The irony here is that you will get NVIDIA (and AMD) drivers vendored through Windows Update automatically by default. These work fine for 3D acceleration, and don't install GFE or require an account.

You'll just be a few versions behind, not sure what their release cadence is for this. But as far as I know this is a net positive to the Windows PC user and potentially eliminates needing to deal with GFE/Adrenalin as long as you are satisfied with the builds Microsoft is shipping you.

Except the telemetry service was moved into the drivers in 2016, and isn’t a part of GFE any more.

:-/

>Windows has really become a big bag of certified malware and adware.

This 100%. I would include Azure too.

I actively try not to use Windows every time I get a chance. I am so glad a company like Apple exists. I agree Apple might not be 100% right on privacy but they are pretty darn close that I a live with.

I actually was racking my brain since I haven't seen any major nvidia callouts on my DNS block, but I use a 3090.

Then I remembered I game in linux, on steam.