All this is troubling, what will you suggest? Is there a strategy?

With new big update of Windows 10 Microsoft reenabled tracking for users who disable it

Diagnostics Tracking Service (DiagTrack) had been redone and renamed into Connected User Experiences and Telemetry to avoid big press coverage.

Note - Microsoft is now expected to deliver new tracking services with usual weekly updates.

Huh, above posted updates also have code to ignore blocks made using hosts file changes.

Not only this, but not long ago Microsoft stopped actually using setting preventing participation in their "quality improvement" things. You can turn it off, but it still will send data.

I think we are on the verge of something big. As they started to act openly and with huge pressure.

Microsoft started to backport telemetry to older versions and distribute it via updates

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3075249

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080149

Over 67 million people have already downloaded it.... What about Tor browser? Would Windows 10 be able to override the anonymity? For emails, there's a way to encrypt apparently? Never done it. But is there also a way to encrypt the files on your hard drive as well?

Perhaps the media is just now getting interested that the overall privacy issue has been reframed in a manner which the general public can understand.

Does anyone have experience with the efficacy of this tool? They claim to disable 37 spying mechanisms. Is this enough to return to a windows 8 level of privacy?

http://pxc-coding.com/de/portfolio/donotspy10/

Zvláštní situace nastává, pokud kdekoliv ve Windows 10 napíšete jméno nějakého známého amerického filmu. Windows 10 začnou samy od sebe po určité chvíli hledat na vašem disku ve složce s médii soubory a indexovat je. Indexovaný soubor je poté anonymně odeslán na tyto servery zhruba do 30 minut při nečinnosti počítače, nepodařilo se mi periodu přesně zjistit:

A special situation occurs if anywhere in Windows 10 you type the name of a famous American film. Windows 10 will start by itself after some time to look at your hard drive in a folder with media files and index them. Indexed file is then anonymously sent to those servers to about 30 minutes when the computer is idle, I was unable to accurately determine the period of:

http://aeronet.cz/news/analyza-windows-10-ve-svem-principu-jde-o-pouhy-terminal-na-sber-informaci-o-uzivateli-jeho-prstech-ocich-a-hlasu/

I think it is first source (some reprints exist)

Why is it that Windows users seem to hate each and every MS update? (apart from the search on computer for films - isnt that illegal?)

I think it has nothing to do with hating updates.

If company install keylogger and send all your chats, searches, file lists and such to the servers where as they state they can sell this information or provide to any authorities - it is not "hating update".

Such approach actually began on mobile platforms, where OS authors under pretense if helping to learn your habits started to send all your voice commends, searches, calendar, contacts etc

It is big business and US government ask for this also :-)

WIndows 10 also knows most US/UK films and if you type film name it tries to find any possible files on HDD and after finding them send information to Microsoft, including file names, hash and such, so later you can be charged with copyright infringement.

that's exactly what i was looking for. an OS that is compatible with all windows apps. but as usual, these projects are always delayed because of limited funding. it's still in beta or alpha or whatever. i'm not holding my breath.

Some other details.

All drivers in Windows 10 must be signed with EV certificates, it makes signing for small developers very costly and hard (it involves hardware and such). You also must provide binaries of any drivers to Microsoft (and it is big issue for many closed projects). Leaks now become super dangerous as such certificates are enough to make malicious UEFI bios modules.

BitLocker encryption key since Windows 10 is being sent to Microsoft servers now.

License agreement also gives Microsoft power to disable functioning of any connected devices (stopping their drivers from working), as they decide necessary.