Obviously, the most effective approach is to reduce the vector by not using them, or in some of these cases (NVIDIA, AMD, etc) only installing the drivers and not the additional software.

Other than that, the most effective approach I've found is analyzing and blocking the traffic at the router level.

I use this - github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winu…

But obviously get opinions from other sources first.

It claims to disable most Windows telemetry. Some Adobe. But I haven't actually done any testing to prove it's the case. It's a pretty useful tool. Just use the restore point option first.

Last time I tried this method of disabling Adobe telemetry, photoshop stopped opening after a few days.

For nvidia/amd, just install the drivers, not their tool suite.

As the other posters mention, try to find alternatives.

Other than that, you can try and block at a firewall level. But few companies make it obvious like: nerferoustelemetry.pleasedontb…

GitHub - ChrisTitusTech/winutil: Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility - Install Programs, Tweaks, Fixes, and Updates

Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility - Install Programs, Tweaks, Fixes, and Updates - ChrisTitusTech/winutil

^GitHub

It might be a more extreme method, but I use Pi-Hole on my home network running on a Raspberry Pi.

It's more investment than tweaking some Windows settings or configuring a router, but it does a decent job of blocking a lot of telemetry and tracking.

Most of my denied queries listed on the Pi-Hole dashboard are Microsoft based.

I have to use my Pi-Hole as my DHCP server though, otherwise all traffic seems to only come from one device... my router.

If you have a server running at home, Pi-Hole can also be hosted in a Docker container.

There are a couple of things that can be done. Do keep in mind that most of these require some maintenance and checking, since windows updates are notorious for re enabling stuff:
- for windows itself, there are utilities like o&o shutup windows. This usually works quite well to go into the well hidden reg options to disable telemetry
- another good advice is to use such tool to straight up uninstall what ships with windows that you don't need
- at the network level in your house, having a DNS block level service is great. Pihole and adguard come to mind. This solution is more involved and requires more time to setup, but has tremendous benefits not only on windows telemetry, but overall network telemetry
- if you are not in the capacity to have a network level service, setting up the machine to use nextdns is another good step. It is also a DNS block level kind of solution, but works by pointing the machine to the DNS to be used system wide. Do keep in mind is certainly possible for the system in places to use hardcoded DNS and ignore your options (at network level, you can always force to reroute to your local DNS. The case of DoH is a bit more tricky)

Hopefully this helps

I don't use Windows or Adobe and things like that (I use Linux and before that I was running a Mac), but for VSCode you may consider using VSCodium instead which is the exact same app (the same source code, running the same extensions) just without MS telemetry.

vscodium.com/

In the last few months I saw so many new services being added to Win11, connecting to so many new domains... WindowsSpyBlocker, that a lot of people use with the DNS, is awfully outdated, and unless stuff like Sophia Script, Win-Debloat-Tools, winutil, O&O Shutup were updated recently (like 1 or 2 months tops) it's also outdated.

Microsoft is also constantly changing how stuff works, intertwining stuff so you can't fully remove without breaking functionality. You used to get media expansion packs (stuff like av1, avif and webp support) through updates or you could download them from their site or use a Powershell command to install them, now you are forced to do it through the MS Store, and guess what happens if you uninstall the MS Store? (at least, a few months ago when I got a new Win11 install, removing MS Store removed the packages). Probably a lot of Edge removing tools are broken by now too, if you watch your network you gonna see Microsoft Edge WebView 2 calling tons of domains all the time, and if you remove it you kill your internet connection entirely (you can, however, block it on the firewall. It used to be just one service, but with some recent update it's four different services you have to block now).

What I'd recommend is manually uninstalling all the bloat you can, then running Get-AppxPackage on Powershell to find whatever crap is still lurking and removing it with Get-AppxPackage -Name "PackageName" | Remove-AppxPackage (don't remove what you are not sure what it is for, search or ask AI when in doubt, and some stuff you won't be able to remove anyway), then execute msconfig to disable other crap you may also find there (again, be careful with that) and lastly get a program like simplewall or Portmaster to block Windows communication at firewall level (Portmaster has a very friendly UI) - the problem is, each update Microsoft includes new services, and you should let stuff like Wuauserv, Do Svc, Crypt Svc and BITS open because they handle updates, but always check what the domains they are connecting to are for... still, even though they may not be for telemetry, they could totally be sending telemetry data through them, so there is no way to use Windows safely.

simplewall/Portmaster can completely cut the communication of Adobe, Nvidia and whatever other program you use, so you'd technically look like you are offline to them - if you need to use their online features, or they need online authentication to even run (evil as fuck), I don't think you will be able to escape data collection.

nazi invasion in 1941

Not commenting on '39-40?

everyone wanted them to collapse

This changes what exactly? Even if everyone wanted it to collapse for purely imperialistic reasons, that doesn't actually say anything about the government being good or bad.

This is a major reason why forward thinking public transit investment is so crucial for the PNW.

edit I added some thoughts I see these future climate migrants as an opportunity for the PNW to start building out mass transit infrastructure that can accommodate them, this is an opportunity because the PNW is uniquely positioned in the US to pursue genuine regional mass transit infrastructure and more thoroughly erase the crimes of building this country upon the template of the car than almost anywhere else in the US.

At the end of the day the high rainfall and lushness of the region along with a proximity to a temperature moderating ocean means that we have a responsibility to make room for people who are forced to flee from places that cannot support humans as sustainably, this is just part of what being a good person is about. It will be hard, there will be plenty of growing pains but the PNW can absolutely support a LOT more people and the beauty, natural spaces and identity that people love in the PNW right now doesn't have to be violated in order to accommodate all of those people IF we invest in mass transit and allow density to develop without suffocating the region in suburban sprawl and traffic clogged stroads. It is absolutely possible to accommodate many more people in the PNW while also improving environmental protections and habitat quality, it will be hard and take many many headache inducing balancing processes but it is absolutely possible and if we do it then think of how strong we will be with that many people who love nature as much as we do all living together?

The more interesting question to me isn't whether the PNW is ready for a wave of climate migration, it is whether the rest of the US is ready for that version of the PNW that leaps ahead of the rest of the US in terms of quality of life because it took advantage of this climate migration as an opportunity rather than a burden.