What are your thoughts on the GDID identifier in windows?

neemobeer · Jul 29, 2026

That tracking data isn't supposed to be tied to a human identity, but it likely is easily inferred which human identity is associated to which GDID especially if you use any Microsoft linked account, which is clearly what Microsoft has been trying to force down everyone's throats. I would completely agree that privacy is mote as long as you use any SaaS product which is damn near everything these days is cloud connected.

Marie SWE · Jul 29, 2026

What is it Microsoft use to state... all telemetry will be anonymized before sent to microsoft.

This GDID is all the way back to the release of win10..
So its just now that it has been exposed that the telemetry is not anonymized..
But as i posted on 10forums when i made a few new friends.. "win10spyware" and then i listed things that was copy pasted from Microsoft user agreement, privacy policy and data collection policy.. (about 20 A4 pages to read give or take a few) and some people called me tinfoil hat, conspiracy and even that i pushed disinformation.

So my thoughts about this is still as back then.. win10/11spyware so I'm not surprised a bit as i have been saying this for years. :lmao:

So welcome to the reality folks.

PS. I'm not sorry he got caught and as i said somewhere else.... He was not a real hacker as then he hadn't used windows so carelessly. DS.

glasskuter · Jul 29, 2026

You ask for my thoughts. They won't be popular with all the MS conspiracy theorizers but they're mine and I'm entitled to them just as they are entitled to theirs.

I do not think Microsoft is "out to get" anyone. As for as tracking me, identifiers, giving info about me over to the authorities, etc, I believe it is only someone who has something to hide who would get overly bent out of shape about it.

Ghot · Jul 29, 2026

Marie SWE · Jul 29, 2026

glasskuter said:
I believe it is only someone who has something to hide who would get overly bent out of shape about it.

So journalists, whistleblowers, freedom activists, people living in dictator countries is okay to hunt down then?

XxXxX · Jul 29, 2026

i think there maybe a bit of misunderstanding on the function of the GDID
it is not only used to ID a computer from other computers but is also used for region ID
DRM ID, language ID and other system pointers for that particular system.

it could be used for tracking but that wasn't its purpose, until someone did.
so instead of trying to disable/block the systems GDID you could spoof it
just like you can with a MAC address.

what is actually on your computer can be, shall we say, adjusted to look like something else other the what it actually is.

please note these are just my thoughts, nothing more.
best of luck Steve ..

Marie SWE · Jul 29, 2026

XxXxX said:
so instead of trying to disable/block the systems GDID you could spoof it
just like you can with a MAC address.

*thinking* :think:

i think you cant spoof that one.. if you change it in the registry it will be restored on next reboot... (if i understood another deep digger right.. and i have not have a reason to dig into it as i killed all outgoing traffic to MS)

XxXxX · Jul 29, 2026

Marie SWE said:
*thinking* i think you cant spoof that one.. if you change it in the registry it will be restored on next reboot... (if i understood another deep digger right.. and i have not have a reason to dig into it as i killed all outgoing traffic to MS)

maybe your thoughts on this ..

https://whatismyipaddress.com/mac-address-spoofing

and please i dont wish to get in to technical
best of luck Steve .

Marie SWE · Jul 29, 2026

XxXxX said:
maybe your thoughts on this ..

https://whatismyipaddress.com/mac-address-spoofing

and please i dont wish to get in to technical
best of luck Steve .

No I'm not thinking on Mac addresses(networking).. i spoof that on daily bases.

No i will not ask you to go technical,

..i do my own research when i need facts and information.

My post was just a reaction, not a question.

Marie SWE · Jul 29, 2026

for anyone that want to look.
Reg key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\IdentityCRL\ExtendedProperties\LID

and to extract the GDID number in powershell

Powershell:

$lid = (Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\IdentityCRL\ExtendedProperties' -ErrorAction Stop).LID
"g:$([Convert]::ToUInt64($lid, 16))"

glasskuter · Jul 29, 2026

@Marie SWE I was speaking about me and my data. MS is welcome to give what they have on me to any law enforcement they please. I have no doubt that anything I do is of interest to anyone.

Regarding those factions you mentioned, it would depend on how the laws of each country are written on how and when tracking can be used and I have absolutely no idea exactly what the law says either here or elsewhere. Surely, there's a line in the sand that says how the tracking can be used.. I'm just glad the law in my country allows the use of tracking for criminal, terrorism, and espionage investigations.

Big Brother has been watching in one way or another for my entire life and way before. Wars have been won and lost due to agencies like MI6, FBI, CIA, KGB, Mossad, etc, etc. Now this hi-tech world came along.
People who take risks have never been 100% protected from being watched. It is the nature of the jobs they choose to do or causes they represent. It's just easier for them to be watched and caught now. Maybe those factions you mentioned should turn from the web and be like the Code Talkers who helped the Allies win WWII. (Code Talkers were Native Americans who spoke different dialects, They created their own code in different Indian languages that was never broken) I'm not trying to be facetious. Just saying the world and the people in it have to adapt to the by-product of the new world in which we live.

Marie SWE · Jul 29, 2026

Hi @glasskuter

Okay i took that sentence as a general opinion about everyone.

Then i misunderstood and I'm sorry

I have been one of those that been fighting for the right to privacy/anonymity online since the mid 90's and i help people how to achieve it.... but i dont help criminals.. i help get those when i have the opportunity.

So the privacy subject is kind of close to home when it popup both IRL and online.
I hate the term many use.. "I have nothing to hide" When our beloved politicians said that, we ask them eye to eye if we could look thru their phones photos, sms, mms, phone-book etc etc... then they said no as its private. *LOL* :boom:

glasskuter · Jul 29, 2026

Marie SWE said:
i help people how to achieve it.... but i dont help criminals.

But how do you know you don't help the bad guy?

Marie SWE · Jul 29, 2026

glasskuter said:
But how do you know you don't help the bad guy?

First of all i dont just help random people i never talked with before... For people like that... or lets be personal and say 99% of all members in here and over at 10forums.. then i just give them a recommendation where to look for information.
Second of all.. i dont work for free, so that cut out the majority of people online as people want things for free in life. :wink:

Edit.. and i dont accept bitcoin/ethereum as i have bookkeeping to think of... criminals dont like if they cant pay anonymously.

glasskuter · Jul 30, 2026

@Marie SWE Here's the way I look at it. In 36 short years the powers that be (W3C) worked and succeeded to get the WWW in control of the world and people let them; allthewhile loving everything about the shiney new object and we wanted more of it. The W3C kept giving us more, bit by bit gaining more and more control.

Now little guys cry foul. "We want this part of it, but not that part." Well, that's not the way it works. While it's admirable for one to have a cause he is passionate about and will fight for, some things are lost causes in the grand scheme of things. I'm a hard realist. I believe for every step forward in this fight there will always be 3 steps back because the odds are, and have always been, stacked. But maybe a WWW miracle will happen because that's what it would take now for the entire world to have 100% privacy/anonymity online.

If one wants to see what real power looks like, all one needs to do is look at the 330 members of the W3C. Yes, there are some smaller players there, but ALL the big boys are on the list so common sense tells which of the 330 members has the most influence to suit their own purposes.

kelper · Jul 30, 2026

So, if a hacker creates a VM to do his dirty deeds and then deletes the VM, he won't be trackable as the GDID will be different every time.

XxXxX · Jul 30, 2026

kelper said:
So, if a hacker creates a VM to do his dirty deeds and then deletes the VM, he won't be trackable as the GDID will be different every time.

no, as the GDID is transmitted from the system
if you are using a VM it is still running as a guest on the main system so the GDID will still be transmitted ID'ing the computer.

you would have to spoof the GDID directly thereby transmitting a spoofed GDID from the source
similar to using a random MAC. i beleive work in and by the OSC is already underway.

that is my understanding at this time.
best of luck Steve ..

Monika1491 · Jul 30, 2026

XxXxX said:
no, as the GDID is transmitted from the system
if you are using a VM it is still running as a guest on the main system so the GDID will still be transmitted ID'ing the computer.

you would have to spoof the GDID directly thereby transmitting a spoofed GDID from the source
similar to using a random MAC. i beleive work in and by the OSC is already underway.

that is my understanding at this time.
best of luck Steve ..

The guest sends its GDID.
The virtual machine sends its GDID.
No need to spoof the GDID.

Stokes made three major mistakes:
1) He didn't have Windows communication with Microsoft servers disabled.
2) He used one account (one GDID) for both illegal and regular activity.
3) He had optional telemetry set up in Windows and Edge, and he used Edge for web activity. The FBI knew when the attacker logged into the VPN site. All they had to do was ask Microsoft if they had a visit to a certain URL in their telemetry data at a certain time... It had... With a certain GDID... And then they had to find out all the telemetry data for that GDID. And there was a lot of interesting telemetry data based on point 2.

andrew129260 · Jul 30, 2026

I also want to add to make sure everyone is not confusing this with GUID.

GDID is different from GUID

GDID was only recently uncovered in windows 11.

This is interesting as well:

GitHub - SmtimesIWndr/gdid-reversal

Contribute to SmtimesIWndr/gdid-reversal development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Windows GDID: How to Block It Without Breaking Everything

Learn what Windows GDID is, why it appears, and how to block it with DNS or services without fully breaking Microsoft account access.

www.it-connect.tech

What are your thoughts on the GDID identifier in windows?

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