Blocking M$ Access to Your Data
About time I start a proactive thread and stop so much whining and bellyaching on my part about M$. I am going to take control of my Surface Pro 11 X Elite 5g (from hereon SP11-5g) and pass along things I've found or learned in my wrestling match with Satya and company (M$). I hope others will post their recommendations and experiences in this wrestling match. I will try very hard not to let my contributions just be diatribes about M$.
Liron Segev (thetechieguy.com) has a contentious life with M$ (like me, so guess that's why I like his videos) so this will be my first tip - his recommendations to stop M$ from getting your data. Personal note, I have tried O&O ShutUp and it does work on OA, but haven't gone the second step of directly blocking Microsoft telemetry data yet through your hosts file - still trying to decide if I want to do this for fear of blocking something that is system critical.
I DO NOT AGREE WITH HIS RECOMMENDATION TO CONSIDER LINUX - ONLY FOR THE STRONGEST AND BRAVEST.
You can completely get rid of the telemetry and other spyware components of Windows 10 (and possibly 11 as well; never tried that) before installing or deploying Windows to your PC, by customizing the Windows installation image using tools like MSMG ToolKit (https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/msmg-toolkit.50572/; forum needs registration) and https://www.ntlite.com/, and to achieve the best result, Windows 10/11 IoT Enterprise LTSC editions are recommended, because generally speaking, these editions are not designed to sniff personal data from general consumers, as compared to Home or Pro editions of Windows 10/11.
Standalone Scanners:
Yes, it is still a major issue if you own a standalone scanner. Your only solution at this point is VueScan - a third party scanner tool from Hamrick Software. To install it on ARM64 you will need to temporarily disable driver signature locking, which will give your IT folks a case of the measles and hives at the same time. But it does work.
Bottom line - without VueScan (and 5g) I would be typing on a MacBook again. In fact, that is still a possibility given my other beefs with M$...
Can't believe I didn't know about the Techieguy. Thanks for sharing, my paranoia just got fodder for the rest of the year.
I think I mentioned it before, but I’ve been using “The Ultimate Windows Utility” for over six months without any problem. I just do the recommended setting, not anything drastic. It’s super simple, just copy a single line and paste it into an elevated (admin) Powershell prompt. It comes up in after little bit with lots of options.
https://christitus.com/windows-tool/
De-Crapify Windows:
Stole this from a post by @JoeS (just because it is good and I wanted it here):
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/what-i-do-to-clean-up-a-clean-install-of-windows-11-23h2-and-edge/