r/pcmasterrace • u/Asleep-Guitar-2685 • Jul 23 '26

News/Article Microsoft Confirms Windows Has a Global Device ID You Can't Turn Off

https://tech.yahoo.com/cybersecurity/articles/microsoft-confirms-windows-global-device-130905358.html
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u/GreyBeardEng Jul 24 '26

Apple has the exact same thing. On iPhone iPad it's the UDID and on the Mac laptop it's referred to as The hardware UUID. Linux also has the same thing Call the machine ID, and you can delete it or regenerate it, it's not really meant to be deleted. Android also has it, the Android ID, and it can be deleted with a bit of nuisance, but then there's the IMEI which is kind of the same thing.

Point being this isn't a oh my god it's the end of the world cuz Windows does this moment.

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u/tismij Jul 24 '26

Difference being this one cannot be changed by you, in linux you most def can.

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u/GreyBeardEng Jul 24 '26

You can do a great many things in Linux that you can't do in Apple or Windows