You got a lot of responses, here’s some good ones:

@cyborganism@lemmy.ca wrote a good post that explains how to make an install usb from your existing windows

@TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml made a post about the wipe and reinstall method using a third party source and activation method

If you choose either of those ways, make a backup using the windows backup wizard. No matter how you choose to reinstall windows, having that backup lets you save your files and settings. Always have a backup!

I’m not gonna link them, but you got a lot of posts about using a second drive to install windows so that its update process doesn’t remove your ability to boot into Linux. Many people do that and there’s nothing wrong with it.

I think it’s better to let windows update mess up your bootloader and learn how to fix it (it’s always incredibly easy but the process varies slightly depending on your distribution). There’s no guarantee that windows update won’t mess up bootloaders on drives it isn’t installed on.

If I were you, and I could look into the future of what’s gonna work, speaking from a couple decades of experience, I’d make a windows install media or two, make a backup or two and pick a distribution to try off a live usb first then if I liked it, I’d install it dual boot so I could switch back to windows just by picking it when the computer starts up.