Raj wants to reduce the attack surface for a newly purchased laptop. What hardening technique will help him reduce the possibility of remote exploits while also decreasing the amount of ongoing patch management he needs to do for the system?

Raj knows that removing unnecessary software reduces a system's attack surface and also means that he won't have to patch and maintain the software he removes. Encrypting a drive, installing EDR, and changing default passwords won't reduce patch management, but EDR and changing default passwords could help with remote exploit prevention.