I’m just saying that the biggest security threat with any OS is running default as an admin account. Same for Windows, same for Linux.
The wisest security prevention a Windows user can do is sign in with a guest account rather than the default admin account with admin privileges.
But most are not customizing as much as you do... :)
Actually
Starting with Windows Vista, the built-in Windows Administrator account is disabled by default. In Windows XP and prior versions, every installation of Windows had a special account called Administrator enabled by default. This account has the highest permissions of any profile on the computer, and thus can do anything with elevated administrator privileges without requiring confirmation. It's akin to the "root" or "superuser" accounts in other operating systems. The Administrator account posed a security problem in past Windows versions. By default, the password for it was blank. This meant that unless you set a password for the account, anyone with a bit of know-how could log into the Administrator account and gain full access to the system.
In Windows Vista and beyond, every normal user account has to deal with User Account Control (UAC). UAC shows a window with a security prompt whenever you want to perform an action that requires elevated privileges. Such actions include installing a program for all users, editing the Registry, opening a Command Prompt as an admin, and similar. When prompted by UAC, standard user accounts must enter the credentials for an admin account (username and password) to proceed. This account is separate from administrator-level user accounts... [which] only have to click a confirmation button to continue. - https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-administrator-account-everything-need-know/
The latter is what I must do to install programs for instance, while I also have to manually choose to run a program as Administrator. Windows is actually attempting to escalate privileges thru UAC prompts, and you are asked to confirm whether you want to allow the program requesting it to run under those privileges. And under the standard user account you must type in an admin username and password to confirm the UAC prompt.
And while there is also the Windows 10 Administrator account (vs. standard as well as administrator-level user accounts) which bypasses all UAC protections, this is disabled by default and one must manually enable it before you can start using Administrator in modern versions of Windows. Hardly any Windows users likely know of or use this.
"But most are not customizing as much as you do... :)"
Yup. Thank God we can in the interest of speed (thus AutoHotKey), efficiency (thus 7 browsers with custom titles for different general purposes) and functionality (thus extensions). But if for instance I wanted to migrate or edit program files in LibreOffice/4/user/config or FirefoxProfiles/Profiles (which I can do in Windows without it asking permission, but which I could add if needed) then what would I need to do in Mint for each file? And can I right click on any application executable and find its location, and also make a shortcut for it, and also place it in a "Send to"/"Open with" type menu like to open documents with my choices?
Thanks and I will take my answer off the air:)