> I do this for every Windows installation that is used for similar purposes, like embedded machines that has to run a single application, virtual machines, etc

> I do this for every Windows installation that is used for similar purposes, like embedded machines that has to run a single application, virtual machines, etc. Have you tried running Linux for these use cases? This sort of thing is an area Linux excels, in my experience. When you run Windows, you're in for the whole kit and caboodle. Most of the components are proprietary, closed-source black boxes. You can only poke and prod and test and hope things don't break in unexpected ways. Conversely, Linux can be easy stripped down to a bare bones kernel and a single statically-linked binary. I can run a useful application on top of Linux with the whole system weighing in smaller than bootmgfw.efi. Something more complex, but still custom, is easily crafted with Buildroot. https://buildroot.org/ https://buildroot.org/