Yes. Microsoft should have a variety of hardened images included on every Windows installation media. After a hardened OS image is installed, it should not be

Yes. Microsoft should have a variety of hardened images included on every Windows installation media. After a hardened OS image is installed, it should not be left to the administrative user to figure out how to make one of the 100 most common Windows apps work with it. Instead, Windows should allow novice administrative users to say "allow Office 365 to install and run," or "allow Adobe Photoshop to install and run." Then there should be a matrix where the administrative user can grant or deny permissions to each app. Do we give permission to Adobe Photoshop to phone home or not? I should be able to examine every packet and know exactly what is going on. We need a law similar to the GDPR for local programs that forces software makers to annotate all network traffic traffic, and that always allows the user to disable security-weakening features. Until we know exactly what our PCs are doing on the Internet, we have zero chance in the Information Security War. Before someone says "that would help software pirates," know that it would be perfectly OK for a company to send a large encrypted block labelled "request for license authentication" and receive back another large encrypted block labeled "license activation."