You can't Debloat Your Way Out of Windows telemetry

video by Lawrence Systems:

thoughts?

 

if you see someone comparing windows to linux you know he doesnt have idea about anything

 

why connect devices to the internet when privacy is important?

 

To the trenches I go. This is WAR!!!

 

Actually there are scripts (github is your friend here) that deal VERY effectively with telemetry now. I just used one on a win10 LTSC IoT Ent build I finished recently. There are also scripts that deal very effectively with getting completely rid of edge, all autonomous updating (which has an undo in case a patch needs to be applied before locking it down again) both the services and task sched jobs as well are all disabled, and defender a/v.

Now with just a handful of scripts it brings the piecemeal work of hardening a new win build down to mere minutes. The homework has been done with these scripts because they not only get rid of the crap they get rid of the supporting junk that could potentially reenable the stuff at a later date. As I said very effective, but the core OS stays perfectly intact and ready for use.. Careful attention has been paid to all aspects of junkware that resides in - registry, task scheduler, services and SVChost. Couple that with completely offline KMS activation and in about 1/2 hour after build-completion you have a fully hardened internet ready battle station.

Of course for internet use you'd be foolish to go online without a decent (non mickeysoft) a/v, FW, and NetLimiter + browser malware and /exploit hardening. This is standard for ANY os these days. However, it's still my opinion that an internet machine is used for internet access only, NOT production. For production one doesn't need firewalls, a/v, malware, etc, and should remain completely SANS of the entire lot.

 

Last edited: Jul 14, 2026

As @saccamano says, there are ways to avoid all of that telemetry crap. My workstation is 21H2 lOT Enterprise LTSC too, great OS which could need a very little bit of "polishment" about certain *essential apps* lack, depending on your particular needs, of course, but its existence is essentially more a workstation demmand from the workers field than an "electronic drug" injector demmanded by the consumer's universe.

Is my only machine, for now, so I need it plugged into the 666, for what I live firewalled except for web browsers, WhatsApp, Windows Update & a few other apps; my go to firewall is a passive great firewall manager called "Firewall Add Blocker" (Sordum Soft). It is said that this OS support will last 7 years more -at least-, its performance is truely the best I know 'till now, working as iT for Linux distros, macOS and Windows.

Some of those .exe "teleworms" has the ability to bypass every hosts block & firewall rule, so for them you could simply take absolute ownership and later untick all of their permissions, after a restart they'll sleep forever.

 

I love and use the defender uninstall script. What other scripts have you used and would recommend?

 

To be honest, I gave up.
Hardening Android is extremely difficult. The moment you want to use banking apps you're lost and can't even root that damn thing. And they won't install on graphene. And Apple, even more difficult. And the thing is: My mobile transmits a thousand times more than windoze ever could. So why bother when the war is lost.

 

You could try the "stripped of spyware" editions Microsoft releases for the Chinese market (uupdump)



---

Yeah. I keep a cheapo un-rooted phone / tablet for that reason. I don't use phone apps for banking/payments while out and about, so no problem for me.

 

How to disable Windows telemetry --> www.pdq.com/blog/how-to-disable-windows-telemetry/

 

Last edited: Jul 14, 2026

Edge remover - this gets rid of edge AND webview garbage in one swing. I do mean "gets-rid-of" in the most accurate sense of the terms.

Defender remover - this one taps out defender A/V completely. beware though, this leaves no trace of defender a/v! if you plan to use internet get hold of a proper controllable, freely updateable, non-microsoft A/V. This doesn't remove the FW. You can disable the FW effectively yourself by using the GUI switches. However if the FW service is turned OFF/disabled it screws up DISM (and a few other vital services) something fierce so it's best to leave the FW service on and just disable functionality. The MS FW itself can be blocked from internet access with netlimiter. If you're on internet simply use a 3rd party FW that works better than the MS one which is not a hard stretch.

Telemetry Disabler - if you do a before and after check of stuff you'll see that this one disables most every OS telemetry proponent present. It doesn't do the office garp I don't think. But for office it's pretty simple - block ALL network access (both backend and frontend facing networks) of the "clicktorun" service (clicktorun has to be left running otherwise office apps will not work), and block internet access to all individual office apps. - netlimiter does this perfectly. I don't block my Local Area Network from the office apps for obvious reasons.

Update Disabler - this is VERY effective. After application, no update services are running and all the support mechanisms that would turn it back on are nuked - YAY! Plus the task sched jobs that deal with sparking the updaters are all disabled. There is an "undo" which can reenable the updater in case a manual patch (one that you DL yourself and apply manually) needs to be applied before locking it all back down again. The updaters as they are today are a hindrance and are NOT needed whether your machine application model is for online or offline. If you want you can apply the latest cumulative update and make certain .NET is updated by DLing the individual updates off the update catalog YOURSELF and apply them manually.

A word about the cumulative updates - if you DL and apply a cumulative update dated greater than 8/25 you will lock yourself out of being able to use KMS activation. The 9/25 and greater cumulatives carry a patch that disables all local KMS activation. Hence I never bother with any cumulative other than a 8/25 or less. The cumulative needs be applied ONCE at build time then disable all the updaters and enjoy!


These are all PowerShell scripts which run to completion in mere seconds. They make short work of what used to be a 3-4+ hour job of piecemeal hardening (i.e. reverse engineering) a new win build for internet connection, or to remove the junkware and overhead for an offline production machine.

The idiot in that video is off his meds...

 

Last edited: Jul 14, 2026

actually you can. I use this thingc called "nexus playbook" from https://getnexus.cc/playbook, and it does an amazing job at debloating windows.

Now I`m running some chrome tabs, windows settings, afterburner, hwinfo and some other stuff and I only got 103 processes, it`s amazing to extract the most you can from windows.

 

Last edited: Jul 14, 2026

A word about this one... I looked into this a while ago and though what it says about what it does is very palatable with regard to privacy etc, it does not allow one to build a machine offline using your own resources - it uses "theirs". It requires the user to make an account and "they" do your build for you "online"... As soon as I finally figured out what this was I completely wrote it off as "scammish" because mickeysoft does something very similar with their crap now as well and I really didn't see the advantage in carrying over that same model with some unknown quantity.

WinOS in its current form is very malleable and can be as secure and private as the user wants it to be. That job got much easier for those of us who are privacy and stability oriented before anything else. Simply get a optimized (lite) ISO (there are many to choose from), or a LTSC IoT Enterprise version of Win10 (my preference) or Win11 (LTSC IoT Ent. only), run the scripts, and go from there. Very simple. What you end up with is a system that is completely compatible with pretty much everything out there with no obtuse *NIX b.s. to have to deal with... Given there are lite and LTSC IoT Ent. ISO's out there there is 0 (zero) reason to ever mess with a retail ISO ever.

 

Last edited: Jul 15, 2026

Oh, sure! That's true for the older versions
But newer versions of Nexus doesnt require iso activation and checking if licenses are true, now you only need it to run the app, I think that after running the app no more processes from nexus run in background anymore

It now uses any ISO you want, then do the tweaks over it, after a fresh install

 

Tbh any time I see complaints about telemetry in Windows that are immediately followed with comments about how Apple is better for that, it becomes immediately obvious that they do not read EULAs or even bother to google the things they are complaining about. I know people hate to hear it and will do multiple quadruple backflips to avoid accepting it but Microsoft's privacy policy is word for word as robust as Apple's in literally every single way. Apple collects the exact same application usage and analytics telemetry that Microsoft does, down to the letter, for every corresponding app each other's operating systems contain. This shit is easily verifiable but because there is a cottage industry of ad-revenue that's formed around complaining about every single thing that has Microsoft's name on it, there is zero push back on that reality.

 

no friggin privacy anymore. somehow they manage to get in your phone and computer

this makes me angry seriously
Phone-hacking trial: Kate Middleton 'hacked 155 times' - BBC News

 

Last edited: Jul 15, 2026

I only use the Ghost Spectre versions of windows. I have no problems and everything is blocked that needs to be blocked and turned off that needs to be turned off. Been using his releases of windows since 10 and extremely happy with my Win 11. No crashes, hangs or any other issues. Gaming perfectly.

 

To groups, coders, nerds, good will people like The Usual Suspects, R2R, VR, etc etc

Please join force and give us an official AZ Audio Focused WiN DeBloater and AI Killer, I deeply beg u!

 

You looked gorgeous at the wimbledon finals btw...

 

holly, that's actually something I'd love using