To add to what everyone’s saying since it hasn’t been mentioned (as far as I’ve seen): You can probably disable TPM 2.0 in your BIOS once you re-install Windows 10 so Windows Update will think your PC is incompatible with Windows 11.

I dunno what the security implications are but it’s been working really well for me so far.

I didn’t know about the whole Nord sending data to Google thing wtf. That immediately puts them on my shit list.

Yeah cash in snail mail is probably not the smartest haha. I personally use a card on Mullvad for the convenience alone - piracy isn’t illegal here and their no logs policy is good enough for my use case but it being an option tells me they take that stuff seriously at the very least which is why I mentioned it.

Please reply here if you find the other one that lets you send cash. I’m loving Mullvad so far but it’s always good to have options.

This. For most people, they either hated the 3.0 update (assuming 2010), or hated the enshittification after 3.2.2 (assuming 2012).

Mullvad seems to be the go-to if you want privacy (although no one thing is 100% private if you wanna go down that rabbit hole). No personal info requried, not even email. They claim no logs and they have gotten raided once and cops found nothing. I believe you can even mail them cash anonymously for a sub. Flat fee of €5/mo ($5.19/mo US) - you can pay for a single month or buy in bulk, costs the same either way.

Windscribe is another good option. More of your run of the mill VPN that seems to be well reviewed. Their free tier gives you 10GB/mo so you can see if it’s right for you (although torrents may not work - I don’t remember for sure). You can easily snag a whole year for $30 US as it goes on discount a lot.

Personally used both of these and haven’t had much to complain about. Both have great apps for almost every platform, tons of locations to choose from, torrenting works, and Netflix works (for the most part). Speeds also seem solid but I do have crap tier internet. Reviews seem to agree though.

Of course do your own research, don’t just take my word for it. People also seem to like NordVPN but I can’t really speak to that.

Edit: Nord sends data to Google apparently so that’s a big no.

Not an 'awk an orc. Not a flying 'awk, one of em ground orcs

Sad but true. At least it’s gonna be funny watching the same companies that went overboard and removed the harmless instances just to virtue signal do a complete 180 and allow genuinely hateful content on their platforms.

Also add Community to that list. Can’t watch the DnD episode on Netflix anymore because there’s a gag about Chang’s unfortunate dark elf cosplay looking like black face.