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?

  • ZeDoTelhado@lemmy.world
    4·
    3 days ago

    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

    • tatoko556@reddthat.comOP
      1·
      3 days ago

      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.

      • Zerush@lemmy.ml
        1·
        18 hours ago

        The best is Portmaster, it monitors individually all traffic from installed apps and even the one form the OS itself, with the option to block what you don’t like, DNScrypt with a big filterlist and optional an (paid) SPN service (VPN which allowed to use different servers depending on the website). IMHO better and easier to handle as Pi-Hole, which don’t permit individual per app settings.