How To Keep Microsoft's Nose Out of Your Personal Data In Windows 10 426
MojoKid writes: Amid the privacy concerns and arguably invasive nature of Microsoft's Windows 10 regarding user information, it's no surprise that details on how to minimize leaks as much as possible are often requested by users who have recently made the jump to the new operating system. If you are using Windows 10, or plan to upgrade soon, it's worth bearing in mind a number of privacy-related options that are available, even during the installation/upgrade. If you are already running the OS and forgot to turn them off during installation (or didn't even see them), they can be accessed via the Settings menu on the start menu, and then selecting Privacy from the pop-up menu. Among these menus are a plethora of options regarding what data can be gathered about you. It's worth noting, however, that changing any of these options may disable various OS related services, namely Cortana, as Microsoft's digital assistant has it tendrils buried deep.
HOSTS file (Score:5, Funny)
"How To Keep Microsoft's Nose Out of Your Personal Data In Windows 10"
How about a new HOSTS file? APK?
Re:HOSTS file (Score:4, Insightful)
You joke, but that pretty much IS the only way. Tons of experiments and wire captures have already shown that no matter what settings you disable, the OS still sends TONS of info back to MS servers.
Re:HOSTS file (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:HOSTS file (Score:5, Insightful)
Until the OS ignores your HOSTS file for some hard-coded domains. If you can't trust your OS, why are you trusting it to filter things out? The filtering has to come from outside, from another system.
That's why you need to use a firewall. A real one, not that Windows Firewall crap. And block any outgoing connections you don't approve.
Re: HOSTS file (Score:4, Informative)
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Windows 10 has just proven to be the worst of them all. Quite simply the only solution is to not buy or install windows and block all updates from prior versions of windows beyond security only updates. It is important to spread that choice far and wide in order to force M$ to produces a Windows 10 SE edition, where not only has all this crap been disabled but the code itself is completely missing from the OS install. Accept this offering from M$ and you are a bloody idiot.
Re: HOSTS file (Score:2, Insightful)
Hardware. A seperate system.
Windows firewall is just an app. A real firewall is on it's own hardware with its own OS.
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A trustworthy maker. Or at least one that has not proven to be untrustworthy yet.
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It's not part of windows, which is the very thing you want it to protect you from.
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Windows Firewall, by default, allows all outgoing connections. In order to block an outgoing connection you have to specify exactly which one you want to block. How do you do that if you don't know which program is making the connections? What if Windows Update adds something that you don't even know exists?
Why ask these questions if you have already given the answer yourself? You simply change the firewall profile from its default setting to block all outgoing connections except those specified by a rule. This is not a missing feature from the Windows Firewall.
The big problem is that installers and services that run as admin can add their own entries to the firewall without notification. Steam does this for its own client and for any games that it installs. If it can't access the Internet for any reason, the
Re:HOSTS file (Score:5, Insightful)
Until the OS ignores your HOSTS file for some hard-coded domains.
What do you mean until? [slashdot.org]
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All over the interwebs people are posting information on how to block this. It will be interesting to see what Microsoft's reaction is. I can't believe they went to all the trouble to design and implement this and aren't going to push back against people trying to disable it.
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... I can't believe they went to all the trouble to design and implement this and aren't going to push back against people trying to disable it.
Really? What percentage of people are actually going to disable (and/or block) all of it? What percentage will disable *any* of it? ANYONE that wants cortana to work, which seems to be a large part of their marketing, will have to keep most of it enabled. Will the percentage that's left from those be enough to justify what was done? (the answer is "Hell yes it will, unless some lawsuit somehow gets in the way").
Now, you may be thinking something along the lines of, "while alienating all their true supporter
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You joke, but that pretty much IS the only way. Tons of experiments and wire captures have already shown that no matter what settings you disable, the OS still sends TONS of info back to MS servers.
This has been posted a few places on the net. Set all the below addresses to 0.0.0.0, because /. won't allow me to use 0.0.0.0 so many times. Too many "junk" characters!
vortex.data.microsoft.com
vortex-win.data.microsoft.com
telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com
telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
oca.telemetry.microsoft.com
oca.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
sqm.telemetry.microsoft.com
sqm.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
watson.telemetry.microsoft.com
watson.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
Re: (Score:2)
You joke, but that pretty much IS the only way. Tons of experiments and wire captures have already shown that no matter what settings you disable, the OS still sends TONS of info back to MS servers.
This has been posted a few places on the net. Set all the below addresses to 0.0.0.0, because /. won't allow me to use 0.0.0.0 so many times. Too many "junk" characters!
vortex.data.microsoft.com
vortex-win.data.microsoft.com
telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com
telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
oca.telemetry.microsoft.com
oca.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
sqm.telemetry.microsoft.com
. . . . etc.
That's only some of them. I've been collecting all the ones I could find form various sources and the total number of them is now over 100.
Re:HOSTS file (Score:5, Informative)
I've been doing it by IP range, watching a fresh Windows 10 install to see what it contacts.
65.52.108.0/14 #update.microsoft.com, licensing.md.mp.microsoft.com, v10.vortex-win.data.microsoft.com. Update has an alternate in another range.
104.40.0.0/13
204.79.196.0/23 #Start menu searches.
23.93.0.0/13
157.54.0.0/15
157.60.0.0/16
191.236.0.0/14
207.46.0.0/16
131.253.62.0/23
131.253.64.0/18
131.253.61.0/24 #login.live.com
131.253.128.0/17
191.232.0.0/14 #settings-win.data.microsoft.com
#Do not block these, required for updates:
#157.56.0.0/14 #sls.update.microsoft.com
#191.232.0.0/14 #windowsupdate.microsoft.com
I also had to block all subdomains for appex.bing.com, appex-rf.msn.com and cms.msn.com. Can't IP-block those as they are CDNs.
Re:HOSTS file (Score:5, Informative)
Reportedly, at least part of the addresses are hard-coded in the software in a way that bypasses the hosts-file. There are confirmed reports for the latest 4 snooping updates for Win7/8 of this, so I suspect it can be true for Win10 as well. Of course, in order to get past the hosts-file, you have to bypass parts of the networking stack, i.e. a lot of criminal energy is involved.
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I've got to ask if it's really worth it. I suppose, if you absolutely must run Windows or are forced to do so at work or somehow ... but geez, isn't it time to ditch Windows completely if you can? Isn't it worth going to some extra trouble to get out of that ecosystem permanently?
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If this is true, it's class-action time and count me in. I paid full retail for multiple copies of Win7, and did not do so to be spied on. Citation, please?
Re:HOSTS file (Score:5, Informative)
KB3068708 [microsoft.com]
KB3022345 [microsoft.com]
KB3075249 [microsoft.com]
KB2976978 [microsoft.com]
KB3021917 [microsoft.com]
Re: (Score:3)
Re:HOSTS file (Score:5, Insightful)
There is criminal energy involved in sabotaging mechanisms such as the hosts-file in order to deceive users. Even thinking of it requires significant criminal energy, and the strong intent to harm users.
Re:HOSTS file (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
sed -i 's/^\(hosts:[[:space:]]\+\)files[[:space:]]/\1/' /etc/nsswitch.conf
Yeah. Lots of work on other platforms too.
(and yes, I know this is almost completely unrelated to the topic at hand; they probably just use DnsQuery with DNS_QUERY_NO_HOSTS_FILE; it's not hard though, and shouldn't be)
Re: (Score:2)
There is criminal energy involved in sabotaging mechanisms such as the hosts-file in order to deceive users. Even thinking of it requires significant criminal energy, and the strong intent to harm users.
You're forgetting we're talking corporate to consumer here, nothings illegal from that standpoint. If you take every third word from every other sentence in every fifth paragraph starting from the third paragraph from the bottom, and wrap around, you gave your permission for them to do this when you clicked Agree.
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Never contribute to mal.... you know the saying.
Microsoft has always bypassed the hosts file for certain things, not in the name of criminal sabotage but in the name of something quite simpler, allowing their software to receive updates despite attempts to prevent it by malware.
At least that's their excuse, and with an excuse like that it's hard to justify criminal intent. More likely someone thought it was "a good idea at the time".
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I do not yet know, but intend to test this on Friday.
Re:HOSTS file (Score:4, Funny)
Yes.
Oh, really? [wikipedia.org]. Leave your geek card at the door.
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Re:HOSTS file (Score:5, Insightful)
Use a modern OS instead of Windows.
Re:HOSTS file (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:HOSTS file (Score:5, Interesting)
That data is very valuable which is why Microsoft is going through so much trouble to get it. It's worth way more than the $100-200 asking price for a retail copy of Windows. In an equitable universe, Microsoft would be paying people to use Windows 10.
Re:HOSTS file (Score:4, Insightful)
it's not the real reason.
the real reason is pushing the appstore and pushing it for all kinds of applications.
pushing the appstore was also the reason why they were pushing win8/8.1 for practically free and it's the sole only reason for the shitfest that is metro(they shipped a program environment that was unfinished, unpolished and lacking in api's to replace what it was intended to replace only because they were in a hurry to release an appstore because some execs _thought_ they could get 30% of 3000$ photoshop and cad licenses, which was never going to happen anyway)
Re:HOSTS file (Score:4, Funny)
Right, because keeping your browsing and application-utilization habits a secret is SO important.
OMG somebody might know you look at porn! Or that you play video games! Or that you are shopping online for a new printer!!!
The horror!
Okay, mostly I agree with you, and even if 99.9% of people were aware of what's shared, almost none of them would care. Of course, in reality, I'd be surprised if even 1% of people care enough to find out.
Lets just target that tiny fragment of the population that cares and wants to protect their privacy. Maybe you know the person behind the Ashley Madison hack, or want to blow the whistle on the NSA, or maybe you found out something terrible about Microsoft and want to email somebody about it, whatever. In this scenario, you're somehow also nuts enough that you are going to pass on your bombshell using your home Windows 10 PC.
Wireshark and a few tweaks to your router and there is now nothing goes out that you don't want going out. Problem solved. (It's not going to last ten seconds in keeping your identity secret from any of those entities, but hey, it's not Windows 10's fault at least.)
But wait, you must be saying, "my PC is connected without a router!" (How?) Don't worry your pretty little head about it. A couple host file edits and you're good. But "wait" you say, (complainer!) "these apps are still connecting!" So you add a handful of specific routes with the handy command line and boom (!) problem solved again. (For another ten seconds.)
"But ancientt," you say. "I'm posting and emailing stuff all the time that could get me in trouble and I don't want Microsoft to know!" To which I reply, "Tails and VPN my child." But you ignore my advice, because of course you do. "I must secure Windows 10 permanently!" I find you irritating, but alas, I cannot resist your wiles so I offer this further guidance. Edit your registry, run your own DNS server, set the default route to localhost and only allow an IP connection to sites you've intentionally pre-configured with the route command, and now my stupid but persevering student, you have a Windows 10 configuration which will communicate with nothing undesired.
I will not post bail.
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Get a slightly intelligent router, something that runs OpenWRT or so, and take care of the issue at the source.
Re:HOSTS file (Score:5, Insightful)
Just run Linux, works every time.
Re: (Score:3)
I tried, but I couldn't even get Photoshop to install let alone work.
Re:HOSTS file (Score:5, Informative)
I've been testing the Windows firewall.
If you delete the permit rules for Windows services and spying, they come back. Protected rules.
But on Windows firewall, a deny always overrules a permit - if you explicitly deny the unwanted IP ranges, this does hold. At least in my testing so far - I've found one range that acts oddly and I think may be bypassing the firewall, but I need to confirm this.
Ok i'm going to say it (Score:5, Insightful)
not good enough (Score:2, Informative)
Purportedly M$ is also issuing updates to Win7/8 that would mirror Win10 behavior. You want out? Install Linux (or FreeBSD)
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This is believable. There's nothing in this that requires new fundamental operating system infrastructure. Except maybe Cortana but that's more of an application than an operating system component, and the first thing any thinking person would shut off or uninstall).
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Wrong, since Windows source is closed there could be privacy invading components that are unknown. You fail at comprehending the problem
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I see no evidence of this quality impact you are talking about in open source OS. You are going to claim HP/UX or AIX or Windows Server is of higher quality than Linux or the BSD? Nonsense, no sane person would ever put any of those OS directly on the internet because of their poor quality leading to security holes.
Open source is looked at by third parties and ten thousandth parties, the developers don't all work for one company and contributions are made from non-core developers.
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Re:not good enough (Score:5, Insightful)
... or just disable the features you don't like... like you could have done all along. If you can use Linux, you can disable any feature you don't like from Windows.
Except that in Windows 10, you can't. There are many things for which there are no settings to disable them. And even you dig deep, it still doesn't work. But don't take my word for it. Try it.
Open Task Manager and kill Cortana. It immediately comes back. This is just one example of Microsoft going back to the old scam they used years ago, "We can't remove Internet Explorer because it's too deeply embedded in the OS".
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17 years of disassembly experience should serve me well. Buy I am not allowed to share my changes. Perhaps the Mickey mouse laws should be challenged. Again.
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Open Task Manager and kill Cortana. It immediately comes back.
I've seen people saying that a couple of times. I disabled Cortana (well, I set all the privacy options during install and never /enabled/ Cortana) and the task doesn't run at all.
Re:not good enough (Score:5, Informative)
Don't use what? Cortana?
I don't use it. I disabled search features. I also live in an area where Cortana is not available. And yet every time I hit the start button and start typing some of my information is sent to servers related to the Cortana service.
Likewise I've removed a lot of the shitty live tiles. That doesn't stop the money app getting up to date stock information that it won't be displaying.
You can't not use some of these features, not without a firewall.
Re:not good enough (Score:5, Informative)
I have been examining Windows Ten with a packet sniffer, and can confirm both of these claims. Even if you disable cortana and searching bing from the start menu, typing anything in there still results in a connection to a server associated with Bing - I don't know what's in that connection, as it's TLS. I've also confirmed that it does attempt to update the live tiles even when said tiles have been removed, as I see connections to servers such as foodanddrink.tile.appex.bing.com.
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Even if you didn't use IE, it was always there and ready to be used by people who wanted into your PC.
Just 'cause YOU don't use it doesn't mean it cannot be used. IE was one of the key entry points for malware throughout its existence. Whether you used it or not was secondary, what mattered was that any attacker could rely on it being there.
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I thought they were Geniuses(tm)?
How To Keep Microsoft's Nose Out of Your Data? (Score:3, Insightful)
Just install Linux.
You're welcome.
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry that just broke most of my software.
Beside the point (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, I can see the options during the setup. Years of updating Java have trained me to uncheck everything.
Anyway that is old news.
We want to know more about the things you can not set in the options.
Ways to prevent forced updates?
Remove hidden services?
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Right, the next installer I write will have a "Don't fuck everything up" checkbox, checked by default, just for you!
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Good idea. Added unnecessary features should always be an opt-in choice. Also installing a third party anti-malware program, or third party search bar, or a third party browser, or any third party demo, should be opt-in only.
Another good improvement. If the user has ever unchecked "automatically install new updates" and instead checked "notify me about new updates", then the installer should remember that choice in the future.
Disable Forced Updates on Home (Score:3, Informative)
To disable forced updates, go into Services and set Windows Update to Disabled. Then put an icon for Services on the task bar
What if there is a bug? (Score:5, Interesting)
If the default is "on" , what if a bug in the code resets the setting or ignores the setting. Are there any indicators that this information is going out? Can there be any indicators? What is the amount of encrypted traffic going out from the system to microsoft? Any way to look at what is being sent at any point in time? Does it ever log what was sent? Can it?
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An update could add a new setting at any time, and fail to notify the user about the new option and the new undesirable default setting. Not hypothetical, there are applications that do this.
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Are there any indicators that this information is going out?
Yes. To find the indicator, open your web browser. In the address bar, enter "wireshark.org". Press enter. Find your way to the download, and download the appropriate installer. Run the installer. Run the application. Learn how to use it.
Oh, wait... you meant indicators in the OS? Ha. Right. What makes you think they would exist? It's kind of silly to expect there to be indicators showing for these particular things. If everyone got indicators for every little thing they wanted, then the whole s
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That's not a bug, it's how the software was designed to work.
can't even run office apps... (Score:2, Informative)
it's funny that considering how "deep" Cortana is, it gets utterly confused and useless when I say "Cortana start microsoft word".
I've seen this on here a few times (Score:2, Funny)
I'm just waiting for the coffee table book now.
I'm not a panicky guy but... (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been with windows for close to two decades.
But I'm probably going to either use an older windows box or just bite the bullet and go to linux for my "real" machine. I might use windows for a gaming machine.
I've used openoffice then libre office for years now and no longer even occasionally dip back into Word.
I've disliked the tighter microsoft email/social account integration for a while now.
I really dislike what I'm hearing about the new o/s. I stopped using facebook because of similar actions.
it's like being fabulously wealthy isn't enough. If windows 10 goes forward as is, I probably won't go with it.
Re:I'm not a panicky guy but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Ditto, I hate the idea of MS spying on what I'm doing and it's not known what info they still send back even though you've turned off all the privacy destroying options. And now they're refusing to say what the purpose of new updates is.
So, fuck you Microsoft, I'm advising everyone to install Linux from now on, this crap is not worth it, not even for free.
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Yeah enough is enough, a line has been crossed.
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I'm advising everyone to install Linux from now on, this crap is not worth it, not even for free.
If you're this late in the game and *finally* saying this, well, welcome to the club!
I switched almost 20 years ago to Linux, when my Windows 98 computer emailed a word file of customer names and (private) contact info with a virus. Realizing the risk of staying with an insecure platform, I jumped to using Linux for my workstation full time.
I've never looked back.
RedHat Linux became Fedora/RHEL/CentOS but picking the "main" commercial distro at the time has paid enormous dividends over the years! In the int
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You will ask yourself why you didn't do it earlier Maxo. I would recommend you start with Linux Mint, I think it is the best distro by far if you want a machine that just works and feels natural.
For myself I have been running Linux on my main machine for the last 5 years and keep a windows box for games. Having small kids and a more than full time job means it doesn't even get turned on that much anymore. Add on to that that more and more of the games I play are appearing in Linux and windows gets used l
Re:I'm not a panicky guy but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe you missed that Microsoft have made it increasingly difficult and misleading to get around setting and and logging into a Microsoft account. Maybe you missed that not all the snooping can be turned off. Or maybe you're just trolling.
Re:I'm not a panicky guy but... (Score:5, Interesting)
If you can use Linux, you can easily disable any feature you don't like on Windows
For those not using the corporate version please share the steps for disabling telemetry. Another Slashdotter posted an interesting video [youtube.com] that captured packets when programs, such as calculator, were opened. This was with the settings as private as they could be made: Cortana off, smartscreen off, bug reporting off, everything he could find turned off.
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If you can use Linux, you can easily disable any feature you don't like on Windows
For those not using the corporate version please share the steps for disabling telemetry. Another Slashdotter posted an interesting video [youtube.com] that captured packets when programs, such as calculator, were opened. This was with the settings as private as they could be made: Cortana off, smartscreen off, bug reporting off, everything he could find turned off.
What did those packets transfered?
What pissed me off... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Avoid the app store. I think it's utterly ridiculous that you need a third party account merely to use the free applications. It only does this because it wants people to have that account so that they can push their stupid store on users; once you have the account it thinks people will be hooked and start spending money on stuff, one-touch click to install useless junk, etc.
And of course once you have a linked Microsoft account, it can really go full bore on tracking what you run, what you buy, what you s
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I can use my Mac and all of the applications that come with it without using an Apple ID at any time. I would need an Apple ID to get any of their thousands of pointless fluff from the store. However on Windows 8, you can not use the built in Mail app (the metro version) without having a Microsoft account. When installing/upgrading to a new OSX version it does not ask you to use or create an Apple ID, yet that is what Windows 8 and 10 will do.
Apple and Google do this on their smart phones; Windows 8 is
Re:What pissed me off... (Score:5, Informative)
When you logged in to the app store you were asked if you wanted to convert your account to a Microsoft online account, or just log in to the app store. You must have ignored that question and blindly clicked through it, and hence your account was converted (unfortunately that is the default).
http://www.guidingtech.com/ass... [guidingtech.com]
The lack of control (Score:4, Informative)
The thing that pisses me off about Windows 10 is the apparent lack of control the user has with their own machine. Exhibit A: http://www.tenforums.com/attac... [tenforums.com]
Check out the real-time protection option. "You can turn it off temporarily, but if it's off for a while, we'll turn it back on automatically." What bullshit is that? First, it doesn't tell you what it constitutes as "a while". A day? A week? A month? Second, the fact that it believes that power users are extinct and might have an edge-case for permanently disabling it is ridiculous. It's based off of Microsoft Security Essentials, and I disabled the real-time protection when installed on Win 7 on my netbook because it was just too much for the poor little Atom processor to deal with. If I needed to scan something, I'd do it on-demand. Here, I have no permanent solution because Windows 10 thinks it knows better than my situation.
Windows 10 is peppered with many other areas which make me feel less in control than I used to. I know that I can't have full control when running a proprietary system, but it's all about degrees, and Win 10 feels far less catered for power users than Win 7.
Re: (Score:3)
Windows 10 assumes the user to be technologically ignorant because the vast majority of computer users *are*.
Computers have matured to the point where, like cars, you need only the vaguest idea how they work in order to use them. There was a time when anyone who wanted to drive a car needed to be familiar with the technology in order to carry out frequent maintenance and repair the many breakdowns in the field - that is where computers used to be. Now the car is a mature technology people can stop worrying
Too many GUI changes to do -- needs simplification (Score:2, Interesting)
From all the articles I've read about Windows 10, it looks like there are quite a number of settings that must be made to stop all that "phone home" behavior.
The number of changes is large enough so that I don't trust myself to do them all by clicking various GUI screens. I'll inevitably miss one or get it wrong -- which is unacceptable when privacy and security are at stake.
Does anyone know of any software yet that fixes Windows 10's abuses using a single-step installer?
Interesting game. The only way to win is not to pl (Score:2)
Equivalently: "How may I [consort with] a brothel of multiply infected hookers who have graduate biomed degrees, practical research in communicable infection and a fervent INTENT to infect their customers?"
As WOPR said in "Wargames", 30+ years ago, "Interesting game. The only way to win is not to play."
Just be patient and wait? (Score:2)
Within 3 to 6 months some tool will come out from someone, similar to classic shell but for privacy. It'll disable any and everything properly and "fix" any odd crap straight up.
Let other people get messy with it.
I mean you could just not use it but for some of us, that isn't an option.
I'm happy to wait for a cool tool, probably be published like most useful free tools on Ninite.com as well, it'll be a piece of cake.
Let others beta test.
The solution... (Score:2)
The 'Settings' is where they fool you (Score:2)
Just because you kill a feature in 'settings' doesnt mean that they have to oblige. You can't see the code so you cannot be sure if changing the settings actually changes anything
2015 just might be the year of the Linux Desktop (Score:3)
Thanks Microsoft! Windows 10 gives all the users that were thinking of trying Linux an obvious incentive to make the switch!
Photoshop / Lightroom anxiety (Score:5, Interesting)
My wife has a small photography business, and Photoshop and Lightroom are huge aspects of her photo editing workflow. She's invested untold hours building up skills in them, and that proficiency really pays off in terms of the quality and speed of her editing work.
Right now she edits on our Windows 7 box. I'm almost dead set against us using Windows 10 because of this privacy crap (and now I apparently have to try undoing the telemetry those assholes snuck into Windows 7.)
I feel caught between a rock and a hard place, because switching to a Mac would be an unwelcome expense for us. Also an business risk, since I can cheaply repair or upgrade a PC, but I have not expectation of being able to do that on a Mac. So if a Mac craps out near one of her deadlines, I'm not confident that I can get it (or a replacement) online as fast as we really want.
I'm just amazed at how hard Microsoft is working to drive us away. They've gone from being a reasonable partner for our kind of business (Windows 7), to being one of our largest sources of medium- and long-term risk. They're now making our decision to use Windows for her business, into a strategic mistake.
I really hope Adobe comes up with some decent solution to people in our shoes. If they have a Linux port of Creative Suite in their back pocket, this would be a dandy time to start selling it.
Re:/facepalm (Score:4, Insightful)
It actually is that big a deal. It is just that the MS PR department managed to convince some clueless people that what they do is harmless. It is not.
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If you don't think having integrated spyware, adverts and forced updates in your OS is "not that big a deal", then you are a fucking moron.
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It is a big deal. However some people have been brainwashed into not caring about privacy. "Oh, it's just for providing a better customer experience, I'm all for that!", or "I love advertising, especially when it's targeted!", or "I like things in the clouds, especially the bunny shaped ones", or "when has Microsoft ever been evil?"
Re: (Score:2)
Just a day or two ago /. does the responsible thing and posts an article that actually discusses what is going on and shows that it's really not that big a deal. The very next day they're bad to spreading fud. Make up your mind, and stop trying to have it both ways.
But it's worse than that; this is an article telling noob users how to open Settings and untick a bunch of options. With screenshots. Any regular slashdotter should feel quite insulted having this article posted here. Seriously, somebody thinks we need to see some screenshots of how the Settings pages work.
Re:/facepalm (Score:5, Insightful)
Couple of days of reading?, like you could just click the damn "Privacy options" link at install time and uncheck the 4 or 5 options.
Two major problems with that:
1) There aren't options to disable all of the spyware in Windows 10.
2) Even when you "disable" the options that you are graciously allowed to by Microsoft on your own PC, it still sends that data anyway.
If you knew how to use a packet analyser, you could see that for yourself instead of posting comments that reveal what a clueless idiot you are.
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If you knew how to use a packet analyser, you could see that for yourself
All of that likely to be encrypted, though
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3) Those are the obvious options. There are many more burried all over the place, under control panel and settings, every one of which is invasive-by-default. It's quite the quest to find them all, and even when you do find them all you only run into 1) anyway - you've reduced the spying a bit, but not eliminated it.
You can't even run calculator or the image viewer without Microsoft knowing. Really. Every time you do, it establishes a connection to licensing.md.mp.microsoft.com. I think it does that for all
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Couple days of reading articles about Windows 10 that is, not to read the checkboxes. Only someone who trusts Microsoft would trust those checkboxes to do what they say.
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Because it used to be an operating system and had not yet turned into a smartphone wannabe.
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I get it, you're used to Linux, where you need 743 command line commands to do anything
Usually switching from mouse/GUI to a terminal allows you to do exactly precisely what you want in a few commands (and if you need 743 commands, make a shell script, which becomes one command). And you also usually get a level of feedback (errors...) you wouldn't have with the Gui.
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Can you trust that they are being turned off? Microsoft does not have a good track record when it comes to telling the truth. Even after turning off those options it seems that Windows 10 is still transmitting a lot of data that appears to be telemetry. Even if this is purely benign data, it is not their network and it is not free so they should not transmit anything without the user's explicit permission.
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They're going to market you to advertisers and sell their customer lists, if you ever get an app (don't do this!) they'll let the app makers know what similar apps you have purchased. Their goal is to out-google Google, and out-apple Apple. They know they're behind in the customer monetization game and are trying to leapfrog past the others. Windows is in a decline as the casual users are moving to phones and tablets so Microsoft is desperate here.
Just look at Windows 8, the whole thing from top to botto
Re:/facepalm (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the problem is that MS isn't being completely clear as to what it is they're collecting or why they're collecting it. Take those seven or eight updates to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 that added forced telemetry collection. No one really knows what it is those things are collecting - MS's own update really doesn't say much other than "It's information needed to ease the transition between Windows 7 or 8.1 and Windows 10" and "It's for customer experience improvements". On top of this, all of the telemetry updates were marked as "Important" in Windows Update, meaning that they'll be automatically installed on most update configurations.
If MS really had some reason to do this, they should have said exactly what it is they were collecting and why from the get-go, and also had a clear opt-out provision. Failing to do this is what's sparking a lot of paranoia - I've heard everything from "MS's telemetry service is logging everything you type and sending it to MS to improve autocorrect functionality" to "MS is actively recording input from attached webcams and microphones and sending it to MS servers".
I think if MS were to put out a well-thought out announcement telling people why it is they're doing this, a lot of the paranoia would go away.
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Yes but with vmware viewer installed, I can run a really fast Linux desktop inside of win10.