[khedoros]

> Power users should be using not-Windows.

Except that even power users like having large libraries of available software, including things that may not be available on "not-Windows".

I'm fine with aggressive defaults and sensible settings for the 99%, but I'm accustomed to being able to disable things that cause me problems or get in the way of doing what I want to do. If a system doesn't get out of my way, it's possible for it to become more of an impediment than a tool.

[cookiecaper]

The problem with making it toggleable is that a lot of people are going to flip that switch by accident, no matter how deep you bury it (even if you bury it in the registry only, someone will write spyware to flip it so that the computer becomes exploitable at a future date).

Most non-game software works on WINE, or, worst case, within a virtual machine. At Windows scale, your software must permanently operate in idiot-proof mode. If you don't need that protection, I believe you should use a different OS as your primary.

[khedoros]

> The problem with making it toggleable is that a lot of people are going to flip that switch by accident

I think that's a smaller problem than not being able to flip the switch at all.

> someone will write spyware to flip it so that the computer becomes exploitable at a future date

...And I think that's inevitable, whether or not there's an official way to do it.

> Most non-game software works on WINE, or, worst case, within a virtual machine.

Wine's a wonderful piece of software and a great work-around in many situations, but I wouldn't want to rely on it as my only option.