FlashBoot: Install Privacy-Enabled Windows 10/11 to USB Thumbdrive

With FlashBoot Pro, you can install Windows 10/11 to USB thumbdrive with two types of privacy improvements (enabled independently of each other):

1) Privacy tweaks in Windows Registry. These are officially documented by Microsoft and by vendors of third party tools. These registry options are supposed to make Windows 10/11 phone home less. In our traffic recording experiments, they reduced Windows 10/11 background connections, though they didn’t eliminate such connections entirely.

2) Privacy Enhancing DNS Proxy. This lightweight service can block the following types of unwanted Windows 10/11 network activity, based on your preferences.

• Windows builtins: Telemetry, Windows Update, MS Defender and SmartScreen, Cloud Logon & MDM Enrollment, Windows Push Notifications, Windows Store, Parental Control and MS Licensing.
• Separate products: Cortana and Speech API, XBox, Zune and Groove, Cloud Graphics Apps, MS Edge, MS Wallet, Skype, OneDrive, MS Office 365.
• Miscellaneous: Remote Access / Remote Help, MS Cloud Search, MS Maps and Location Services, MS News, Weather and Ads

If you tick all checkboxes within this option, this will make Windows 10/11 stop phoning home completely. That is, you can make Windows 10/11 completely quiet on the Internet — if you want to. This was confirmed in our traffic recording experiments.

1) FlashBoot Pro, click Next:

2) Choose "Full OS -> USB" in the the Main Menu:

3) Choose "Windows 8.x/10/11 (for UEFI-based computers) with privacy improvements" or "Windows 8.x/10/11 (for BIOS-based computers) with privacy improvements" in this menu and click Next:

4) Specify ISO image file (or DVD disc, or ESD image file) of Windows setup and click Next:

5) Choose whether a portable OS running from a USB device should or should not have access to local fixed disks (such as SATA, NVMe, IDE etc) and click Next:

6) Choose privacy improvement options and click Next:

7) The following page is displayed only for Windows 11. With FlashBoot, you can skip creation of online account during the first boot of Windows 11 from the target USB storage device.

8) If necessary, change volume label, or leave it as is, and click Next:

9) Specify target USB storage device and click Next:

10) Check summary information and click Format Now:

11) Wait for process completion:

12) Bootable USB storage device is ready to use. Click OK to exit:

How to update privacy options after installing Windows 10/11

If you later change your mind about what types of Windows Internet activity should be blocked, e.g. you decide to install Skype, then you can update these settings through Control Panel using "Privacy Enhancing DNS Proxy" applet: