Are there any open-source tools that allow me to disable telemetry for Adobe, Windows, Microsoft, NVIDIA, AMD, GitHub Desktop, Docker Desktop, VS Code, and other applications? How can I disable telemetry and enhance my overall Windows experience?
If you have to use Windows, there are at least two mandatory apps
I’d switch to Windows but I don’t want to use an OS that requires digging through shady online instructions and running random power shell scripts in order to stop it from spying on me until the next update.
I disabled telemetry on Linux(Arch, btw) by not installing enshittified corporate spyware masquerading as an operating system.
Are there any open-source tools that allow me to disable telemetry for Adobe,
Ocular/Scribus
Windows, Microsoft
Linux, Linux Foundation
NVIDIA, AMD
The drivers don’t have telemetry, it’s the software that comes with it.
On Linux you can just install the driver from your package manager without the need for any third party applications.
GitHub Desktop,
https://git-scm.com/downloads/guis?os=linux
Docker Desktop,
docker + https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Docker#Front-ends
VS Code
VS Codium, open source VS Code.
nvim if you want your (programming) life changed
and other applications?
Yes, the sad reality is that Windows is not quite there yet for desktop usage
Fair warning: even if you disable telemetry on Windows, it has a tendency and history of re-enabling itself after a major update. You shouldn’t expect it to be a one-and-done deal.
Thank you! If I find any script I will run those repeatedly after each update
Between the update happening and you running the script all of the re-enabled telemetry grabs all of your logs and uploads them.
You wouldn’t even make it through login after the update reboot before this happens.
You cannot remove this telemetry and also receive updates. This is by design.
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added to Win11, connecting to so many new domains… WindowsSpyBlocker, that a lot of people use with the DNS, is awfully outdated, and unless stuff like Sophia Script, Win-Debloat-Tools, winutil, O&O Shutup were updated recently (like 1 or 2 months tops) it’s also outdated.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.
I just rebooted to give an example… in less than 1 minute Edge WebView alone tried about 400 connections (everything red in the graph was blocked)
I’m sure that is great for battery life
I recently discovered ReviOS. I just did a clean re-install of Windows with it. And its been great for the last few days. No dumb bloatware or spyware. Though not so privacy crazy as to break things. Supposedly it’s changes can’t be rolled back with updates due to the techniques they use. We’ll see
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.
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.
Thank you. I use the official website to download drivers, but it seems they only provide packages like AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition or NVIDIA App for installing the drivers. How can I install only the drivers without the additional bundled software?
Also, which on-device traffic blocker would you recommend, and what rules do you use? Are those rules comprehensive enough to block all telemetry traffic?
I’m concerned that if the IP addresses of their servers change and the traffic blocker doesn’t update in time, some information from my device could still be transmitted. Because of that, I have some doubts about relying on traffic blockers alone.
About blocker just use simplewall,every exe file going to the net will be asked u permit it or not including windows itself https://github.com/henrypp/simplewall
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
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
Are there any on-device tools you could recommend? My laptop won’t always be connected to my home Wi-Fi, and some telemetry could still occur when it’s connected to other networks without my DNS configuration.
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)
Thank you. I’m concerned that if the IP addresses of their servers change and the traffic blocker doesn’t update in time, some information from my device could still be transmitted. For the reasons you have listed and changing IP addresses of their servers , I have some doubts about relying on traffic blockers alone.
Rather than a tool, what about blocking via the hosts file. There must be some hosts files out there that do this for Windows 11.
O&O Shutup10 is the most straightforward for Windows. You can run it every once in a while to see if anything’s changed, and it will let you know.
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.
Thank you, which on-device traffic blocker would you recommend, and what rules do you use? Are those rules comprehensive enough to block all telemetry traffic?
I’m concerned that if the IP addresses of their servers change and the traffic blocker doesn’t update in time, some information from my device could still be transmitted. Because of that, I have some doubts about relying on traffic blockers alone.
I’m afraid I don’t know too much about that.
I use uBlock Origin in Firefox and that is basically all I use on my PC and Pi-Hole does the rest.
Pi-Hole has some default rules that do a decent job and most people just rely on those, you can add your own or apply additional rule lists but the more you add, the greater the chance you break or block something legitimate.
Whatever blocker or rules you use will need updating once Microsoft or whoever makes changes, and some might react faster to the changes than others and they will most likely never react instantly. Something will always get through.
I don’t think there is a definite solution that will always work, these large companies will always make changes and try and bypass our protections and all we can do is react to that.
The only way to truly stop all M$ telemetry is to not use their services but I am not going to tell anyone they need to move over to a non-M$ system because I know it’s not just that easy. I have software and games that only run in Windows so I am stuck with their slop for now.
Maybe someone will be able to suggest another method that will suit your needs.
Thank you my friend
I use this - https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil
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: http://nerferoustelemetry.pleasedontblockthis.adobe.com/
Thank you. This tool is great for some windows tweak.
I use the official website to download drivers, but it seems they only provide packages like AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition or NVIDIA App for installing the drivers. How can I install only the drivers without the additional bundled software?
Yeah they are sneaky. You are forced to download everything.
Do a “manual search” on the Nvidia driver page.
Once the “Game Ready” drivers are downloaded. Uninstall the nvidia app (if it’s installed already.)
Now to install.
Basically for any windows software, always choose “Custom (Advanced)” installation, instead of “Express (Recommended)”.
For nvidia, the next page will show you 3-4 options. Untick everything accept “Graphics driver”.
Definitely ignore “HD audio”. It tends to mess up your sound (at least that’s my experience.)
and “PhysX System Software” unless this out of date or missing. Then you can tick this.
Then just your graphics drivers will be installed.
Obviously you will miss out on the various additional features the nvidia app provides, like auto tweaking game settings. But it’s always a tradeoff.
As I said above. Always do “Custom” installs on ANY software. 75% of the time you end up automatically opting into to various forms of telemetry, and at worst find your browers have new plugins, your search engine changed, and antivirus installed. It can be time-consuming to uninstall.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you have more questions. I tried to add screenshots but the Lemmy app wasn’t having it.
Thank you. I have also found choco package for installing nvidia driver only
What was it, Glasswire? Tinywall? Them!
GlassWire does not appear to be open-source. In addition to TinyWall, I also found Portmaster.
