This is frequently due to startup apps, not Windows itself. I generally find when I disable stuff like Steam, Teams, Creative Cloud, OEM (e.g. HP) software, etc

This is frequently due to startup apps, not Windows itself. I generally find when I disable stuff like Steam, Teams, Creative Cloud, OEM (e.g. HP) software, etc Windows is usable as soon as I log on. My work Windows laptop has most startup apps disabled (with the exception of OneDrive and Teams which I use frequently enough that it makes sense for it to be enabled on my work laptop) and I log on to a desktop ready to go. My personal laptop has everything except OneDrive disabled. YMMV and I acknowledge the default settings of letting apps insert themselves as Startup apps without user approval is not ideal. I note this is also an issue on MacOS from experience at my previous employer who issued me a Macbook which was configured as per corporate policy to have various apps including anti virus and the like loading on login to desktop. Only platforms that is so far immune to this is open source distros like Debian (using GNOME, its default desktop environment) et al but I've yet to work for an employer that uses Linux.