keeps the history between sessions. Open source, multilingual and great.

Now, stop all the ads, news, and related content

As a paying customer, you shouldn't have to wade through advertisements in your operating system. Yet with each update, Windows seems to add more promotional content rather than less.

There's the simple way and the hard way to do this. The simple way is to open the search menu, hit the three dots, open Search settings.

...and turn off Web search...

Also go to Settings > System > Taskbar. Scroll down and de-select News and Interest

That was the easy way, leaving some stuff behind that is hard to get rid of. If you really want to clean things up and is comfortable with running PowerShell as administrator have a look at Windows 10 de-bloater.

If you're using Windows 11 download Oh Frick Go Back to remove ads by modifying the registry. You want the OFGB-Deps.exe file.

Fourth, clean tabs in Microsoft Edge

Get rid of ads, news and other distractions when opening a new tab in Edge by installing the free and open source Tabliss extension.

Edge won't be happy about this and will try to discourage you. Tabliss is safe and downloads new images from Unsplash at regular intervals. No spying, no ads.

Finally, get XYplorer

Terrible name, pronounced "Zai-plorer". XYplorer has been around since 1997 and is now the definition of feature bloat. I think I use 3% of the available features; Dual pane with tabs, File preview, Colour filters, Folder preview, and the Catalogue.

XYplorer saves me at least an hour a day. Best $35 ever spent.

Don't be discouraged by the trillion of options. Locate the Catalog feature in the Window Menu, or ctrl-F8 if so inclined.

Now you can create Catalogs of files, folders, URL's and apps, neatly grouped into Categories. You can drop files on Apps or Folders in the catalog to open or copy them.

Make one Category for each project / client and you have everything you need in one place. Drag files and folders from the XYplorer file view to add them to a catalog.

Under Window / Arrangement, you may want to de-select the Tree and Catalog Stacked option so you get the Tree View and the Catalog side-by-side.

To add a web shortcut right-click the category name, choose "Add New Item Here" and enter the URL.