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Hacker News·4 min read·hard

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

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

A new technical tool has been released to identify and remove Microsoft's Global Device Identifier (GDID) from Windows systems. The script aims to prevent the operating system from minting new identifiers, which have been linked to tracking user activity across local accounts.

Why it matters

This tool addresses growing privacy concerns regarding how Windows maintains persistent device tracking even on local, non-networked accounts.

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Research and practical hardening for Microsoft's Global Device Identifier (GDID) , a server-assigned installation identifier that Windows can acquire even when the interactive user has only a local account.

The repository documents the wider GDID lifecycle. The shipped degdid.ps1 has a narrower operational objective:

On a supported Windows target, remove real server-issued GDID state from the known local stores and keep the DeviceAdd path continuously blocked.

That is a GDID completion gate. It is not a general telemetry, browser-privacy, or court-record-channel suppression claim.

GDID is a server-assigned 64-bit Device PUID that Windows can mint through Microsoft's DeviceAdd infrastructure and retain across several local identity stores. A local Windows account does not prevent that machine-level mint.

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