it could be an issue related to intel RST drivers..

Here's how I block stuff on Win7.

Go to Internet Options in the control panel, and then the Security tab has a few icons for different "zones".

Click on Restricted and then "Sites", and add things there.

I've added apps.skype.com, vortex.data.microsoft.com, vortex-win.data.microsoft.com and settings-win.data.microsoft.com.. not sure if it's actually Windows sending stuff there or Visual Studio or whatever but it was irritating since they sent stuff all the time that showed up when I wanted to analyze network traffic.. Windows Update still works fine.

Another alternative is to go into Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts and add bogus IP addresses to those sites, like 127.0.0.1 to make them try to connect back to your local machine, or something non-existant.

The Internet Options are often overridden by programs that simply don't care about them (if they don't use standard Windows HTTP API but handle their sockets on their own).

hosts are generally not overridden unless there's a driver that ignores them or something like that.

Microsoft could of course ignore them but I doubt it.. they want everything to work behind business firewalls and stuff so they probably won't do anything more than send a standard HTTP request.

Not sure of new builds but Windows 10 was noticeably slower than Windows 8.1 Update 3 therefore I reverted back due to this and other reasons.

Clean install or in-place upgrade? As a general rule, in-place upgrades will always carry forward crap from the previous OS version, and are always noticeably slower than a clean install. This isn't specific to Windows 10 - it's been the case with every version as far back as I can remember.

Another alternative is to go into Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts and add bogus IP addresses to those sites, like 127.0.0.1 to make them try to connect back to your local machine, or something non-existant.

All of the dozens of Microsoft telemetry urls in the host file point to 127.0.0.1 on my machine! I'm guessing the host file is ignored.

All of the dozens of Microsoft telemetry urls in the host file point to 127.0.0.1 on my machine!blink.png I'm guessing the host file is ignored.

Wow.. didn't expect that. Did you try restricted sites?

If they are willing to override those settings then you can't do it reliably locally probably, but your router should have filters to block unwanted sites before sending them on to the internet.

If they change the IPs of the servers then it might be a bit more complicated to get it to auto-update the IP blocks.. or if Microsoft uses a different nameserver than the one in your settings you could block that.

Wow.. didn't expect that. Did you try restricted sites?

If they are willing to override those settings then you can't do it reliably locally probably, but your router should have filters to block unwanted sites before sending them on to the internet.

Not sure of new builds but Windows 10 was noticeably slower than Windows 8.1 Update 3 therefore I reverted back due to this and other reasons.

Clean install or in-place upgrade? As a general rule, in-place upgrades will always carry forward crap from the previous OS version, and are always noticeably slower than a clean install. This isn't specific to Windows 10 - it's been the case with every version as far back as I can remember.

I never upgrade an OS, not even Service Pack. I don't care much about booting time but Windows 10 was acting like 8.1 with bloatware. Also was annoyed of process of making Windows 10 usable ( disable automatic updates, defender, telemetry, bundled apps ... ) , finally gave up at ridiculous invisible window borders and no active window color ("fixed" later in a build afaik). So I will postpone update until the last day offer expires or they bring 8.1 style thick window borders.

Blocking any data sent to the MS servers would be (relatively) easy as long as you can find out what they are - but I'm sure someone will keep an updated list just as they do for adblockers. Doing this without breaking Update might be harder.

As for the claim these services use resources... technically yes but I very much doubt it's measurable. Far, far less than your virus-checker.

Blocking any data sent to the MS servers would be (relatively) easy as long as you can find out what they are - but I'm sure someone will keep an updated list just as they do for adblockers. Doing this without breaking Update might be harder.

As for the claim these services use resources... technically yes but I very much doubt it's measurable. Far, far less than your virus-checker.

At least your virus checker (supposedly) gives you some kind of value.

Blocking any data sent to the MS servers would be (relatively) easy as long as you can find out what they are - but I'm sure someone will keep an updated list just as they do for adblockers. Doing this without breaking Update might be harder.

As for the claim these services use resources... technically yes but I very much doubt it's measurable. Far, far less than your virus-checker.

At least your virus checker (supposedly) gives you some kind of value.