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Ask Slashdot: Can You Disable Windows 10's Privacy-Invading Features?
An anonymous reader writes: I really want to upgrade to Windows 10, but have begun seeing stories come out about the new Terms and how they affect your privacy. It looks like the default Windows 10 system puts copies of your data out on the "cloud", gives your passwords out, and targets advertising to you. The main reason I am looking to upgrade is that Bitlocker is not available on Windows 7 Pro, but is on Windows 10 Pro, and Microsoft no longer offers Anytime Upgrades to Windows 7 Ultimate. However, I don't want to give away my privacy for security. The other option is to wait until October to see what the Windows 10 Enterprise version offers, but it may not be available through retail. Are the privacy minded Slashdot readers not going with Windows 10?
For reference, I am referring to these articles. (Not to mention claims that it steals your bandwidth.) Have a question for Slashdot's readers? Take a look at other recent questions first to see if someone else has had a similar question. And if not, ask away! The more details and context you include, the more likely your question will be selected.
For reference, I am referring to these articles. (Not to mention claims that it steals your bandwidth.) Have a question for Slashdot's readers? Take a look at other recent questions first to see if someone else has had a similar question. And if not, ask away! The more details and context you include, the more likely your question will be selected.
1. You don't set up a live account. That shuts down most of it. 2. Change the host file to redirect most of the bad domains to localhost. 3. There are going to be endless registry hacks to turn things off or change the way they work. 4. programs are going to be released that change things or replace features with something else that does the same thing but is open source etc.
Basically yes.
Insert at the top of your list, renumber if desired:
0. When the installer gives you the opportunity to customize your setting do so, disable whatever you care too.
Because your average user isn't a /. Reader or l33t hax0r... The idea of having settings and data synced across multiple PCs appeals to enough people to warrant it being in the box.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
Instead of worrying about whether you managed to find every little thing you needed to find to avoid the OS harvesting all your data behind your back, why not just install Debian or Mint and use dm-crypt and/or ecryptfs in place of bitlocker?
SO much simpler and more worry free, and you get to be free of that nagging feeling that you missed one of the privacy settings they buried under that "beware of the leopard" sign...
I have been going through and cataloging everything that Windows 10 does, and looking to end the communication with Microsoft component-by-component. It'll take removing packages with dism, setting group policies and making secure policies into the "default user", blocking employees being able to lock out admin simply because they want to log in to the store etc., turning off the update services, etc. It's a long road to lock down win10. You still can't keep the OS from doing anything it wants though, basically Microsoft has decided that they get to rootkit and keylog your box while background capturing your location and data files.
The first thing that admins should be doing is looking at how MS has invaded windows 7 with it's GMX and telemetry updates for the older OSs. Besides the tray ad, a whole new package of privacy invading phone-home and send your data was included in the "critical updates". There are about eight different tasks added to windows 7 scheduled tasks that even admin can't remove, they have to be manually pruned from the registry.
It takes a good amount of powershell, registry editing, and dism to script-remove this malware from windows 7, and if you were letting windows update since April, the damage is already done.
We all knew that Microsoft has been wanting to switch Windows to a subscription model for a while now. The only question was how to do it without inciting a mass exodus. It looks like they have found the first step. Windows 10 users are now the product instead of the customer. I guess it should have been obvious where this was going...
Fuck no. Looking for alternatives to windows 10 I actually installed Ubuntu today and found that it is collecting my searches and sharing them with third parties.
About the only quibble I have with what you're saying is "stop updates". Instead I'd like it to be easier to customize updates. I don't want to miss patches. Once I've got a setup I like, I want it to stay the same except I want security issues patched. I want to be able to segregate security patches from "features". Also, I'm not sure why Windows 8.1 has this whole business of working on the update while it's in the shutdown process. That's really annoying if I'm shutting down to go away for a while, or because of storm activity. I want to shutdown NOW. Not in 10 minutes. Also, don't auto-shutdown or nag me. Just put a RED WARNING security patch update icon on the task bar or something. I know it's there. I'll do it when I'm done with other stuff.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Xubuntu, never Ubuntu.
And that is why Linux has no chance...
There is no "Linux", there are 100s of "Linux" versions, it is WAY too confusing for your average customer.
So it just isn't going to happen...
We are sheep, we are all so stupid.
Nonsense, I am not stupid... I'm well aware of the deal being made...
Google gives me free search, free e-mail, free calendar, free maps, etc. etc. in return for tracking what I do and selling that information to marketers....
I'm ok with this deal, it was made willingly.
You think "most people" need CAD, Adobe apps, MS Office, financial software, medical software or supply chain software?
Most people need a web browser.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I disagree.
I think it'll be a mainstream desktop OS soon after someone manage to get the
word to the masses that they don't have to pay for Windows or Mac OS.
That's nice, but you're wrong.
Why can I say you're wrong? Because people have been saying that for 20 years, it hasn't happened, it won't happen, it isn't even remotely close to happening.
The number of ways that is wrong is extensive, but just a few:
1. It costs money to get "word to the masses", a lot of money. Anyone spending that money wants something in return, and giving away free without conditions isn't it.
2. The average consumer doesn't have any issue with the current price of Windows. Windows is either "Free" with the computer, or a trivial cost. OS X is also "free" with a computer.
3. The average consumer has no interest in learning how to install anything, or how that magic computer box works.
It wouldn't take much.
Yep, the "Year of Linux on the Desktop" is just around the corner... you keep that hope alive!
Most people need to be able to run anything they find without worrying if it will work. That means everything from a cross-stitch pattern maker to a Sea World screensaver to Photoshop (the real thing, from Adobe) to any random VPN client for whatever shonky hardware some middle manager at their company requisitioned to the text editor they downloaded (from download.com, complete with malware on the side) to any and/or every game on Steam (including ports of old DOS games) to, well, you name it.
That means Windows, because Linux just isn't up to the task. If you want to solve this problem, it's sad to say that WINE is probably your only hope. Or just buy Windows and get a well supported system with a large user community. Think of it as paying for the support, not for the OS itself. Because, truly, that's what it is. You're not paying for the OS, you're paying for the work that was, is, and will be put into making it. You're just paying Microsoft, not Red Hat... or wasting your own time fixing things. Beyond that, it's all ideology and RMS rants.
Word is out there, if we are discussing the Linux kernel - all those Android devices for a start...
I highly doubt very many people who have an Android phone know about the kernel underneath.
Add to that they have no real control over it either. You buy a Samsung Galaxy S6 phone, you get what you're given and most people are happy enough with that.
If you were to say, "hey, you know that phone you like so much, you can install that OS on your desktop computer!", their likely reply would be, "what? why the heck would I want to do that?!?"
And they'd be right.
However, my guess is that we are discussing a (generic) Linux Distribution - the kernel, the libraries, the applications, the user interface, the package management system, etc.
Yep, and there really isn't a "generic Linux" for people, there are just too many versions and flavors. It is confusing, and frankly people don't like that much choice. It requires they understand the computer more than they want to.
This is why when you go to buy a car, few cars offer more than trim levels and a handful of options. You can get that Ford Explorer in XLT, Limited, or Sport, take your pick. A Honda Odyssey comes in LX, EX, EX-L, Touring, and Touring Elite, pick one. That is 5 choices, probably 1 too many, but there it is...
On average, people want a "cheap, middle, deluxe" option... "Small, medium, large... maybe extra large"... Linux is WAY too fractured for Joe Consumer.
For a utility machine - web browsing, email, the occasional document or spreadsheet - several Linux Distributions work great.. but there is no commercial push to them.
Of course they do, I don't doubt that at all... but no one is pushing them because there isn't any money to be made... not real money anyway... Red Hat tried years ago and didn't get much traction, so they switched to supporting the business/server market and have done ok there.
Dell has tried a few times selling machines with Linux installed, and their return rates were terrible. People want to be able to install "anything", and Windows lets you install (almost) anything. You'd be really hard pressed to find a program that general consumers might use that doesn't have a Windows version.
Why can I say you're wrong? Because people have been saying that for 20 years, it hasn't happened, it won't happen, it isn't even remotely close to happening.
I can remember much the same being said about Internet Explorer, which went from well over 90% usage share to more like 20% over the last 10-15 years (with much of the decline happening before mobile became an important factor).
An entrenched monopoly can be difficult to dislodge, but that doesn't mean it will last forever. Microsoft has also lost a lot of ground that would have protected Windows had it held onto them - control of the web browser and wordprocessor being the two main ones.
(Imagine if every website used ActiveX - that would be a problem for competitors. There are plenty of market niches were similar problems still exist, but for mainstream users I don't see any insurmountable barriers to migration now.)
Now it may very well be that what replaces the Windows desktop isn't called Linux. It might not even be Linux-based, or run on what we would currently recognise as a desktop PC. (The most effective challengers so far have been Android and IOS, which satisfy two and three of these conditions respectively.) Microsoft could also stay there longer by upping their game. Nothing lasts forever, though.