Bu..but, how can this be?? Microsoft assured me that every drm is sacred, every drm is good! In fact, every drm is NEEDED in my neighborhood!! /s

EDIT

Did anyone get my joke? I thought it was good. : (

I still use my old Office 2003 suite, since it was before M$ made their file formats incompatible (2007?) with earlier versions of their own products, in order to spite their competition (rather than compete against them on a level playing field).
Some DRM are more equal than others.

Just like printers need their own ink, and not that awful imitation stuff that slowly poisons them!

Who can you trust if not a giant faceless corporation eh?

Well, with a bootable ISO you can run the installer, no matter the state of the operating system in the computer. Consider what might happen if there was a catastrophic failure that that prevents you from booting (imagine: you formatted C: or somehow critical files or folders have been damaged). You might just shrug and boot your serviceable ISO from a USB, and have your PC back working fast, no big drama.

It is old news, but, just in case: you might already have a disk or partition for your operating system (C:) and some other for your data. That way, you can do anything to C: without fearing that you might lose much. That said, maybe you would like to keep some data stored by default in C: (like in the folder Appdata, withing Users\Your_user_name), in case some program kept something there that you wish to keep.

It is also generally better to start fresh, since that way you avoid carrying out problems from the older system. Additionally, you start with a clean slate where you can install the programs that you are really going to use. That way you avoid bloat. The trouble of installing the things that you are going to need, as you start needing them, generally pays off, instead of keeping all kinds of things that you forgot what they were for, or that are residues that you no longer need.

I use Acronis True Image to make a monthly image of my system drive. I can set that disk on fire, replace it with a new one and quickly restore everything like nothing ever happened. My PC hasn't seen a fresh install (Win10 on SSD) since the beginning (2016), and I haven't noticed any slowdown because of 'bloat'.
I agree, system slowdown happened in the past (older Windows + HDD), so I think your advice is a bit 'outdated'.

I didn't mention any 'transitioning' because upgrading from an older Windows to W10 and (features) updates within W10 itself have a lot in common. They're both in essence 'fresh installs', but this time it can transfer most settings and software installations too. You say that that last part is worse than doing it manually, I say it isn't. Let's agree to disagree then.

Ah, I didn't realize one could boot from the ISO, like a boot disk. I thought the ISO and installer were just slightly different versions of the same thing. In that case, yes, the ISO is far more useful. I'll get a new copy. I can understand the issue of bloat. When my XP was ending, I copied everything onto my new win7 hard drive. Now, I'm likely going to do the same thing with 10. While having a plain install and only adding what you need SOUNDS appealing, the problem is that I have files scattered everywhere, and no idea how to copy ONLY my files and nothing else. I can absolutely imagine years from now suddenly remembering files I want and not being able to find them, or worse, never remembering I had them to begin with. I just deleted two Gothic installs folders and at the last second, happened to look at a zip file in one of them and see it was a bunch of icons I made years ago. if I hadn't checked the folder, I would have deleted that work and never remembered I made them. So while bloat is definitely a legit concern, I feel much safer cloning the drive, bugs and all.

Separating the gold from the dross is like a plan to clean the whole house from top to bottom. Something I'll probably never actually do.

OMG copying files is a pain in the ass. Takes so long. And YES im still using an old HDD (not really fancing getting a SSD anytime soon.. new HD is using older tech thanks.)

Two tips that may help people concerned about bloat, security, and so on:

- Windows Defender Application Ward: launches and instance of Edge browser in a virtual compartimentalized self-contained environment.

- Windows Sandbox: a virtual instance of Windows. When you close it, it never existed. Allows you to try software, install and use applications that you are not going to use again, and so on. If you try it, it is likely that you will start finding more and more uses for it.

Sandbox available with Windows 10 Enterprise and Education. Although they might require installing. In Windows 10 Home, apparently there are ways to get Sandbox working there as well.

Which tool is most stable to disable automatic windows updates? People mentioned WUB and Dism++.

Those are good recommedations, I'm going to install Windows 10 on my next rig next year and I was undecided on which version to go for, now I know.

Has anyone made the joke to install linux over it yet if not i claims it :P

Yeah, no. You may as well try and scale a sheer cliff while attempting to joust than disable automatic updates. Life is pretty sweet here in Linux Land, though. Get to call exactly what, if, and when the updates happen.