[daniel1212]

But even if one has a modern Windows O/S, and they have all the tweaks and addons progammed in, it's still Windows. MicroThief still owns your computer and can steal your info at any time. How does one counteract that? Genuinely curious.

No, whatever info MS gets would be due to my allowance. Search:

how to turn off all windows 11 telemetry

how to prevent certain Windows Updates

how to permanently turn off prevent disable windows updates [not recommend)

how to Completely Uninstall OneDrive

Meanwhile, to customize a Linus distro the way I can rather easily (mostly, and includes saving certain .reg file hacks) - if possible, has never warranted the time and energy (and I have installed all major and most leading minor distros.

[ducttape45]

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on one's views, I can't install W11 nor do I ever plan to. My machines won't support it.

My two main desktops all have W7, W10 and Linux Mint, tri-boot. It's a bit tricky but it can be done. W7 of course won't update except for a couple things (malicious software tool and a couple security updates monthly). I have a program to stop W10 from updating, plus I set the registry to prevent it from updating past the 1909 version of W10. That's as much as my systems will handle, and I uninstalled OneDrive on W10. I also turned off the telemetry in W10.

But I will keep this post bookmarked for future reference. Thank you for your help.