Go to window firewall and make sure incoming and outgoing connections default to blocked for anything without a rule.
Windows by default lets all outgoing traffic through.
Then create rules explicitly allowing the programs that need to access the internet. Private is like your ISP, Public is like wifi or a vpn (they both fall under the same category).
There aren't that many programs that need the internet, not much should break. Your web browsers, maybe steam, maybe a torrent client, maybe a VPN etc.
You can change your torrent client to only go through your VPN by making it only go through Public networks. Then if you aren't connected to your VPN, your torrent traffic doesn't make it out.
I'm not sure if telemetry skirts these rules, but it is a very good start.
Its already known that Windows 10 (and now presumably earlier ones because of the Telemetry update), ignore the firewall (or, alternatively, have hidden rules on it) when talking to specific Microsoft servers.
Go to window firewall and make sure incoming and outgoing connections default to blocked for anything without a rule.
Windows by default lets all outgoing traffic through.
Then create rules explicitly allowing the programs that need to access the internet. Private is like your ISP, Public is like wifi or a vpn (they both fall under the same category).
There aren't that many programs that need the internet, not much should break. Your web browsers, maybe steam, maybe a torrent client, maybe a VPN etc.
You can change your torrent client to only go through your VPN by making it only go through Public networks. Then if you aren't connected to your VPN, your torrent traffic doesn't make it out.
I'm not sure if telemetry skirts these rules, but it is a very good start.