Securing Privacy on Windows 10? Can it Be Done?

Is anyone aware of a credible and comprehensive guide (or tool) to secure Windows 10 for privacy sake and minimize or, better yet, nullify phoning home to Redmond?

I've been running Windows 7 since it was first released and have been pleased and familiar with its privacy controls, but I am buying a new laptop and am willing to finally give Windows 10 a chance :) . In the years following 10's release I've seen no shortage of published concerns about the OS's propensity to chat back to MS. Are there any free/ paid tools, scripts, or articles which explain how to cut the cord, so to speak?

Thanks in advance!
Much appreciated and happy New Year!

O&O ShutUp10++ means you have full control over privacy by deciding which unwanted functions should be deactivated.

O&O ShutUp10++: Free antispy tool for Windows 10 and 11

FreeBooter said:

O&O ShutUp10++ means you have full control over privacy by deciding which unwanted functions should be deactivated.

O&O ShutUp10++: Free antispy tool for Windows 10 and 11

Perfect, thanks FreeBooter, that seems to be just what I'm looking for :) .

You are very welcome!

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the latest version of Windows 10 20H2 and above causes the telemetry (Device Management Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Push message Routing Service) to turn itself automatically to ON after a few hours! It will log an error in event viewer that the dmwappushservice was disabled. This is one of the services MS uses to send your telemetry data.

Microsoft has programmed the latest version of Windows 10 so that O&O ShutUp10++ no longer works and the telemetry returns back to default. I have contacted their support and they say they are working on a fix but can't say when.

I returned back to Windows 10 Pro 1903 fresh install last month and used Specify Target to remain at the final build of 1903. With this version telemetry remains disabled.

If you want to be absolutely certain that telemetry will be properly disabled I suggest you get the Enterprise version of Windows 10. At least there are no restrictions there on telemetry disabling.

I have been using "Spybot Anti Beacon" since W7 days, the telemetry still seems to be blocked and I'm on 21H2

Does "telemetry" here refer to "Connected User Experiences and Telemetry"?

BLaZiNgSPEED said:

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the latest version of Windows 10 20H2 and above causes the telemetry (Device Management Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Push message Routing Service) to turn itself automatically to ON after a few hours!

This is yet another reason not to accept Windows updates.

Windows doesn't get better with updates. It only gets worse.

Check out the DNS redirect called Pi-Hole, There's a few good guides for setting up pi-hole. If you take $30 and get a raspberry pi, you can dedicate one to the purpose, lots of videos on youtube for getting it online and then adding millions of "rules" by network experts who want privacy. Think of it as a black list for IP's that serve advertising, marketing and all the IP's that would normally receive your telemetry data.

The real beauty of this is once hooked to your router, it's network wide, all devices on your home network, all phone apps, amazon devices, roku, computers, etc, they all get directed to the shitcan if they attempt to contact one of the known tracking IP's.

One of the big surprises I found is how often Roku devices attempt to log behavior data. It's about every 3 seconds, but after pi-hole, it never gets served, the device "thinks" it did it's job, but the pi-hole directs into a void. Because of this, it's also saving you bandwidth because you're not forced to deliver bullshit IP's. The request just gets dumped in the hole before the router has to serve it.. This is also a great tool to shutdown commercials across many platforms. I have an app I play chess with on my phone that had ads on the bottom, as soon as pihole was turned on, ads gone. Facebook apps from the wife and guests all have telemetry bullshit get vanished. Also while you're messing with network settings, force all guests to use guest network so they can't see other devices. Facebook apps are now scanning local networks to map out traffic from other devices and know what you have in your house. This is nullified if the guest using facebook connected to the "guest" network instead of the normal wifi.