How to track down Microsoft spying on windows 7++ and how to stop them?

[Yongtjunkit]

Hi, How to track down Microsoft spying on windows 7++ and how to stop them as privacy is very important to me.

Help would be appreciated

Thanks in advance

[Kiyuubi]

You cannot really do much unless you own the Enterprise version.  You can "disable" things in the others, but it will still collect your data.  I still don't trust Microsoft with the Enterprise version.

 

That being said, you can at least try..

 

A user on these forums created a script that does a bit for you, called mPurge.  I haven't personally used it, but I did read the source.  Basically it uninstalls OneDrive, blocks Microsoft data collection in hosts file, disables Customer Experience Improvement Pgoram, and edits the registry a bit.

 

On top of that I would use PeerBlock with the Spyware, Education, Advertising, and Microsoft lists.  It will block any connection in those IP ranges.  TinyWall is neat too.  It is a front-end for the Windows Firewall, and will block any connections from programs, services, etc, that isn't whitelisted.

 

These things can break things, so you will need to tinker with them.  There are a few other things I believe, but I cannot remember them. 

 

Your best bet is to go Linux, as even though you are taking measures for your privacy on Windows, it is still proprietary software and you have no way of knowing for sure that it is actually working.