First off before we get to any other content, I need to emphasize how important it is that you give daddy Billy G the middle figner and tell him to take his spyware somewhere else. The first home computers to come shipped with Microsoft products were pretty decent. Windows 9x in particular while not entirely stable was a miracle to use in my childhood. The days of my parents using 386 machines were long gone by the time I was in my youth. The 9x systems were made for the user, not for Microsoft. Windows XP would come to market later to cement Microsoft's position in the home desktop enviornment. With Windows XP came along the consumer focused release of the NT Kernel, which is what windows operating systems are still based off today over 20 years later. As the years progressed Microsoft would release Windows Vista, Windows 7, and finally Windows 8. These operating systems initially allowed for the "disabling" of telementary services. Of course nobody really knows if disabling these services did anything at all to curb Billy G's insatiable appitite for your data.
With Window's 10 came a new era. The "always lsitening" cortana came to the party and started to send your voice data directly to Microsoft. It was advertised that Cortana would not be listening in the background to your conversations but that has turned out to be false. Cortana was always listening. Contractors at Microsoft would analize cortana and skype data gathered and listen in on your private conversations. This was done without the knowlege of its users to an extent. People didn't think that Microsoft's data analysis would involve actual humans listening in on conversations.
Futhermore, there have been questions raised about how much of Microsofts "telemetry" can actually be turned off. Microsofts Kernel and code for windows is all closed source, so there is no way for anyone to independntly verify if turning off the telementry toggles actually prevents data from being sent to Microsoft. Independent methods such as checking for data stream to Micro$ofts servers are basically useless, as the most basic telemetry option must remain enabled for you to even install Windows 10/11. Microsoft claims that this data is only used to help diagnose crashes and improve stability, but who knows what they use it for. What if your computer hits an error that you skip? Is that error log sent over to Micro$oft? What about all your open tabs? Is that information also sent over to Microsoft? Is your browser history sent over to Micro$oft as part of the "error log"? What's to stop Micro$oft from selling this "error log/crash log" data to google so they can run more ads using your personal information???(Fun Fact- Software that gathered your data and sends it off to another party is known as Spyware!
Temporary holding spot for more microsoft bullshit that they've gotten away with thanks to boomer congressmen who don't know a goddamn thing about computers.
So what can you do about it? Well for one you need to get off Windows. Aside from all the privacy related issues I've mentioned there is also the issue of hardware usage. Your typical windows install uses about 2gb of ram at idle , which is an ungodly amount of your system resources. During the actual usage of your computer the RAM usage can be far higher, leading to chugging and lag in systems, mostly noticable in systems between 4-8gb of RAM. This is a major issue in windows but in linux its not a problem, you can install a distributions of linux that idle at around 512mb of RAM, meaning you can actually use an older computer or laptop that only has a few gig's of RAM.
I would absolutely reccommend your first jump into linux to be vanilla ubuntu, unless you are a gamer, in which I would reccommend PopOS!. You can download ubuntu from their website. I know there will be people who do not agree with this reccomendation. First I'd like to say that you can completely disable the telemetry in ubuntu so privacy shouldn't be a concern, unlike in windows. Also, when you turn off the telemetry in ubuntu it actually turns off all data being sent to the owners of ubuntu, Canonical. This has been independly verified by people within the linux community since unlike Windows, ubuntu is open source and anyone can see exactly what its doing while its running. Also, ubuntu has a ton of online support. Ubuntu is the linux OS which first "popularized" linux to be an option to normies going back over ten years now. Because of this, any questions you have regarding ubuntu have likely already been asked online and are a quick google search away. You could also choose a derivitive of ubuntu, such as Pop!os, but I wouldn't reccommend it to someone jumping fresh into linux as documentation is not as widely available as is for stock ubuntu.
Alternatively, if you are using an NVIDIA graphics card you can use PopOS! To use the built in NVIDIA drivers which work wonderfuly. I am on PopOS, I have also used mint and Ubuntu, and personally I prefer pop as it is geared twords gaming. I run PopOS! on my main rig and my laptop. Productivity is also wonderful on Pop since the office suite is built in, but its also built in for Ubuntu. If you are running a very old system, built around the XP/Vista era, I would reccommend Puppy Linux, as it runs on almost everything and has great documentation. If you are new, try to avoid arch linux or its derivitives. Arch runs a constantly updated kernel, which sounds great but updates are not as vetted as debian derivatives such as ubuntu. What this means is that updates can potentially make your computer unuseable outside the command line, so avoid these distributions unless you are ready to dive head first into the nuts and bolts of linux.
If you like my work or want to reach out, message me on SpaceHey!
.png)