Destroy Windows Spying tool(github.com)
github.com
Destroy Windows Spying tool
https://github.com/Nummer/Destroy-Windows-10-Spying
11 comments
On the one hand, it would really help if we all switched to Linux and paid for it (but I wouldn't know which B2C-oriented companies provides a good Linux support, plus I'm afraid that the recent multiplication of Linux distributions will harm the image of the OS).
On the other hand, OEM versions of Windows have done lot worse. First of all, you are not supposed to alter the OS provided by your OEM if you want to keep the license. Second, there are all those drivers that are supposedly necessary and which installed the Ask toolbar, IE skins, and even a root CA certificates in the case of HP! They take away up to 40% of the power of your computer in average (yes, when it's the OEM's supposedly antivirus), they display advertising, they communicate your personal information and open breaches. Actually I kind of wish Microsoft provided OEMs with a set of APIs where they can do their harm, but forbade them from going further.
So your Windows PC has been full of malware way before Windows 10 added spy tools. I'm just happy it's official now - Hope it will help more people switch to other OSes.
On the other hand, OEM versions of Windows have done lot worse. First of all, you are not supposed to alter the OS provided by your OEM if you want to keep the license. Second, there are all those drivers that are supposedly necessary and which installed the Ask toolbar, IE skins, and even a root CA certificates in the case of HP! They take away up to 40% of the power of your computer in average (yes, when it's the OEM's supposedly antivirus), they display advertising, they communicate your personal information and open breaches. Actually I kind of wish Microsoft provided OEMs with a set of APIs where they can do their harm, but forbade them from going further.
So your Windows PC has been full of malware way before Windows 10 added spy tools. I'm just happy it's official now - Hope it will help more people switch to other OSes.
> recent multiplication of Linux distributions
Recent? There were 500 distributions 10 years ago! :)
Recent? There were 500 distributions 10 years ago! :)
>> On the one hand, it would really help if we all switched to Linux and paid for it.
It would also be nice if companies like Adobe ported their design apps to Linux. Currently this is one of a few reasons I continue to use MS. That and being able to test in IE helps some too.
Not sure what's keeping Adobe from doing this tbh. I would pay for a solid, secure Linux distro in a heartbeat as well as a port of Adobe creative suite.
It would also be nice if companies like Adobe ported their design apps to Linux. Currently this is one of a few reasons I continue to use MS. That and being able to test in IE helps some too.
Not sure what's keeping Adobe from doing this tbh. I would pay for a solid, secure Linux distro in a heartbeat as well as a port of Adobe creative suite.
> is this supposed to be it?
It is equal parts of:
1. Trying to make a universal OS. If you look at most of the "spying" bits, they're things that already exist and are taken for granted on Android/iOS phones all over the planet. Windows isn't doing anything new here. They're making an OS that is equally meant to run on desktops and phones. As a side effect people are suddenly seeing all the things that any other phone does direct and naked.
2. Recognizing the fact that the average user is a horrible idiot and giving up. Customer grade Windows is aimed at "users". And what average users have done in the past is never update their windows. Most not even because of any decision against it, but because they don't even understand what's going on and ignore it. The result being hordes upon hordes of machines are out in the wild, unpatched, with open security holes, for which MS gets the blame. So they made automatic updates the default and did not provide a way to disable it in the standard user interfaces.
Doesn't mean they force it though. If you truly wish to take control over it, they allow you to. All they require is that either you hire an administrator, or learn how to handle Group Policy Editing yourself.
For example, on Win10Pro, changing the setting of "Configure automatic updating" is sufficient to switch scheduling of updates off.
It is equal parts of:
1. Trying to make a universal OS. If you look at most of the "spying" bits, they're things that already exist and are taken for granted on Android/iOS phones all over the planet. Windows isn't doing anything new here. They're making an OS that is equally meant to run on desktops and phones. As a side effect people are suddenly seeing all the things that any other phone does direct and naked.
2. Recognizing the fact that the average user is a horrible idiot and giving up. Customer grade Windows is aimed at "users". And what average users have done in the past is never update their windows. Most not even because of any decision against it, but because they don't even understand what's going on and ignore it. The result being hordes upon hordes of machines are out in the wild, unpatched, with open security holes, for which MS gets the blame. So they made automatic updates the default and did not provide a way to disable it in the standard user interfaces.
Doesn't mean they force it though. If you truly wish to take control over it, they allow you to. All they require is that either you hire an administrator, or learn how to handle Group Policy Editing yourself.
For example, on Win10Pro, changing the setting of "Configure automatic updating" is sufficient to switch scheduling of updates off.
For example, on Win10Pro, changing the setting of "Configure automatic updating" is sufficient to switch scheduling of updates off.
How is this different from the way it works in older versions of Windows? My understanding is that it's much harder than this to defer forced reboots farther than 12 hours, and becoming (deliberately) more difficult update by update.
How is this different from the way it works in older versions of Windows? My understanding is that it's much harder than this to defer forced reboots farther than 12 hours, and becoming (deliberately) more difficult update by update.
It isn't different.
You can tell it to wait with downloading until you click go, or to auto-download and wait with installing until you click.
This worked on WinXP, Win7 and Win8. It does not work on Home editions, since the Group Policy Editor isn't available there, but enterprising individuals have worked around that as well.
You can tell it to wait with downloading until you click go, or to auto-download and wait with installing until you click.
This worked on WinXP, Win7 and Win8. It does not work on Home editions, since the Group Policy Editor isn't available there, but enterprising individuals have worked around that as well.
I get that this is suggested in every similar thread and it may not be an option for you, but I really recommend giving something like Arch Linux* + GNOME Shell a shot. With Numix it looks amazing and the usability of Linux has came a long way in the past few years.
* I suggest Arch instead of Ubuntu, as I feel that a lot of users automatically go with Ubuntu and then blame the broken stuff, (i.e. Wifi in 16.04) on "Linux", whereas in reality Arch, Gentoo, Fedora users are having no problems.
* I suggest Arch instead of Ubuntu, as I feel that a lot of users automatically go with Ubuntu and then blame the broken stuff, (i.e. Wifi in 16.04) on "Linux", whereas in reality Arch, Gentoo, Fedora users are having no problems.
Better yet just use Antergos. It defaults to Gnome, even, and has a live CD.
It still isn't a good situation to anyone put a power user. We would want an Arch derivative with better security (ie, MAC, package hold-back for stability, etc). And the AUR is in practice a security nightmare given anyone can upload anything as a PKGBUILD.
It still isn't a good situation to anyone put a power user. We would want an Arch derivative with better security (ie, MAC, package hold-back for stability, etc). And the AUR is in practice a security nightmare given anyone can upload anything as a PKGBUILD.
Debian is a better alternative for Ubuntu. Arch has a rolling-release cycle that incurs additional maintenance (things break).
Debian is a good choice, but I've found the up-to-date packages and pacman to be better at showing how current Linux looks to new users.
Also, the maintenance burden is largely contained to [testing], with it disabled, I've run the same Arch install since '13 with no problem.
Just wait until you go on vacation for two weeks and they change the init system. That was a fun `pacman -Syu`.
I don't know how organizations are running Windows 10 with all the information Microsoft is getting from the OS. I checked with the resource monitor and even Explorer.exe is opening network connections beyond my company.
Depends on your organization. If you're government, the possibility of the government spying on your data isn't shockingly worrisome. A lot of types of businesses also would have no reason to care about privacy concerns, where a lot of reporting and accountability is already required, or where there's almost no contention for need for privacy.
Unless I'm misunderstanding you, you seem to be confusing Microsoft with "the government". I think you meant:
> If you're government, the possibility of the government spying on your data isn't shockingly worrisome.
which makes little sense to me. If you're government, you should be quite concerned about the possibility of Microsoft spying on your data.
> If you're government, the possibility of the government spying on your data isn't shockingly worrisome.
which makes little sense to me. If you're government, you should be quite concerned about the possibility of Microsoft spying on your data.
Depends what branch of government, I suppose. For the NSA, sure. For anyone who works where most data is public or FOIA-able... I guess your biggest concern would be if Microsoft's spying managed to compromise the security of the network itself, which one would hope Microsoft is supremely motivated to not do, because they want you to use their products.
Nor am I confusing Microsoft with the government, but merely recognizing that in a backdoor model, the most interested party is probably the government.
Nor am I confusing Microsoft with the government, but merely recognizing that in a backdoor model, the most interested party is probably the government.
> you seem to be confusing Microsoft with "the government"
Actually, thanks to the third party doctrine and the regularity with which the government subpoenas tech companies, there is little functional difference - they are part of the spying apparatus.
Actually, thanks to the third party doctrine and the regularity with which the government subpoenas tech companies, there is little functional difference - they are part of the spying apparatus.
The whole Cortana stuff is disabled in my company's laptops.
Just wait until they start adding ads into Explorer disguised as "suggestions".
There's a few applications that do this from producers like O&O and Spybot.
A mixed list of some of them can downloaded from http://www.majorgeeks.com/mg/sortname/windows_10_fixes.html
A mixed list of some of them can downloaded from http://www.majorgeeks.com/mg/sortname/windows_10_fixes.html
Anti-virus apps tend not to like it when you start turning off windows defender and smartscreen phishing protection. Modifying the hosts file is another large red flag.
>SetRegValueHklm(@"SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender", "DisableAntiSpyware", "1",
>SetRegValueHklm(@"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer", "SmartScreenEnabled", "Off",
>SetRegValueHklm(@"SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender", "DisableAntiSpyware", "1",
>SetRegValueHklm(@"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer", "SmartScreenEnabled", "Off",
I'm not saying it's malware free, but if you look at the virustotal report[1] you'll see it picks it up because it has references to things like msn.com and ads.net, which it adds to the hostfile to block the spyware
[1]: https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/032d394fd6884a275b8a24dc5...
[1]: https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/032d394fd6884a275b8a24dc5...
Naturally something that alters your operating system will get detected. Not being on Windows myself I haven't read it, but the source is openly available.
eh, I went through the source code, seemed okay.
I also went through some of the source code. That "adds things to hosts file" code has some rather questionable entries in it.
m.hotmail.com
watson.microsoft.com
Assorted *.msn.com domains
apps.skype.com
msftncsi.com
"Add spying domains to hosts file" is dishonest, at best. This appears to be a determined effort to break random services for the user which happen to be run by Microsoft. Hotmail, Skype and the NCSI detection are particularly inexcusable things to block under the guise of "destroy spying".
m.hotmail.com
watson.microsoft.com
Assorted *.msn.com domains
apps.skype.com
msftncsi.com
"Add spying domains to hosts file" is dishonest, at best. This appears to be a determined effort to break random services for the user which happen to be run by Microsoft. Hotmail, Skype and the NCSI detection are particularly inexcusable things to block under the guise of "destroy spying".
I used the software, skype works fine it just doesn't have ads anymore and skype home whatever that is.
Msn domains are only subdomains that are most likely ads related
Watson is Microsoft report tool so "spying"
Hotmail no idea but I don't think you'd use the mobile website on desktop anyway and the domain is live.com now
Add to that, in the software there is a Open hosts file to see/edit it so you can remove whatever you don't want to block
Msn domains are only subdomains that are most likely ads related
Watson is Microsoft report tool so "spying"
Hotmail no idea but I don't think you'd use the mobile website on desktop anyway and the domain is live.com now
Add to that, in the software there is a Open hosts file to see/edit it so you can remove whatever you don't want to block
[deleted]
If you plan to buy a new laptop soon: Oct 31, 2016 is the last date that OEMs can sell Win 7 (or downgrade rights from Win 10) bundled with hardware.
Sounds like a bad idea buying a machine designed for an obsolete OS. Sad but true; I agree that win7 is nicer than win10. Consider switching to Linux or MacOS, because Windows isn't reversing direction any time soon.
The machines are all current generation (Skylake) and support both Windows 7 and Windows 10. If your professional workflow depends on a Windows app, this is your last chance to buy a Win7-compatible machine that will be supported until 2020. At any time, you can upgrade to Win10 with the included OEM license.
Isn't Microsoft backporting all the same crap -- forced updates, forced reboots, telemetry, and other assorted asshattery -- to Windows 7 and Windows 8?
It seems like the first thing you'd have to do with a new Windows 7 system is turn off Windows Update, to keep the camel's nose, head, humps, legs, tail, and extended family out of the proverbial tent.
It seems like the first thing you'd have to do with a new Windows 7 system is turn off Windows Update, to keep the camel's nose, head, humps, legs, tail, and extended family out of the proverbial tent.
Yes, there's a list of KB updates which need to be uninstalled manually.
I've been using mostly windows (7) for the past years, with a sprinkle of linux VMs for running databases and such.
Now, when upgrading, I think I'll buy a mac. I can't be bothered to deal with this crap any more.
But on the mac side, there's a lot of blocking of non-store apps and general walled garden-ness? Or is this just something I've conjured up in my paranoid mind?
Now, when upgrading, I think I'll buy a mac. I can't be bothered to deal with this crap any more.
But on the mac side, there's a lot of blocking of non-store apps and general walled garden-ness? Or is this just something I've conjured up in my paranoid mind?
> I can't be bothered to deal with this crap any more.
As someone who has used windows from 1995 to 1999 and, on my secondary workstation, OSX since 2015: MS is just catching up on what Crapple has been doing for a very long time and thus MS is not as sophisticated when it comes to providing a user friendly experience that comes with telemetry. Install Little Snitch on OSX (app level fw) and you'll have just as many WTF-moments as with Windows 10.
> But on the mac side, there's a lot of blocking of non-store apps and general walled garden-ness?
Same difference (see above).
The question boils down to whether UX is more important than privacy for you. If you favor UX, use OSX, if you favor privacy, use a UNIX with a very strict local FW. For me, the answer is to carry two laptops: A small and cheap apple device for fun and a lenovo thingy (don't dare to call it a laptop) for serious work.
As someone who has used windows from 1995 to 1999 and, on my secondary workstation, OSX since 2015: MS is just catching up on what Crapple has been doing for a very long time and thus MS is not as sophisticated when it comes to providing a user friendly experience that comes with telemetry. Install Little Snitch on OSX (app level fw) and you'll have just as many WTF-moments as with Windows 10.
> But on the mac side, there's a lot of blocking of non-store apps and general walled garden-ness?
Same difference (see above).
The question boils down to whether UX is more important than privacy for you. If you favor UX, use OSX, if you favor privacy, use a UNIX with a very strict local FW. For me, the answer is to carry two laptops: A small and cheap apple device for fun and a lenovo thingy (don't dare to call it a laptop) for serious work.
>>Crapple
Take this stuff elsewhere please, thanks.
Take this stuff elsewhere please, thanks.
I personally hold that self-righteous comments like these contribute far less to the discussion than people expressing their opinion with the full richness that language can provide.
> MS is just catching up on what Crapple
Just an FYI, I stopped reading and downvoted when you started with childish name calling.
Just an FYI, I stopped reading and downvoted when you started with childish name calling.
I'm so sorry, but I am from Berlin - we talk frankly and don't care about people who are offended by that (btw, the best way to tell a tourist from a Berliner is to watch reactions to our talking).
PS: If you read MS as "MickeySoft" as I do, does it help?
PS: If you read MS as "MickeySoft" as I do, does it help?
I think the latest tendency (specially in UK) to be offended by everything is so unhealthy and horrible.
But Berlin is one of those cities where I encountered the largest amount of rude and unfriendly locals, sorry to say this but it's my experience. I genuinely curious, is it some kind of northern german thing that gets amplified by virtue of being the capital city? I'm really curious. Actually it made me hesitant on doing business with Berlin based companies.
> childish name calling
Sometimes that's the best way to express the full weight of an opinion. Diluting the expression changes its meaning.
http://ogun.stanford.edu/~bnayfeh/plan.html
Sometimes that's the best way to express the full weight of an opinion. Diluting the expression changes its meaning.
http://ogun.stanford.edu/~bnayfeh/plan.html
I'd be surprised if OS X doesn't have telemetry ("spying").
macOS has telemetry. The difference is you can actually disable it and it really gets disabled. None of this "the check box is set to disabled but I still see all these network connections from system processes like Cortana still..." type bullshit you get on Windows 10.
And the OS will specifically ask you whether it's OK to send back telemetry/diagnostics when you first set up the machine. It's not something you have to dig into the settings later to turn off.
Indeed. I am not a massive Apple fan but they deserve credit for how open they are about their diagnostics collection options during initial setup. There don't try and trick the user with "custom settings" like on Windows.
They still push you critical updates that can break your computer a well know blogger had his mbp ethernet card "die" and few days later work again he found out that the breaking a repairing were from critical updates pushed without his knowledge.
The app store is entirely optional. I've had a Mac for years and never used it except to upgrade the OS itself. Using brew (incl. Cask) is all you need for almost everything, and you can always download anything via a browser the old school way.
On Mac: there's a setting in System Preferences->Security & Privacy that allows you to install and run apps from "Anywhere".
It's a walled garden, but the walls aren't as tall on the desktop OS. Yet.
It's a walled garden, but the walls aren't as tall on the desktop OS. Yet.
And it's also worth noting that the default option, "Mac App Store and identified developers" allows you to run apps from anywhere by right-clicking them and choosing "Open".
About 2-2.5 months ago I got tired of Windows 10's shenanigans and went full time Linux (Ubuntu MATE) on my personal laptop. Also installed a new SSD so my boot times are less than 15 seconds from cold to ready desktop including entering a password.
So far I've been able to figure out everything I need. I may have to do our taxes on my wife's computer, unless the tax software will run under wine. Although I suppose I could run a VM with Win 10 just to do the taxes.
So far I've been able to figure out everything I need. I may have to do our taxes on my wife's computer, unless the tax software will run under wine. Although I suppose I could run a VM with Win 10 just to do the taxes.
> VM with Win 10 just to do the taxes.
That's what I've been doing for quite a few years now (WinXP, then Win7) and it works well. Catching up on Windows updates once a year takes almost as long as doing my taxes. :-O
The other alternative is to do your taxes online, but that is a Really Bad Idea IMHO.
That's what I've been doing for quite a few years now (WinXP, then Win7) and it works well. Catching up on Windows updates once a year takes almost as long as doing my taxes. :-O
The other alternative is to do your taxes online, but that is a Really Bad Idea IMHO.
Why is doing your taxes online so bad?
An large amount of very sensitive information from a huge number of people is stored "in the cloud" making it a big target for hackers[1].
In addition, the attack surface of a company providing tax services on the internet is huge compared to a powered down VM on a machine that I know is physically secure and (IMHO) well secured against hackers.
[1] In a famous apocryphal story, Willie Sutton was asked by reporter Mitch Ohnstad why he robbed banks. According to Ohnstad, he replied, "Because that's where the money is." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Sutton#Sutton.27s_law
In addition, the attack surface of a company providing tax services on the internet is huge compared to a powered down VM on a machine that I know is physically secure and (IMHO) well secured against hackers.
[1] In a famous apocryphal story, Willie Sutton was asked by reporter Mitch Ohnstad why he robbed banks. According to Ohnstad, he replied, "Because that's where the money is." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Sutton#Sutton.27s_law
I don't want some company or its employees (or possible people/companies they give/sell/leak information to) to have total knowledge of my finances.
Maybe I'm fighting a losing battle, but I still value my privacy.
Maybe I'm fighting a losing battle, but I still value my privacy.
Don't live in the US, so doing my taxes is no reason to stick with Windows =)
TurboTax's online tax software has worked well for me for several years under Linux. (Just saying that Windows isn't required for taxes…)
Why not get a linux-based system?
I might.
I've never been happy with the 'desktop' linux distros. Not the look/feel/functionality, just install/setup issues and the distro version upgrade hassle.
I use arch linux for my dev work, but it seems like a chore to use that as a day-to-day system on a laptop. Maybe I'm wrong.
Arch is a chore. It's like half Gentoo and half fascism. Badum-psh! Nah, I like Arch. It's just very opinionated. For my day-to-day development work, and the OS I use for watching cat videos and Facebook, etc, I use Linux Mint (17.3).
> and half fascism.
I don't like fascism, even half of it. So I don't like Arch, mainly because of the often times toxic community. How good pacman then may be - becomes irrelevant.
I don't like fascism, even half of it. So I don't like Arch, mainly because of the often times toxic community. How good pacman then may be - becomes irrelevant.
Just get an LTS. Like xubuntu or something.
It's no use comparing a rolling release to whatever OSX is.
It's no use comparing a rolling release to whatever OSX is.
I find Debian Stable rock solid. I spent some time setting it up once many years ago and I'm basically running the same system now (upgrades over the years have been mostly a breeze).
Fedora is my choice for desktop Linux. It works great. If GNOME isn't your thing then almost every other DE is available in RPMFusion.
Overall I find it nicer to work in Fedora than Ubuntu fwiw.
Overall I find it nicer to work in Fedora than Ubuntu fwiw.
See, every time I try out fedora, i end up making my system unbootable just by installing packages.
I don't know what i'm doing wrong, hell the reason I want to go with fedora is because I work with redhat based systems at work, so it's more familiar, but it just seems so unstable.
I don't know what i'm doing wrong, hell the reason I want to go with fedora is because I work with redhat based systems at work, so it's more familiar, but it just seems so unstable.
Because my time isn't worthless.
Why, it's doesn't take more time to set up than any other system (Windows, Mac OS, whatever), have you possibly started with Gentoo as your first distro?
If using Linux on the desktop in 2016 is time-consuming for you, that says a lot more about you than it does Linux.
I only use linux over SSH. By choice.
Ubuntu is most polished desktop distro, and it's absolutely horrible, so I don't use linux on a desktop.
Ubuntu is most polished desktop distro, and it's absolutely horrible, so I don't use linux on a desktop.
As a developer, I would buy a Mac. Everything "just works" on it. Apps are sometimes blocked from the App store (Famous example, Flux perhaps? https://justgetflux.com/), but that doesn't mean you can't/shouldn't use them.
That said, I'll be checking this out for my Windows 10 rig (for gaming).
That said, I'll be checking this out for my Windows 10 rig (for gaming).
> Everything "just works" on it.
Except the maximize button.
And scrolling.
Except the maximize button.
And scrolling.
And window management.
And display management.
And file management.
And you can only launch one instance of an app at a time.
And you have to wait forever for Apple to update your hardware.
And they are so, so, so many other problems with macOS. It's laughable how much is broken.
And display management.
And file management.
And you can only launch one instance of an app at a time.
And you have to wait forever for Apple to update your hardware.
And they are so, so, so many other problems with macOS. It's laughable how much is broken.
Nope, they work fine for me.
Also, I haven't come across any "blocked" apps. I am unsure of the walled garden some others are referring too!
Also, I haven't come across any "blocked" apps. I am unsure of the walled garden some others are referring too!
Insert button in VIM.
that's why I wiped MacOSX and installed Ubuntu.
that's why I wiped MacOSX and installed Ubuntu.
As a developer I used Mac for three years and found it utterly broken, especially:
* keyboard layout (fn and ctrl was swapped but only on laptop and small wireless, not the fullsize keyboard) and
* modifier keys (e.g. no consistent way to jump one word ahead).
Some of my colleagues used it and loved it though, and I very much tried to myself but failed utterly.
* keyboard layout (fn and ctrl was swapped but only on laptop and small wireless, not the fullsize keyboard) and
* modifier keys (e.g. no consistent way to jump one word ahead).
Some of my colleagues used it and loved it though, and I very much tried to myself but failed utterly.
Flux is blocked now? I installed it last year no problem.
Edit I remember now that I didn't install it through the App Store.
Edit I remember now that I didn't install it through the App Store.
[deleted]
Using the brew package manager makes Mac feel like Linux. I've never had a problem installing what I've wanted with it.
> Remove Windows 10 Metro Apps
So you can't use any UWP apps with this? Why is this something that happens?
So you can't use any UWP apps with this? Why is this something that happens?
Their readme doesn't specify, but from a brief investigation, it seems like their application has options for what to do and not do.
As more and more critical parts of the Windows system is moved over to the UWP model, though, disabling UWP apps would just be silly. And UWP doesn't require the Windows Store to work.
As more and more critical parts of the Windows system is moved over to the UWP model, though, disabling UWP apps would just be silly. And UWP doesn't require the Windows Store to work.
I believe this is because the app store is tied directly into the microsoft account/spying nonsense.
What are domains like adnexus.net and ad.doubleclick.net doing in that list of blacklisted hosts? Has MS ever disclosed what information is being sent there?
I think it is from apps like Solitaire and News having ads in them.
Expect a counterattack from Microsoft. Just like when people figured out how to remove the Windows 10 installer (GWX).
To be fair Microsoft had support documentation on how to disabled and remove GWX correctly and most of the third party tools were overly aggressive and did not follow the documented process. They were basically watchmen programs that looked for the GWX process and would force kill it. If you used a program such as Never10 that used the correct process you would have zero problems (Never10 is basically just a pretty UI that adds the two registry entries to instruct Windows to disable GWX).
I agree that MS will counterattack this tool though. Almost every time there is a Windows Update it restores all of the modifications these tools make. It was the same with the GWX killers that did not follow process. Unfortunately there is no process to disable telemetry (outside of Enterprise versions).
I agree that MS will counterattack this tool though. Almost every time there is a Windows Update it restores all of the modifications these tools make. It was the same with the GWX killers that did not follow process. Unfortunately there is no process to disable telemetry (outside of Enterprise versions).
The issue was the Microsoft changed the registry key that was effective, re-enabling GWX if I recall.
The counter-counterattack should be not give Microsoft any more money.
Why feed Microsoft when it bites you in return?
Why feed Microsoft when it bites you in return?
Well they are labeling the tool as spyware through windows defender.
Edit: Why the downmoding? The above is just stating the fact.
Edit: Why the downmoding? The above is just stating the fact.
I've wondered how these apps go about stopping this stuff, given that Windows is closed source. Do they somehow get their hands on the source? Or is it all Reverse-Engineering?
If something has to phone home to the mothership over the internet it's easy to hook into Windows networking stack at a very low level and see all the network traffic (just run Wireshark, it's using all public APIs). And even if they don't let you get that low into the network stack on the machine you can always put it behind another machine as a proxy and watch everything going by on the wire, even using SSL mitm and such to crack that open.
All of these programs are hacks. They delete/rename/move the executables that have been identified by system monitoring to be the source of such data collection.
The problem is using any such tool will put you into the world of unsupported modification.
The problem is using any such tool will put you into the world of unsupported modification.
I'll install this when it includes stuff to stop every other damn company from collecting their data.
How do other companies collect OS-level data?
Pretty much any non-UWP Windows app installed with administrative rights can collect OS level data.
Oh right, it's in the OS so it's a tragedy now.
Facebook and Google obsessively hoarding data about me is all good. Microsoft trying to collect usage data, horrible nasty evil no good rotten scoundrels.
Facebook and Google obsessively hoarding data about me is all good. Microsoft trying to collect usage data, horrible nasty evil no good rotten scoundrels.
You don't see a difference between companies which you give your data to over the internet and companies which produce the operating system of your computer exfiltrating information?
I don't give Facebook or Google any of my data. Run this and then install Adblock(configured correctly) and you won't have to either.
That statement is disingenuous at best.
> Microsoft trying to collect usage data
Microsoft is using also collecting information for targeted advertising. It assigns you a unique advertising ID.
> Microsoft trying to collect usage data
Microsoft is using also collecting information for targeted advertising. It assigns you a unique advertising ID.
We need an operating system, paid for it, and we just can't use it without going through regular troubles to ensure some sort of sanity.
Any attempt to have it the normal, guaranteed by law, way, are countered from Microsoft with either no reasons why, or very shallow explanations.
Looking at the boarder picture, at other windows products, licensing is becoming more expensive. At the same time, attempts that look like MS is opening itself to the world, are just a curtain that ensures user entrenchment on windows platforms.
This, so far benign behavior, is just becoming outright hostile at the moment (auto updates going against what we changed, and having new code to hard reset user changes, etc etc).
I get that this will sound like a sad rant, but that's how I feel about this whole windows 10 thing: It's just a really sad sad state of affairs.
Decades of progress, is this supposed to be it?