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Fix Windows 10

fix10.isleaked.com

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Re: Fix Windows 10

#71
post #50
post #32

In my opinion, if those privacy issues bother you, the first step should be an overview of non-Microsoft operating systems.

and the alternatives are? osX invented all this. MS is just catching up. and apple don't even allow you to disable things. android? chrome alone sends more info than whole windows 10+edge. now, you could say Linux. but sadly your grand mother has no publicly available product she can buy with that OS.

Could you provide some references for all of that?

Also, there are at least a couple of "publicly available" products one could buy preloaded with Linux. Even Dell has an offering: http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-linux/pd

Re: Fix Windows 10

#72
post #50
post #32

In my opinion, if those privacy issues bother you, the first step should be an overview of non-Microsoft operating systems.

and the alternatives are? osX invented all this. MS is just catching up. and apple don't even allow you to disable things. android? chrome alone sends more info than whole windows 10+edge. now, you could say Linux. but sadly your grand mother has no publicly available product she can buy with that OS.

[deleted]

Re: Fix Windows 10

#73
post #55
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cortana is not an essential part of the OS. Malware databases can exist locally. You're just making excuses for MS's anti-privacy architecture.

Lots of apple, and google features are not essential part of the system. Shall we turn siri off by default? "Malware databases can exist locally" - You still have to download, and upload definitions. This is what windows defender does. People still complain about that. It's not that I'm not concerned about privacy. It's the hypocritical nature of people. It only becomes a big issue when Microsoft does it. Anyone else…

Yes, I think Siri should be off by default. Malware databases can be updated when the user updates everything else. The reason people are complaining is that this data is being sent automatically by the OS without their permission or knowledge. It's not just a complaint against MS, but also against other OS's that do the same like Android.

Re: Fix Windows 10

#74
I expect Microsoft provides their corporate customers with a solution that includes confidentiality and end-user control (i.e., IT department control) of machines. Many business users would not and could not share this info with Microsoft.

Instead of trying to discover and disable each confidentiality threat in the consumer version, the best solution probably is to obtain of that corporate version. Likely you also need to read up on how to configure those featues on TechNet, but generally Microsoft's documentation is complete (if sometimes difficult).

Re: Fix Windows 10

#75

Or just use a Mac. Or Ubuntu. ...sorry, it had to be said :)

>Mac

Which sends search queries via “Spotlight Suggestions” and “Bing Web Searches” by default?

>Or Ubuntu

Which sends all your search queries to Canonical by default (via the shopping lens)?

Re: Fix Windows 10

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's clarify: disabling smartscreen for privacy reasons is different that keeping it enabled for security reasons. Smartscreen sends urls you visit to Msoft, and since Win8, it sends filenames of downloaded files to Msoft too. As for the security argument, smartscreen only works in IE, so for those of use who don't want any of that turned on, and use FF (instead of chrome), where we download the blacklist instead of…

>The same for cloud based Defender. There is no reason I shouldn't be able to turn it off if I have an approriate replacement that protects my privacy. Your AV is doing exactly what Smartscreen does and so do many security products. Its a common feature, where are the privacy guides for that? Oh right, there's a double standard for MS. Also, the author didn't disable Defender because he is using a different AV. He le…

"Your AV" you don't know what AV I'm using, and you're wrong. I have setup a local update server which regularly downloads updates from the vendor and then updates endpoints on the LAN with no traffic going from LAN->Cloud for that.

"so do many security products. Its a common feature" That also is why I don't use those products, and many others would agree.

"where are the privacy guides for that?" I don't know, but are you trying to pretend there are none? If you are asking did you even do a couple of searches? I doubt it.

"Oh right, there's a double standard for MS." Nope, same standard for all things. I don't like it if you send any of my or my computers info to servers without my knowledge of the content or purpose and I explicitly approve.

"Also, the author didn't disable Defender because he is using a different AV. He left it on and just disabled the cloud definitions feature, meaning he's not going to be up-to-date on definitions."

Once again... wrong. The cloud feature is for sending info about what is on your computer to MS so they can use it to update the definitions, it does not provide the definitions itself.

"Cloud defs are a bit different than what you get via WU. Its a dynamic list of suspicious hashes" if this is true, then I would be wrong on the previous section, but I have seen no documentation that specifies this. Care to provide a source for this info?

Re: Fix Windows 10

#77
post #5

I look at this list and I think of my grandmother, who would never do this, never even think to do it. "The windows" is her friend, and she's relatively tech savvy for a person of her generation. Heck, people my mothers generation would not think to do this. Heck, even my brother would not think to do this, or to look for this. If it's not a single place, if you have to open the command line (on windows) then the abi…

What are the tangible downsides your grandmother will experience as a result of not following these steps?

Re: Fix Windows 10

#79
post #50
post #32

In my opinion, if those privacy issues bother you, the first step should be an overview of non-Microsoft operating systems.

and the alternatives are? osX invented all this. MS is just catching up. and apple don't even allow you to disable things. android? chrome alone sends more info than whole windows 10+edge. now, you could say Linux. but sadly your grand mother has no publicly available product she can buy with that OS.

I've installed Elementary OS to my parents home computer and I never do anything on it, it seems easy enough to use even for people without any computer knowledge. There are way better Linux distributions now compared to what it was before.

Also compared to windows, I don't need to check that they installed some IncrediBar software which is changing the homepage all the time, this is much better for me. Also I don't know how to explain that but the i18n is incredible compared to Windows and it's much more translated even in system parts, there is no english words to scare away my parents. It just feels more pure in terms of translation.

Re: Fix Windows 10

#80
post #42
post #31

I can't help but feel like some of this is fear mongering. There are some good features in there that are being disabled for the sake of "privacy" like sharing of Windows updates with other computers to speed up downloads. And how do we expect things like Windows Defender or Microsoft's handwriting and voice recognition to improve if we refuse to share back any anonymized information with Microsoft?

> like sharing of Windows updates with other computers to speed up downloads American internet speeds suck enough without Microsoft grabbing some for itself. > Windows Defender They seemed to be able to improve their services before. In fact, I think that's what a Security Researchers job is. MS has several of them. > handwriting and voice recognition Neither of which apply to my desktop, so why do I have to give the…

>American internet speeds suck enough without Microsoft grabbing some for itself.

Which is why you should only have to download updates once for your entire network and not per device and why you shouldn't waste bandwidth on failed partial updates. This feature fixes both of these issues.

>They seemed to be able to improve their services before. In fact, I think that's what a Security Researchers job is. MS has several of them

I'm a software developer. My job is to write bug free code. My job would be a lot harder if I couldn't get any debug information from my testers or users. Just because it is possible to do a job without certain information, doesn't mean it is a good idea to intentionally withhold that information.

>Neither of which apply to my desktop, so why do I have to give them any information.

If you don't use voice or ink, why are you worried about sharing your voice and ink data with Microsoft?

>Microsoft could have saved a lot of face simply by making all this opt in and off by default.

Because most of these features would have never been turned on by the user. What good is a security setting that is supposed to protect unskilled computer users if it requires in depth knowledge of the OS to turn on in the first place?

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