I recently picked up a HP laptop running Windows 11.  Any suggestions on getting rid of the bloatware I don't use and/or really isn't necessary?

I haven't found any myself, but I know what I would do: wipe the thing and install Linux on it.

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Oh man yes! Use Mint Linux. I switched to Linux in 2016 and never looked back. It is so much better than Windows, and contains all the software you need, unless you have some really specialized proprietary software. I started out with Ubuntu at the time since it is the largest distro, but it was pretty glitchy and poorly designed, and with each release every two years I kept hoping they would fix these usability problems, but things didn't get better. The 2016 release was brand new when I switched over, so I used that. I quickly realized it had a lot of bugs, but I stuck with it hoping the 2018 release would be better. It was, in fact, to some extent, so I stuck with that one for a few years. One of my computers eventually had some weird problem, I don't remember what, and I had to re-install the operating system several years later. At that point it wouldn't recognize the printer (!), and refused to accept the drivers, so I tried the latest release of Ubuntu, which was 2020 at that point. That was even worse in various ways, so I decided to dump Ubuntu and switch to Mint. Not only did my printers work instantaneously and out of the box, but they didn't even need any drivers installed either. Mint was a dream come true.

Mint is basically the stability of Ubuntu with not only all the bugs fixed, but numerous other helpful features and applications added on top of that. I really can't speak highly of it enough. All my computers run the latest edition of Mint now.

For the vast majority of people, Mint Linux is an excellent solution, since most people's computer usage consists of web browsing, office applications (spreadsheets, word processors, etc.), reading PDF files, email, and other common tasks. Mint does all these things extremely well -- any Linux distro does, actually. It is also just as user-friendly as Windows, or even more so.

I purchased a new computer that came with Windows 11 for my parents about four-five years ago, and this thing was a beast, with lots of RAM and a state-of-the-art processor. It came with Windows. I was shocked and horrified at how long Windows took to boot up on that thing, and how slowly it ran. It was agonizing. I installed Mint and it booted up in literally one-fourth of the amount of time, and applications ran almost instantly.

From what I hear, Linux is like that since it uses a fraction of the amount of RAM and processing power. Just try Linux, preferably the Mint distribution of Linux, and you'll probably never go back to Windoze either.

I use Mint too.

I also started with Ubuntu Linux around 2010 or 2011, and only used a Windows XP virtual machine for Stamps.com Windows software. Eventually Stamps.com switched to web-based printing, so I was able to ditch the VM completely.

I use the MATE sub-version of Linux Mint, for stability. Though Cinnamon is probably pretty stable as well by this point. It has a lot more bells and whistles, more eye candy.

4 of my PCs use the latest version of Mint, the other 4 need to be upgraded to the latest version (being anywhere from 3-7 versions behind).
Then there's the CathInfo server, running AlmaLinux.
Then there's my Mac Mini for work, and we have a couple low-end Mac laptops we use for school as well.
And that doesn't count all the Android devices in this house... let's just say our Wifi router has plenty of work to do.

I would like to add: we have a lot of power users here. We don't just do "word processing and some web browsing". I do video editing, audio editing, software development, and many other things. My wife does the family accounting and taxes using KMyMoney. I haven't been "stuck" for need of a software program yet. There are a few Ham Radio programs only available for windows, but I've been able to live without them just fine. For one thing, they cost money, so...

So many times I've needed to convert a file, change a file, do some transformation on a file, and I just have to install something (free of course) and I'm always good to go. I've never been "If only I had Windows, I could have..."

Imagine if I had to buy licenses and software for my entire family "IT department" -- I'd have to get a 2nd job just to pay for it all!

I prefer Q4OS with a Desktop environment over Mint. Usually KDE 99% of the time, but I do have trinity DE also installed if I want to experience a more retro feel though I almost never switch because it stops my volume and mic switch lights to get stuck and it's too outdated.

The sounds on TDE though 

Heard only good things about Linux but don't know much more about it.  Will have to look into it.  Right now, I'll try the Debloating as a starter.  Thanks.  Appreciate it.

Try Linux in a virtual machine, live DVD, or on an old spare computer preferably. It's pretty good for meeting the majority of people's daily needs without tweaking, and for the special cases compatibility layers like Wine and it's derivative Proton have gotten really good at running a lot of Windows only software. Honestly, when I moved to Linux, I quickly realized that I didn't need a lot of Windows-specific software because Linux has quality open source alternatives for most software. I despise using proprietary software and prefer open source (especially GPL2 and GPL3 licensed), so I have no issues using Linux.

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This.

This is how I started getting comfortable with Linux. I booted up a live DVD and played around with the operating system, and gradually learned that it works just as well as Windows, and is just as easy to use, and I learned this in an environment that didn't require me to make any changes to my setup that I already had. The way it works is that you go to a distro's website, download their "iso" file, as they call it, and then burn it to a DVD. Most computers by default are already set up to work with something like this, so you just leave the disk in your drive and reboot your computer. Let it boot up from the disk. What happens is that it boots you into a Linux desktop, much the same as what you would see if this were your operating system. All the software is already usually installed and available, so you can click through the Start menu and run the programs in there, edit docuмents, browse the web, and use the computer as you normally would. When you have seen enough, you simply boot down the computer, and the computer shuts off without having made any changes to your operating system or files. Then, next time you want to try out Linux again, put that disc back into the drive, and power it on again. It's like a sandbox. You can play around with the software as if it were already installed on your computer, but it doesn't actually make any changes.

Just to add you don't need a dvd, an old usb will work. Though you may need to use a software like rufus if you are on windows.

I'm going to ask a stupid question....  Where do you get Linux?

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I've been recommending Mint, so here's the link to their installation page. You download a file called an ISO file, and then you either boot it up from a DVD or a blank USB drive. (Thanks to Tony for recommending the USB drive instead of the DVD, as it will run three times faster off a USB drive than a DVD, so definitely go with that option if you can). For Mint, they have three different versions, but they are all pretty much the same, so choose any one of them. (If you have an older system, the Xfce version runs a little bit faster, but has the same functionality and programs as the others). It gives you pretty detailed instructions on the page I linked to.

Try Linux in a virtual machine, live DVD, or on an old spare computer preferably. It's pretty good for meeting the majority of people's daily needs without tweaking, and for the special cases compatibility layers like Wine and it's derivative Proton have gotten really good at running a lot of Windows only software. Honestly, when I moved to Linux, I quickly realized that I didn't need a lot of Windows-specific software because Linux has quality open source alternatives for most software. I despise using proprietary software and prefer open source (especially GPL2 and GPL3 licensed), so I have no issues using Linux.

And you'd be surprised how many mainstream software programs are available for Linux now.

I've used Microsoft Teams, Slack, Skype, Zoom, Discord, TeamViewer, Dropbox and a hundred other office/business/productivity programs for Linux.

For the Internet there's Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Thunderbird -- notice all the big names are there.

And I've not run across a use-case where LibreOffice isn't sufficient compared to the expensive Microsoft Office. GIMP does everything 99.99% of people want to do with Adobe Photoshop. Audacity is a great free sound file editor available for Windows and Linux. I do all my editing of movies/docuмentaries with KDENlive. I use it *all* the time to make PG versions of movies I want to share with my kids. Handbrake extracts DVDs into files; K3b or Brasero is what I use to burn DVD or Blu-ray DVD media. Inkscape is a great vector graphics program. Blender is for those into 3D modeling.

Things like zipping/unzipping files, printing to PDF, screen capture, video screen capture, video/audio/DVD playback, etc. are just part of the operating system. Any handy utility you can imagine either comes with Linux or is quickly installed. I have to bring this up because these are programs I literally used to install on every machine, after installing Windows XP. Now I don't have to. I install Linux, and these things are good to go.

For software development there's Android Studio, VS Code (by Microsoft), Arduino IDE, MySQL Workbench, Filezilla, Netbeans, GEANY (a great lightweight software dev's text editor) and hundreds of other IDEs, etc.

I can run virtual machines with VirtualBox, test apps on virtual Android phones and tablets (emulation works great), and every piece of hardware I've thrown at Linux works great. Pretty much anything you want to do with a computer you can do on Linux.

What's more rare, and easier to list, is what I *can't* get because I'm on Linux. There's a reason our household doesn't even own a Microsoft Windows PC. It's not because we're not heavy computer users -- I know there are some families that don't use computers much. As I said in another thread, we have 8 Linux PCs not counting the CathInfo server and tons of Android smartphones. We're a very technical household.

The *only* thing I will grant is that we're not a PC gaming household. If we're going to play a game once in a while, it's more likely to be a retro 16-bit Super Nintendo game or something. We don't play current, popular, online multiplayer games. Talk about an addiction and a time sink! Might as well get into Social Media or spend hours on the TV set.

But even for PC gaming, Steam supports Linux now. There are hundreds of games available for Linux on Steam. Suffice to say that a lot more people could switch to Linux compared with those who HAVE done so, or REALIZE they could do so.

I know what I would do: wipe the thing and install Linux on it.

You can actually remove everything and only run Linux on the machine?  I guess that would make sense but just never thought about it.  Would it still be better to run it from a usb or can you just install it directly onto the laptop?