I use Windows as my main OS. In Windows 10, there is a feature called Unified Write Filter that essentially resets your computer after every reboot [1].

> Unified Write Filter (UWF) is an optional Windows 10 feature that helps to protect your drives by intercepting and redirecting any writes to the drive (app installations, settings changes, saved data) to a virtual overlay. The virtual overlay is a temporary location that is usually cleared during a reboot or when a guest user logs off.

When I first got my laptop, I installed a fresh clean copy of Windows 10, installed all my commonly used applications, configured all my settings, and then enabled UWF. On every reboot, it goes back to this clean snapshot, no matter what I do - And reboots are quick too (~10 seconds).

I like this setup because I'm never worried about making changes to my computer to try them out (installing a new program, configuring obscure settings, etc). If I don't like it, I can get back to my fresh state with a simple reboot. I also like that the feature is built into the OS - there are similar third-party solutions such as "Reboot Restore RX" [2], but I don't trust these as much, and they're not as clean as UWF.

The only downside is when you _do_ want to persist changes to update you have to disable UWF, reboot, make your changes (such as Windows Update), enable UWF again, and reboot. But I seldom have to do this. I treat the OS as pretty stateless and keep all my personal files in a separate bitlocker-enabled partition that isn't subject to UWF.

[1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/customize/... [2] https://horizondatasys.com/reboot-restore-rx-freeware/