Windows: we noticed that you kept the useless search bar disabled since 2015, so we sent an update that re-enabled it without your permission
For my "convenience" and because in this way they can show ads and clickbait
Also: I SET A FUCKING GROUP POLICY THAT DISABLES THE SEARCH BAR; WHY THEY FUCKING IGNORE IT???
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If you have no choice but to use Windows download Microsoft 10 LTSC iot, lock down all policies and use Shutup10 and WPD to remove all telemetry. Blackbird can also block specific Windows 10 addresses that phone home but it's better to just get a third party firewall and block them because Blackbird can sometimes break things.
I also was able to remove Microsoft EDGE forever using this. Follow the steps exactly:
https://gist.github.com/ave9858/c3451d9f452389ac7607c99d45edecc6#file-uninstalledge-ps1
If an update you want forces edge back then just follow the steps again. If Edge "remnants" remain, use bulk crap uninstaller on any leftovers.
I've never had the search bar return or anything I didn't want to return on a locked down Windows 10 LTSC installation except Edge, and that's easy to remove. You can even turn off updates for a while if you want to, but I still update because you should.
If you have hardware that needs Windows 11, they're releasing an LTSC version of that, too soon.
And some people say Linux is the difficult one.
Even without any network connection at all, windows update will quietly revert system changes it doesn't like. You can go in as a trusted installer or whatever the highest user space auth is called these days, completely remove the execute permissions to windows system binaries, power down the system, and when you turn it back on again there's a chance that the permissions will revert.
At this point it is honestly a bit of a miracle that the windows update layer hasn't been hijacked for malware. Or maybe it has and we have no way of knowing.
Windows itself is malware
Ah yes. When your operating and spyware are the same thing.