"I turned off recommended apps in personalization, but now i'm getting a stupid message about turning on recommend apps. please tell me there is a fix for this stupidity."
The stupid message is there (!). Getting rid of it would be a minor miracle.
"would also like to hide the network and audio icons from the taskbar, any work around for this?"
"One of the biggest changes in the tray area in Windows 11 is that you cannot hide network and volume icons in Windows 11. Those controls are now permanently nailed to the bottom-right corner of your screen. The logic behind that decision is that network and volume icons now act as a single button for opening the control center. As a result, users cannot disable or hide network and volume icons in Windows 11."
Too bad; so sad. Welcome to the NEW Windows 11. It's actually pretty great, if you ignore the downsides.
