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And this is treated as a bad thing?!
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Send only info about your device, its settings and capabilities, and whether it is performing properly.
In other words, even after turning off all the settings, your data still gets collected.
The rest of the installation process wasn't fun either. It was worded in this weird, condescending tone, like "Let's get everything set up for you", and "Let Cortana help you get things done!".
Thank goodness for FLOSS and GNU/Linux.
I have been seriously considering creating a “graphical registry editor” that would be feature-focused and could be both portable (for one-off application) and installable (for constant on-login resetting of any changed preferences). Just open it up, browse the offerings, select the feature mods you want, apply and restart.
There is a lot of File Explorer shit that you can do to mod it back to WinXP days. Had to do this to a Win11 install for my Octogenarian father who has become very intolerant of unexpected changes, and while it needs regular maintenance to “keep”, it has worked out well for him.
That would be pretty handy especially if it could reapply each update. The lock screen merely existing is another. I want my first keypress to be the first letter of my password, not sliding up a screen that serves no purpose and is a pain even on phones. Really there are so many small things they did over the years to make a genuinely worse experience that I can't even list them all. This week's unapproved update after a few without windows running even once made edge the default browser again. First boot after windows hiatus initiating update reboot loop immediately without even logging in is also concerning.