yup it's bones

They have a Global Device Identifier (GDID) Tracker that functions as a fingerprint for your PC that can surpass VPNs, proxy servers and countries. Although it can't survive a clean reinstall of Windows (it can survive updates), because Microsoft forces you to go to the internet and log in into a Microsoft account, they will be able to get to you.

Microsoft kept it secret and it was only found out when the FBI tracked a hacker thanks to the information Microsoft gave them.

You should be paying attention to this, and possibly consider moving away from Windows. If a government, especially the US government, doesn't like you for some reason, this could be seriously concerning.

This article specifically notes:

For journalism, activism, or domestic abuse situations, skip Windows and use Linux routed through Tor instead of a commercial VPN. A GDID doesn’t care which VPN you use, only that it’s still the same Windows installation.

Other important quotes:

What has researchers uneasy is everything else the case reveals. Costin Raiu, a well-known malware researcher, asked on the Three Buddy Problem podcast how much of this exists on other platforms, and whether it is linked more permanently to hardware. Matthew Hickey, another security researcher, called Windows “surveillance software”.

Two things back that up:

There’s no consent screen. A GDID gets assigned when you sign into a Microsoft Account. Apple’s advertising identifier needs an App Tracking Transparency prompt and a visible reset; Android’s works the same way. GDID has neither, and a Windows reinstall only gets you a new number Microsoft can still get back to the same account.

“What a World, Such Is the Sky”

2023

The sky is never still.It changes every secondlight shifts, clouds dissolve, colors appear and disappear before you even notice them. By the time a painter mixes the next color, the sky has already become something else.That is why painting the sky is never about copying reality. It is about capturing an impression of a fleeting moment that no longer exists.Perhaps that is why the Impressionists were so fascinated by light and atmosphere. They painted not what they knew was there, but what they felt in that instant. Every brushstroke became a memory of a changing sky.This painting grew from that same idea. The textured layers, bold palette knife marks, and shifting colors are not meant to freeze the sky in time, they are meant to preserve the feeling of watching it transform, moment after moment.By the time the painting was finished, the real sky had changed hundreds of times. But one impression remained on the canvas.