How To Stop Windows 11 Harvesting Your Data

They call it 'Connected Experience.' Yeah, right.

Microsoft turned the Windows 11 operating system into a data harvesting machine. That’s what it now is, in June 2026, and I’m pretty sure I’m not blowing smoke.

Windows 11 is a product we own, sure, but it’s morphed into a service designed to extract behavioural data, drive cloud subscriptions, and feed us advertisements through the core infrastructure most of the world depends on to work.

The shift happened slowly. Windows 10 started it. Windows 11 accelerated it. By the 22H2 update (mid-2022), Microsoft had woven so much telemetry, cloud integration, and tracking into the fabric of the OS that using Windows meant accepting constant surveillance as the cost of entry.

I watched it happen, and it bugged me more and more. I expected the PC operating system I depend on o be neutral infrastructure, not a tollbooth where Microsoft extracts dollars from every keystroke I make.

I run a business from this machine. My files, my work, my client data all live here. The idea that Microsoft’s automated systems are indexing my documents, scanning for ‘opportunities’ to surface through cloud services, checking my searches against their advertising profiles. That crossed a line I wasn’t willing to accept.

I guess many readers are in the same boat.

It’s damn hard to opt out. Windows is non-negotiable for most of us. It’s where the software lives. It’s what our clients run. We can’t just switch. We’re trapped.

Here’s what’s actually happening. Our browsing habits flow into Bing and Copilot infrastructure. Our files get scanned by automated AI systems. Our search queries, our clicks, our work patterns all feed into Microsoft’s cloud endpoints. Even when we’re offline, background processes queue up telemetry requests ready to ship the moment the network comes back.

The justification we’re fed is ‘necessary infrastructure data’ and ‘connected experience.’

I get that Microsoft needs to know my hardware configuration, my driver versions, whether my system crashes. That’s true. That data keeps Windows stable and the updates stay relevant.

But Microsoft didn’t stop there. They kept going. Behavioural telemetry. Usage patterns. Document indexing. Cloud integration that you never asked for. They buried the useful stuff under layers of surveillance so thick that disabling one tracking mechanism means hunting through seven settings menus to find the next one.

Worse, they treat our privacy settings as temporary suggestions. Major Windows updates revert them back to factory defaults. Edge reasserts itself as our default browser. OneDrive reinserts itself into our boot sequence. It’s a strategy.

Basically, we lost control and we accepted that as a cost of using Windows 11.

For most soloists and small business owners, Windows isn’t optional. Our software runs on it. Our clients expect it. We can’t just walk away or switch to MacOS or Linux. We’re trapped in a relationship where Microsoft holds the leverage.

But here’s the thing: we can actually fix this.

We can fix this without switching operating systems or wiping the machine clean. We fix it by being deliberate about what stays and what goes. Keep the infrastructure telemetry that actually keeps the system stable. Ditch the behavioural surveillance. Replace Edge with Firefox. Disconnect OneDrive. Swap Microsoft 365 for LibreOffice. These are moderate, sensible steps that reclaim the PC without breaking it.

These aren’t extreme measures. They’re moderate, sensible steps that reclaim our PCs without breaking them.

I wrote a step-by-step guide that walks you through each change. Browser replacement, file disconnection, telemetry minimisation, DNS-level blocking. The whole thing takes about three hours spread across a week.

If you’re reading this article before 30 June, scroll to the bottom for a 100% early-bird discount.

After you’re done, your machine still updates safely. Your software still works normally. Microsoft can still identify hardware bugs before they hit you. But the behavioural data collection stops.

Our files stay ours. Our searches stay private. Our PCs stop reporting back on everything you do.

We own our infrastructure again.

The ‘on-prem’ series is about taking back control of the tools you depend on. It starts here. Next, we’ll tackle Google. Because you didn’t lose control of just Windows. You lost control of search, email, cloud storage, analytics. The entire stack.

But you can reclaim it. One step at a time.

P.S. Use this link to grab your copy. 100% discount (ie, free) for the first 10 to grab it. This discount ends midnight 30 June, so get your copy now.