I am absolutely disgusted by this. Microsoft has been baking a hidden identifier called "GDID" (Global Device Identifier) into Windows.
The worst part? It allows authorities and MS to bypass your VPN or proxy. Even if you route your traffic securely, this hardware-level tracking token stays active and maps right back to your identity the second you sign into a Microsoft account.
This is a complete violation of user privacy. Windows isn't an operating system anymore; it's a giant piece of spyware we paid for. Microslop at its absolute finest.
Time to wipe the drive and move to Linux.

So this morning, I opened my e-mail. And I get about 600+ junk emails per day these days due to all the insane dataleaks everywhere. Lo and behold I see an e-mail from my dentist saying I hadn't paid my bill so they're increasing the costs by 30+ euros. Except I hadn't fucking seen this bill because IT LANDED IN MY SPAM.

Meanwhile, Microslop Outlook's garbage ass spam filter allow e-mails where they tell me they want to ******* my ****** with a nice picture where they spread their actual ******* NO PROBLEM.

Purelymail => $10 a year => bought a domain $6 per year => peace of mind => invaluable.

Wish I did this sooner instead of 10+ years of frustration with this garbage software.

EDIT: here's how I did it if you're interested:

So if you buy a domain name, from something like namecheap.com, you can then use this domainname to setup your own e-mail. Once you've bought it, you'll need to edit DNS to point to Purelymail (or another mailing provider, but I found this one was by far the cheapest).

Once you've done that, you can configure a catch-all for your domain name (something like <yourname>@<yourdomain>.com. Then any <username>@<yourdomain>.com will get sent to your catch all.

Let's say your domain name is "test.com". Now, you can use e-mail addresses like [reddit@test.com](mailto:reddit@test.com) to register on reddit, then use [facebook@test.](mailto:facebook@test.nl)com to register on facebook and they all consolidate to that single e-mail inbox of yours.

The great part is: if there's a dataleak and you've made sure you labeled all your email addresses like this, you'll know WHERE the dataleak is coming from, because they'll be sending it to <companywithdataleak>@test.com. Now you can literally just block that recipient e-mail address and **poof** no more spam :).

Put this entire text into ChatGPT/Claude if you want a detailed explanation on how to set it up. I'm sure it can help you!

Even windows 10 cant resist but to add TWO instanced of copilot.

May they all burn and then die and then die again. Let Microsoft go bankrupt.

So I was working on a project for school. (DUE IN TWO DAYS.) And I went to click save, and nothing happened. After a bit of clicking, I realized my screen was completely frozen. And no, the power button on my PC tower did not work. My ONLY option was to fully unplug my PC for it to shut down. So after grieving my lost 2 hours of work, I plugged it back in and powered it on, then instead of getting back to work, I had to sit through a Windows update for about 3 hours.
I've run a virus scan from about 5 sources, and they all said I was virus-free. So did Windows freeze my PC to force an update?
Also, is there some kind of software to force disable updates?

I just want to express how unfathomably disappointed I am with Microsoft since they make it completely impossible to actually contact them. I have been a customer for over 6 years. Now all of a sudden I get essentially banned because I log in in a different location on a different device, I tried every different log in method and none worked. So cool having a 300 dollar paperweight because Microsoft doesn't know the difference between a hacker and the literal owner of the account. Satya Nadella should be ashamed.

Did MS latest update brick their pc aswell? Legit updated last night before bed now I get home after work and my pc is stuck in a restart loop. Why tf can't these morrons do updates right or just stop forcing the updates this is irritating and I don't know how to fix it. 4k pc ruined by a fucking update is wild

can NOT download stuff from Microsoft store can't update pc or even reset

not even restore point!

What was it to you?

Title edit: The Control Panel will be no more in one of the next Windows 11 26h2 updates!

There's a saying in design and dev about not adding the 10th cup holder if the engine isn't running well - or something to that effect.

I'm so sick of Microsoft not listening to users and ensuring basic functions work really well.

Fix the Teams status issue.

Make working with the new outlook calendar better. Give us the category tool in the create window. Stop making the creation and management of events take so many clicks.

And fix the intrusive copilot icon that hovers obnoxiously over the canvas in word and PowerPoint. I will use copilot when I want to but it's enraging to keep docking that icon to get it out of my way, only to have it come back and have to do it over and over and over again.

OneNote? Omg don't get me started. It's so outdated and slow and it crashes and is buggy. It's not been enhanced much at all in a long time. Maybe make the checkboxes actual checkboxes instead of radio buttons and format the text that follows when they are marked done.

Ever since I made the mistake of upgrading to W11 I have had random full PC freezes about once a week. Hardware is fine, never had an issue before the new OS on a fresh drive.

Today's freeze was the end of my boot drive - including all my work and photos. The formerly bootable SSD became invisible to Windows machines and Linux immediately after this latest crash.

I've seen lots of posts and articles about W11 corrupting boot partitions and all these wonderful stories on how people fixed the problem - not me. Shit is DEAD dead. I've caught a few microsoft support threads where comments are removed left and right, something is going on and I'm frankly fuckin pissed

Wondering if anyone has had luck sending an invoice for data retrieval on corrupted drives

Is it possible to re partition my ms drive and make it just small enough for windows to work properly but it wont have space to do any auto update?

So i can update it when i want to?

Or is there another way to make win11 home stop forcing me updates?

Three days grace - I hate everything about Microsoft

Her old laptop, on which she surfs the web, plays solitaire, and streams her weekly church service came with Windows 8 and was faithfully kept updated through Windows 10. She started getting Windows Update notifications that she needed to update to Windows 11, but her system is not supported.

She had me shop around for the cheapest replacement I could find with comparable or better performance. I gave her a choice of 3, or I could install Linux and help her get comfortable with it.

She looked at the prices and said

> "I'm 90 years old and this thing still works well. Install Linux."

She's been daily driving Debian KDE for 9 months without a comment other than she likes the desktop wallpaper I picked and she's surprised how much faster it is.

Went to update the family computer. Only I have admin on it. It said it wasn't activated. I checked my emails from 3 years ago when I bought the computer, I paid for Windows. Windows was adamant, no license. It helpfully suggested I visit the MS store to buy a new one. I spent all evening searching the house and eventually found the card. Stuck the code in (really hard to read, with the hologram, and taking a picture is no better) anyway, much ro my relief it worked.

I resent the time I spent. Why did Microsoft delete the license key? Did they hope I'd have lost it after 3 years? Then I'd have to pay for a new one. Now I have it in my password manager so I won't have to hunt the card when Microsoft try this again.

I’m in the middle of setting up remote access software and then windows decides to fucking update. Fuckwits.

48GB RAM. >½ disk free. What else do Visual Studio and Windows 11 need to run smoothly? Fuck Microsoft 26300.

Friends, please tell me if anyone had something like in the 2nd photo - The desktop window manager is running, the cursor is there, the session isn't interrupted, but for some reason the screen goes gray for a while. This happens every few minutes, sometimes once an hour. Is this somehow related to Explorer Patcher, or is Windows Explorer acting up? This didn't happen a month ago, or even a few weeks ago. But I've been on 26300 since the end of August, now build 26300.9711 26h2... Thanks in advance for your ideas.

Fuck Microsoft. If I tell you to never restart the system it means to never restart the system. If I tell you I don't want to update then I don't want to fucking update. This device does not belong to you. Keep your automated, vibe coded, bullshit off of my machine.

If I wanted something to happen on my machine I would do it. No one asked for your bullshit.

That will be all.