I unfortunately can’t switch to Linux for some applications(like Games) so I was wondering if there are up to date guides for 25h2 to minimize data collection(especially by Window’s new AI applications and Windows Defender)?
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We can’t confirm whether these guides are updated to that specific version, but they should work mostly. Here are our official recommendations based on this topic:
Otherwise, we have a community wiki section that you can look at. Look at the sidebar to the left and click through the guides published there.
As Kev says above, the PG overview on Windows does a great job.
ChrisTitus has good debloat scripts, but I’m not sure how current it is as I’m on Linux these days. I typically obtain a pro or enterprise Windows license to get access to group policies and other tools.
Ultimately, you’ll need to audit your privacy changes after each major update as defaults and settings can get changed around.
Rebuilding your OS as a local account would be ideal, but Microsoft has recently nuked that into the ground.
I highly recommend browsing this forum for posts, comments and info about what you’re looking for. There is a ton of info here already so you just have to research a bit.
And after which you can ask any specific follow up questions you may have and I can try answering them.
The title says “hardening” which implies security, but the post says “to minimize data collection” which implies privacy, so just to clarify, are you looking for security hardening (like disabling vbs), for privacy enhancements (like disabling Error Reporting), or both?
Good? You must be joking. Just look at the source code.
Disabling telemetry also changes settings that are completely unrelated to telemetry. For example, some of them are: Autochk, ShowTaskViewButton, LongPathsEnabled, SystemResponsiveness, NetworkThrottlingIndex.
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I’m confused why that is the fault of the guy who made the script as opposed to the people who made the convoluted, mashed together operating system. Windows has so much telemetry baked into basic features like clipboard, typing, updates, security, and more that there’s simply no way to avoid it without busting some stuff.
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Can you prove that the ones I listed are used to collect telemetry? By the way, ShowTaskViewButton is just a button for the Win+Tab key shortcut. Surely telemetry?
You do know that most Windows games run on Linux nowadays thanks to Valve’s efforts? It used to be the case that you had to stop playing games if you wanted a free desktop, but this is longer the case. The main exception is competitive games with invasive anti-cheats (rootkits), which you should refuse to buy on principle if you care about your privacy.
I’m pretty sure this one is toggleable in the UI of CTT’s tool and not inherent to “Disable telemetry”. Correct me if I’m wrong, though.
Yes, but not only there. Also in “Disable Telemetry” and “Set Display for Performance.”
Surprised that no one recommended the community wiki. Isn’t people aware about them?
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I use both O&O Shutup and Spybot Anti-Beacon. I also go into Services in Windows 10/11 and make sure Geolocation and Connected User Experiences and Telemetry are both disabled. After any Windows Update you have to open all 3 and make sure none of your settings change - often Windows updates will “reset” the settings.
I use a combination of these (not a complete list below) with my own tweaks:
Hard_Configurator/WindowsHybridHardening at master · AndyFul/Hard_Configurator · GitHub
GitHub - beerisgood/Windows11_Hardening: a collection about Windows 11
https://skanthak.hier-im-netz.de - tons of useful guides here like how to configure SRPs without gaps (ignore hagezi block, false positive probably)
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=55319
GitHub - valleyofdoom/PC-Tuning: Configure Windows-based systems for a variety of tasks
Additionally, there’s many open-source and not-so-open OSes that tweak Windows and have many good security and privacy tweaks, but u’d have to extract the tweaks manually. For open source ones u go to the repo and start digging in the files. For closed sourced ones u download the iso from the author, download the original microsoft iso, make sure both are the same version/build, and then do a diff check with smth like WinMerge to find the differences, from there u can extract the differences as tweaks manually. U can see a somewhat comprehensive list of Windows custom OSes in this video.
Welcome to the community!
One surefire way to harden Windows 11 is by upgrading to Windows 11 Pro. Windows 11 Home forces you to do a lot of things that aren’t helpful! I can appreciate it if you’re struggling but it’s definitely worth it to upgrade to Windows 11 Pro.
I still can’t understand why people even consider running pirated versions of Windows… You lose so much because you’re running an OS that’s guaranteed to contain built-in trojans.
This could help.
It’s probably exactly what you’re looking for.
Best regards
Thanks for all the great resource links everyone. Since the OP has not responded to any of them, I’m going to close this thread to encourage future readers to read those other threads and search the forum for existing answers first 