>Just install any package and see how each time the installer (if InstallShield) immediately wants to contact MS.

It's actually MSInstaller. InstallShield is built around it, in its current incarnation.

>Just Google (sorry Bing) for "How can I opt out of Windows Customer Experience?" and see how many people are participating as a default setting without ever having been asked if they want to opt-in.

I think I've found it, accidentally. Was trying to set a scheduled task, and found a whole bunch of things that run on sundays 1:00 or such times, many of which were about what they mis-name "experience" (or at least think they use it in a meaning different from "practical knowledge gained over the years of trials, errors and frustration"). Just disabled all of them. Now I'm experiencing a few slowdowns from time to time, I guess something is complaining about a service or component not running, and tries to find it.