For example, my laptop (https://support.hp.com/ph-en/document/c07686423 I think) has a taskbar icon for the touchpad and a taskbar icon for the AMD graphics. Neither of those things are custom parts, just default out of the factory.

I'm aware that Windows doesn't come with these out of the box, but they easily add up as you install drivers.

On my gaming PC there are: - Two for audio (if we count the built in one and the one from the driver) - One for Bluetooth - One for fan management - One (or maybe two?) for graphics - One for driver updates.

When logging in I can see these icons showing up one by one, obviously unnecessarily using resources and just cluttering the UI.

Then when you click the icons they each use a different and often "loud" UI framework, some have embedded ads. Some icons you have to double click, others right click.

You can close many of them, and even disable a lot of them - but not all.

Overall it's just not a clean experience.