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Deletes all instances of Microsoft's GDID and prevents minting of new ones

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Re: Deletes all instances of Microsoft's GDID and prevents minting of new ones

#41

Post by jorl17 »

userbinator wrote: post #15

"The mutation path", "the fully lab-validated line. Other accepted builds warn.", "Status can still inspect", "command, verdict, exit code", "device-identity rehydrate sources", "the network gate", "real-shaped PUID"? WTF. That was extremely difficult to read. I'm assuming it's LLMese (I've had less trouble with reading the writing of ESL'ers), but one of the strangest dialects of it I've ever seen. It has the flavou…

It's missing a couple of wrinkles, surfaces, belt-and-suspenders, belt-and-braces, knobs, no-ops, "things that narrate", bookkeeping, stranded sessions, "the gate leads the arrangement", shit-gated, "to be wired after we've dealt with the parked features", "that's not the whole story", "the interface wants classes", slots and "whatever-backed interfaces".

All of this is enhanced claude-era vocabulary minted at the pool-of-efficiency, built as a de-facto evolution of legacy-style language.

Humans and their comment postambles, amirite?

(Here's a literal quote from a claude session: "After the f-war, the evidence itself stops lying."

I don't understand why companies are not focusing more on making these highly intelligent models speak a decent language. Maybe they are, and they're failing. But the last few months have made it pretty difficult to engage with these highly intelligent assistants.)

Re: Deletes all instances of Microsoft's GDID and prevents minting of new ones

#42

Post by buzer »

exceptione wrote: post #13

> Court reporting in 2026 established that Microsoft held a GDID-to-URL/time/IP association in one investigation. Afaik, this is illegal under GDPR, as an IP has been classified as a personal identifier.

Storing IP address itself is not illegal. The questions are:

1) what is the legal basis for storing it and if that's proper or not (e.g. legitimate interest requires balancing test)

2) if proper GDPR Article 13 notice was given and it covers that processing

3) if all Article 5 principals are being followed in regards to it (e.g. data minimization, retention period etc.)

4) if Microsoft had legal basis to transfer the data to police (they probably did, that's not high bar to clear)

Re: Deletes all instances of Microsoft's GDID and prevents minting of new ones

#43

Post by Melatonic »

hypfer wrote: post #2

Wouldn't it make more sense to instead use the same GDID on thousands of hosts? Or a random GDID on each read? No GDID sounds like it sticks out a lot more.

Or just have the option of any of these

Same GDID would pollute the data for Microsoft if enough people did it. Which would also incentivise a fix or another way to differentiate.

Random GDID would likely be the most "security through obscurity" approach but still allow tracking per "session" or whatever time period it changed in.

No GDID could stick out more and if enough people did it also incentivise a fix.

Hard to say which is best but I also like another persons suggestion of random GDID assigned at boot. Or maybe no GDID by default with the option to spoof a random GDID manually

Re: Deletes all instances of Microsoft's GDID and prevents minting of new ones

#45

Post by Melatonic »

Retr0id wrote: post #25
cadamsdotcom wrote: post #18

Sharing in the hope it helps even one person on the fence to convert. C. 2012 I swore never to use Windows again, and I've managed it! It is possible - macOS is really good (you'll have to unlearn your muscle memory of the Ctrl key) and Linux gaming has come a long way. If using Windows professionally, consider installing it in a VM on your mac or linux box, then asking your agent to set up scripts that remote to to…

> you'll have to unlearn your muscle memory of the Ctrl key There is another option, which is to use Karabiner to revert to PC-like shortcuts. Learning the mac way is probably better if you plan to use mac exclusively, but I was triple-wielding macos+windows+linux for a period and I wanted my muscle memory to work across all of them.

Aren't a lot kg the mac ones just Command plus the same button ? My brain has learned pretty well to code switch between OS at this point.

It's actually really too bad MacOS doesn't have some of the windows key shortcuts like "windows key + arrow key". Would be super useful.

Re: Deletes all instances of Microsoft's GDID and prevents minting of new ones

#46

Post by Melatonic »

jerhewet wrote: post #33
LoganDark wrote: post #7

Windows has a hardcoded list of Microsoft domain names that entirely bypass the hosts file. I see nothing about this, so I would assume there is no countermeasure here. Curiously, this approach appears to have been tested as working anyway.

Adguard Home running on a Raspberry Pi. Point your router at it for DNS, works like a charm. Two years now, and it consistently blocks 48% to 54% of all the trash, including _all_ Microsoft domains.

Unless they just hardcode an IP to their DNS server of choice or even hardcode an IP to a specific Microsoft tracking host

Re: Deletes all instances of Microsoft's GDID and prevents minting of new ones

#47

Post by Melatonic »

nixosbestos wrote: post #16

Fun story, when my ex and I split a few years ago, I wiped all connections of my Microsoft account to the machine I built him. Last week, when I logged into my Microsoft account, I had an extra machine with a funny name. Checking some logs, sure enough that was the hostname he gave that machine. Realized what had happened, refreshed the page, and it was gone. The URL parameter for these devices in the Microsoft Accou…

You sure it wasn't one of the other UID numbers that have been in use longer ?

Re: Deletes all instances of Microsoft's GDID and prevents minting of new ones

#48

Post by ptrl600 »

userbinator wrote: post #15

"The mutation path", "the fully lab-validated line. Other accepted builds warn.", "Status can still inspect", "command, verdict, exit code", "device-identity rehydrate sources", "the network gate", "real-shaped PUID"? WTF. That was extremely difficult to read. I'm assuming it's LLMese (I've had less trouble with reading the writing of ESL'ers), but one of the strangest dialects of it I've ever seen. It has the flavou…

Probably every language at once being expressed in the syntax of English.

Re: Deletes all instances of Microsoft's GDID and prevents minting of new ones

#49

Post by userbinator »

jorl17 wrote: post #41
userbinator wrote: post #15

"The mutation path", "the fully lab-validated line. Other accepted builds warn.", "Status can still inspect", "command, verdict, exit code", "device-identity rehydrate sources", "the network gate", "real-shaped PUID"? WTF. That was extremely difficult to read. I'm assuming it's LLMese (I've had less trouble with reading the writing of ESL'ers), but one of the strangest dialects of it I've ever seen. It has the flavou…

It's missing a couple of wrinkles, surfaces, belt-and-suspenders, belt-and-braces, knobs, no-ops, "things that narrate", bookkeeping, stranded sessions, "the gate leads the arrangement", shit-gated, "to be wired after we've dealt with the parked features", "that's not the whole story", "the interface wants classes", slots and "whatever-backed interfaces". All of this is enhanced claude-era vocabulary minted at the po…

You'd think that LLMs are trained on human writing, so they should sound human to some extent, but I've never come across a real human writing like that.

The last time I tried ChatGPT, it had the tone of "bland, attempting-to-be-helpful-but-stupid corporate HR person", which is annoying but still much more human-sounding than this mess.

Re: Deletes all instances of Microsoft's GDID and prevents minting of new ones

#50

Post by userbinator »

happosai wrote: post #14
hypfer wrote: post #2

Wouldn't it make more sense to instead use the same GDID on thousands of hosts? Or a random GDID on each read? No GDID sounds like it sticks out a lot more.

Trying to make windows work differently than what Microsoft wants is a losing proposition. It would make more sense just not use windows to begin with.

Vibe-coding a sufficiently compatible replacement seems increasingly possible. ReactOS and WINE can either get on board, or if they still try their IP pearl-clutching, I suspect they'll be replaced by something else. Bonus points for using Copilot to do it.
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