Live data from Hacker News

Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you don't want it to?

zdnet.com

51–60 of 153 posts

Re: Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you don't want it to?

#51
post #48
post #37

As a longtime Windows 7 fan that refused to upgrade until I finally bought a new laptop with it I have been absolutely shocked by Windows 10's aggressive user-hostility. The way they reset settings after forced upgrades should be criminal. The way the user has no control over certain Microsoft processes unless they have been lucky enough to be allowed to pay for a Group Policy Editor license should also be criminal.…

The only user-hostile behavior I mostly agree with his forced, frequent updates. It would be better if: 1) Microsoft didn't beta-test with actual customers. 2) Microsoft figured out how to update things without restarting so commonly (as I understand, this is due to how files are locked and how dependent services are updated). 3) Microsoft didn't push out unnecessary crap as "critical" or essential/important updates.…

My Win10 PC sometimes wakes up in the night to complete an update and reboot. My working sessions are lost as a consequence. And since my PC reboots to Linux it stays up until I wake up due to the humming. Quite annoying.

This morning I researched a way to turn off these forced updates but Win10 wouldn't let me apply the option without entering some obscure credentials that I don't know.

Re: Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you don't want it to?

#52
post #37

As a longtime Windows 7 fan that refused to upgrade until I finally bought a new laptop with it I have been absolutely shocked by Windows 10's aggressive user-hostility. The way they reset settings after forced upgrades should be criminal. The way the user has no control over certain Microsoft processes unless they have been lucky enough to be allowed to pay for a Group Policy Editor license should also be criminal.…

What enrages me most is the fact that they ask us to f* pay for it!

The implicit deal with Facebook, Google and other free services is that you pay them with their data. Fine.

But paying for being spied on? This is scam pure and simple.

Re: Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you don't want it to?

#53
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only user-hostile behavior I mostly agree with his forced, frequent updates. It would be better if: 1) Microsoft didn't beta-test with actual customers. 2) Microsoft figured out how to update things without restarting so commonly (as I understand, this is due to how files are locked and how dependent services are updated). 3) Microsoft didn't push out unnecessary crap as "critical" or essential/important updates.…

My Win10 PC sometimes wakes up in the night to complete an update and reboot. My working sessions are lost as a consequence. And since my PC reboots to Linux it stays up until I wake up due to the humming. Quite annoying. This morning I researched a way to turn off these forced updates but Win10 wouldn't let me apply the option without entering some obscure credentials that I don't know.

But wouldn't it be better if your apps supported hot exit, so you could wake up the next morning with updates already installed AND all your work still there?

Re: Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you don't want it to?

#54
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And just what is being sent out at "basic" level?

It's covered on Microsoft's website at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/privacy/basic-level... . Whether or not their documentation is exhaustive is another issue, but they do at least provide non-ambiguous wording on what's being collected. There's also other links to see what's collected using full instead of basic (check the sidebar).

Unambiguously-worded it may well be, but there's obfuscation through overload, particularly when writ in explicit technical jargon.

I consider myself a fairly knowledgable computer user (I've been using computers for 35 years, Windows since 3.1) and the page you've linked there means nothing to me - what hope has the average consumer?

Re: Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you don't want it to?

#55
post #30

I don't get it. This article and Reddit post is very misguided. Why are people upset that you're sending data to Microsoft if you enable the settings in Windows that specifically allow Microsoft to collect this data? Maybe I'm biased since I run Windows 10 Pro but you can simply turn off activity history and set your diagnostic settings to basic. Now your non-anonymous data won't be sent to MS (unless they are secret…

You may want to have a look at the number of possible events sent to America compared between 'basic' and 'full' (93|112), (410|422). https://www.ghacks.net/2018/11/23/german-federal-office-bsi-... Office then has approximately 50 times that number again: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/16/microsoft_gdpr/ People are upset because there is no way to set this to zero aside from unplugging the machine from the net…

Thanks for the links.

You could also try installing O&O ShutUp10. I've been running it since I installed Windows 10.

You can download it (it's a free app) at https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10.

It nulls out a bunch of telemetry related addresses in your /etc/hosts file, and allows you to configure over a 100 different privacy settings from 1 place.

Re: Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you don't want it to?

#56
post #37

As a longtime Windows 7 fan that refused to upgrade until I finally bought a new laptop with it I have been absolutely shocked by Windows 10's aggressive user-hostility. The way they reset settings after forced upgrades should be criminal. The way the user has no control over certain Microsoft processes unless they have been lucky enough to be allowed to pay for a Group Policy Editor license should also be criminal.…

Many free-software and open-source advocates would of course not be shocked at this. They would tell you that this is why it is a grievous mistake to rely on proprietary software for your baseline computing needs. And of course Microsoft LOVES open source these days, so it has selflessly embarked on a mission to prove them right.

Re: Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you don't want it to?

#57
post #37

As a longtime Windows 7 fan that refused to upgrade until I finally bought a new laptop with it I have been absolutely shocked by Windows 10's aggressive user-hostility. The way they reset settings after forced upgrades should be criminal. The way the user has no control over certain Microsoft processes unless they have been lucky enough to be allowed to pay for a Group Policy Editor license should also be criminal.…

I've noticed my computer now restarts, reopens all the applications I had running, and sometimes even has them all in the same positions I left them in. If I didnt get signed out of Steam and my VPN wasnt open I wouldnt even notice half the time.

I want to be able to decide if my computer updates... It's not even that big of an ask.

Re: Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you don't want it to?

#58
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may want to have a look at the number of possible events sent to America compared between 'basic' and 'full' (93|112), (410|422). https://www.ghacks.net/2018/11/23/german-federal-office-bsi-... Office then has approximately 50 times that number again: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/16/microsoft_gdpr/ People are upset because there is no way to set this to zero aside from unplugging the machine from the net…

Thanks for the links. You could also try installing O&O ShutUp10. I've been running it since I installed Windows 10. You can download it (it's a free app) at https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 . It nulls out a bunch of telemetry related addresses in your /etc/hosts file, and allows you to configure over a 100 different privacy settings from 1 place.

Microsoft have a long history of overriding and ignoring hosts configurations to their own addresses so I am skeptical on the utility of this. I think you might be a little too trusting.

I do not have time to repeat the efforts outlined by government contractors in the above links with this add on applied, I doubt you do either.

Better for me to avoid the OS altogether.

Re: Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you don't want it to?

#59
post #37

As a longtime Windows 7 fan that refused to upgrade until I finally bought a new laptop with it I have been absolutely shocked by Windows 10's aggressive user-hostility. The way they reset settings after forced upgrades should be criminal. The way the user has no control over certain Microsoft processes unless they have been lucky enough to be allowed to pay for a Group Policy Editor license should also be criminal.…

I've noticed my computer now restarts, reopens all the applications I had running, and sometimes even has them all in the same positions I left them in. If I didnt get signed out of Steam and my VPN wasnt open I wouldnt even notice half the time. I want to be able to decide if my computer updates... It's not even that big of an ask.

> reopens all the applications I had running, and sometimes even has them all in the same positions I left them in

That's a really great feature. I'd love to see even better window management in 10.

Re: Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you don't want it to?

#60
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Win10 PC sometimes wakes up in the night to complete an update and reboot. My working sessions are lost as a consequence. And since my PC reboots to Linux it stays up until I wake up due to the humming. Quite annoying. This morning I researched a way to turn off these forced updates but Win10 wouldn't let me apply the option without entering some obscure credentials that I don't know.

But wouldn't it be better if your apps supported hot exit, so you could wake up the next morning with updates already installed AND all your work still there?

It would be better if updating didn't require a restart.
Post reply on HN