[sandyarmstrong]

> And since it relies on .NET, that also requires its own separate opt-out for its telemetry.

Building a program with .NET does NOT cause that program to send telemetry to Microsoft.

You're thinking of the .NET SDK itself. Using PowerShell does not trigger any use of the .NET SDK.

Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft.

[ptx]

Ah, yes, my mistake. Although PowerShell sends its own telemetry, the additional telemetry from the .NET platform is only sent when you use the dotnet command [1] and, as a special case, not when you very carefully invoke it only "in the following format: dotnet [path-to-app].dll" and never e.g. "dotnet help".

However, presumably PowerShell requires at least the .NET Runtime if not the .NET SDK, doesn't it? The docs [2] suggest running "dotnet --list-runtimes" to "see which versions of the .NET runtime are currently installed", so it sounds like the Runtime also includes the dotnet command. Does running the recommended "dotnet --list-runtimes" command send telemetry, like most of the commands? Or are you saying that the Runtime, unlike the SDK, doesn't include telemetry at all?

[1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/telemetry

[2] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/install/how-to-...

[sandyarmstrong]

> However, presumably PowerShell requires at least the .NET Runtime if not the .NET SDK, doesn't it?

Nope, these days .NET programs (like PowerShell) bundle the runtime. But even if they did a lighter distribution that depended on the runtime already being installed, there would be no .NET telemetry sent.

> Does running the recommended "dotnet --list-runtimes" command send telemetry, like most of the commands?

This is still an SDK command. I don't personally know if this one sends any telemetry.

> Or are you saying that the Runtime, unlike the SDK, doesn't include telemetry at all?

The runtime does not send telemetry.

[ptx]

So the "dotnet" command is only in the SDK, not in the separately downloadable Runtime? Does the Runtime have some other command to launch an executable?

Edit: Actually, the ".NET Runtime 6.0.4" [1] (not the SDK) definitely has a "dotnet" command included. Presumably with the telemetry?

[1] https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/6.0

[sandyarmstrong]

When I say "the runtime", I'm referring to everything that would be bundled into a published .NET program. The base class libraries, the bootstrapper, etc. There is no telemetry here.

Yes, if you download a .NET Runtime distribution, it will include the `dotnet` command from the SDK so that basic commands like `dotnet --list-runtimes` and `dotnet --list-sdks` are available. These commands may send telemetry. But as you probably saw on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/telemetry , using `dotnet path/to/program.dll` to run an unbundled .NET program will never send telemetry.