[me_me_me]

malware is any software that hides its existence from user.

The windows telemetry is on edge of being malwere, even if its of no consequence to you. You cant say it will always stay that way.

[tremon]

I'm going to broaden your definition to "malware is any software that hides its existence or its behaviour from the user". There's little value in knowing that a certain piece of software exists on your machine if you don't know what it's for.

[rightbyte]

Why is it not malware? The Wikipedia definition of malware lists "steals data".

Last time I tried the amount of deep registry hacks to turn everything(?) of was silly.

Windows obviously ships with malware nowadays. I think you need enterprise edition for a supported way to turn all the BS off.