Windows 2000 Professional was the first good Windows OS that I can remember. XP and 7 were also quite decent overall.
Around 2008 everything changed. This is when Prism was ramped up, and Microsoft's new mission was to use MSE and telemetry to spy on the world. It was around this time Windows 8 rolled out with spyware and Windows 7 got "security" updates that forced telemetry into it as well.
Information is power, and the general population has no chance of living in a free and fair society until it cleans house in the private and public sectors.