this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2026
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Your Windows PC Has a Permanent ID That Follows You – Even With a VPN (archive.is)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by alessandro@lemmy.ca to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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[–] BigTrout75@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Does it follow me after Linux install?

[–] e0qdk@reddthat.com 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Well, there is /etc/machine-id on Linux...

[–] Sickday@kbin.earth 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Just want to point out that /etc/machine-id is unique to systemd systems. AlpineLinux, for example, doesn't generate this file on install.

[–] forestbeasts@pawb.social 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

We tossed systemd out the window on our Debian. Stuff broke when we removed /etc/machine-id.

Turns out dbus ALSO uses it, but if it's not in /etc, it makes its own at /var/lib/dbus/machine-id (which was symlinked to /etc/machine-id on our system).

So we just wrote 00000000000000000000000000000000 to it instead. 🙃

-- Frost

[–] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

What happens if you erase it though? System32 moment?

[–] Sickday@kbin.earth 2 points 2 days ago

You can check the man pages for this file, but in short it gets regenerated. It's used to determine whether this is the first boot or not.

[–] e0qdk@reddthat.com 2 points 2 days ago

Honestly not sure. I wouldn't be surprised if it breaks something with D-Bus based on skimming the man pages, but I've never dug into it. Its not exposed in containers I run though, and I haven't run into anything that broke there as a result... 🤷️