Windows 10 got me deadlocked. The only winning move is not to play.

In a few weeks I'm starting my school over for the Fall semester and will have to use my laptop, upgraded to Windows 10, more often.

Microsoft's new privacy policies scared me to death and got me deadlocked in a dilemma.

Even though some settings can be disabled, or turned off, I don't trust a company coming out with a privacy policy sounding like this:

"Finally, we will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to: 1.comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies; 2.protect our customers, for example to prevent spam or attempts to defraud users of the services, or to help prevent the loss of life or serious injury of anyone; 3.operate and maintain the security of our services, including to prevent or stop an attack on our computer systems or networks; or 4.protect the rights or property of Microsoft, including enforcing the terms governing the use of the services – however, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property of Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer's private content ourselves, but we may refer the matter to law enforcement".

Problem

I did tweak all the settings that could be changed, but I still feel violated and spied when I use my laptop.

These features are only the ones we're aware of, but Windows is a closed-source system and we can't know what other functionalities can "phone home", because we can look under the hood only up to a certain extent.

I know Microsoft isn't the only company doing that, but it's the only one trying imposing me to share my Wi-Fi password with my contacts, and acting like Big Brother.

We're all ruined regardless, but if we just have to, I'd rather choose how. Microsoft doesn't even give you this choice.

Google as well tracks online searches and Gmail. For this reason, I started using DuckDuckGo.

Microsoft, though, does it in a much more subtle and insidious way, luring people with the high performance of the best Windows operating system ever released. The best move they've ever made is the "free" update.

It's the old drug dealer technique; they create a need and make you believe you can satisfy it for free. Later on, when you've been hooked up, here's the catch: you pay for it with your identity and your files. Just like Facebook, you handed your life over to Microsoft.

Have you seen the new Windows 10 commercial?  It shows reassuring images of kids, along with a slogan kinda: "Imagine. These kids won't have to remember passwords, or be obsessed about security, because they'll have Windows 10".

Yeah, Big Brother Microsoft.

I find this as scary as hell, honestly.

Scenarios

I have different possible scenarios I can look at, none of which is a viable solution to me:

• Revert to Windows 8.1: No way, dealing with Metro Interface again? Getting rid of that is the only good thing Microsoft has done. It would also mean going back to a poor performance.
• Utilize a local user: Some suggested this solution. Thanks to the new privacy policies, your files are no longer local, as they're automatically synced to OneDrive, which is good and bad. I like OneDrive, but that means all your stuff is there for Microsoft to scan it with a magnifying glass. No, thanks. If you need services such as vocal search, location services, etc., you can't use them with a local account. On the other hand, I'm not positive this stops Microsoft from getting your data regardless.
• Dual boot with Linux: I would love that, but my laptop came with UEFI, which makes a dual boot with Linux very complicated. New Windows computers have the Safe Boot functionality that prevents you from booting another OS, unless you workaround it (freedom of choice, hmm?). Regardless, UEFI makes a dual boot complicated because you need to tweak your Linux installation for UEFI to recognize it and sometimes, when things go South, Windows can't boot. Of course, the average user won't even get to boot from USB. By the way, dear Microsoft, why did you mess up with partitions this way?

Solution

The only winning move here is not to play.

I have a bunch of Linux bootable USB drives, so I'm going to boot from either of them (maybe using Tails, why not? Will go for the opposite extreme) and bye bye, Big Brother!

Once I start my classes, I'll know what specific distro I need.

As of now, I have at least four different options, each of them is by all means preferable to being violated 24/7.

8/18/2015 Update: Looks like my concerns were well justified: Windows 10 may send Microsoft data even when you tell it not to

2/28/2016 Update: I was finally able to realize an Elementary OS/Windows 10 dual boot. It feels so good not having to go through that hassle for me to have Linux on my laptop. My Windows 10 usage has been limited to 10 minutes in a month, when I had to submit a translation correction. Awesome!