I definitely don't need games either. The other thing is that Windows is very graphical by default (understandable given that they are targeting the masses) but

I definitely don't need games either. The other thing is that Windows is very graphical by default (understandable given that they are targeting the masses) but there isn't a built in way to make its presentation minimal[1], like stripping everything out and simply being able to launch what you need. This is easily achievable with a basic Openbox setup, with dmenu on top, boom! 1. There are probably customization tools out there that would let you get close to this but I don't believe it's truly possible just given desktop Windows' architecture.