You're going to find it very hard to have a gaming PC that is also stripped down to its bones.

Windows 10 Pro N is a good starting point for a non-annoying Windows "Experience", but I'm fairly certain you can't game with it.

Depends on what you mean by "stripped down." Candy crush can be removed through the registry editor (I know, I know) as well as all the other weird bullshit apps. Cortana can be silenced, etc. What am I missing for stripping on my rig?

Does dual boot not annoy you?

At least in my case, my rig has more than enough power to run debian in VirtualBox at native resolution. Works better than the native installation on my work thinkpad actually... one more excuse to work from home when I get the chance ;)

But if your windows breaks or decides to update it impacts your Linux as well no?

"Impact" in the sense that I'd have to use a different computer, I guess.

The image of the VM is portable.

A force shutdown would force shutdown my VM, yes. I haven't ever had that on my PC, can't remember if it's because I fenagled updates or what.