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

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

#141

Post by Crosseye_Jack »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #57
guelo wrote: 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.

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

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/w...

As for the opening of you windows after a restart/shutdown that too is a Registry or Group Policy change you can make to adjust its behaviour (They may have promoted the setting to somewhere in the settings app since I changed the behaviour myself)

Basically if you don't want it to reopen your applications / windows when you next log in you make a small change to the shutdown command that executed when you shutdown in your preferred method (If you shutdown / restart with a certain flag windows won't do this).

EDIT: A quick google tells me they have indeed promoted such behaviour to the Settings App.

To change this setting, head to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options. Scroll down to the Privacy section and set the “Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device and reopen my apps after an update or restart” option to “Off.”

AND

launch File Explorer, click the “View” tab on the Ribbon and click the “Options” button. On the View tab, scroll down and locate the “Restore previous folder windows at logon” option. Ensure it’s unchecked or Windows will reopen any folder windows when you sign into your PC.

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

#142

Post by Crosseye_Jack »

guelo wrote: 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 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.

regedit.exe All the tweaks I make to friend's & family's machines can be done in either the registry or in GPE, Its just GPE is a bit more user friendly than regedit but when I've come across a home licensed machine I can still make all the needed tweaks in the registry.

> The way they reset settings after forced upgrades should be criminal.

They have stopped the resetting of privacy settings after updates. I only notice major resets with large insider build updates (But those updates are more "refresh installs" then "Update installs" so I will let them off on that one) apart from one thing...

Audio. Seems like they are transitioning audio config from control panel to Settings and every now and then they reset my preferred audio settings But I do have a pretty weird audio set up.

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

#143

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee »

lurker_primo wrote: post #129
exodust wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm about to set up a new PC for a relative with Win 10 Home, parts have just arrived. Any advice on set up procedures or things I can do to keep Microsoft from spying on them and collecting their data? Or is it just not possible any more? Surely I can install the OS without creating a MS account? My intention is to disable all the nags, bloat and advertising bullying, leaving only an essential OS that doesn't bully…

You can have an offline account which is not connected to a microsoft account in any way. They try to force you to connect a microsoft account. There are scripts that disable all telemetry - reddit.com/r/tronscript is a good resource. The issue is that we don't know when Microsoft turns it back on.

I’ve been running my Windows 10 desktop this way for a while.

Prepare for a lot of nags about logging in to a Microsoft account.

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

#144

Post by linuxftw »

wink wrote: post #108
linuxftw wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a (more than one, really) wonderful free operating system alternative that you can install on almost any PC. At the very least, you can dual boot. Critical mass starts with you.

Please don't act as if Linux was a viable alternative for everything. It's not. I appreciate trying to prod people, but this came off very elitist. -- someone who's been using Linux since 1998, Linux desktops for work stuff since ~2008 and has more machines with only Linux at home than ones with Windows, but still spends the majority of recreation time on a Win7 box because not all games run nicely with Wine, or at a…

I don't play video games on PC, and neither do most 'normal' users. Most people use PC for browsing the web, writing email, and creating documents. Many people do play games on PC, but not most.

Vote with your dollars. What do you care about most? PC Video games, or having an operating system that respects your freedom and privacy? Critical mass starts with you too, if you want PC Video games that run on free operating systems, us those systems and the vendors will follow.

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

#145

Post by Casseres »

exodust wrote: post #131
lurker_primo wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have an offline account which is not connected to a microsoft account in any way. They try to force you to connect a microsoft account. There are scripts that disable all telemetry - reddit.com/r/tronscript is a good resource. The issue is that we don't know when Microsoft turns it back on.

Okay thanks. The PC I'm assembling is for an 80yo guy who doesn't trust the internet, and would be horrified to learn how much Microsoft wants to track his usage. I won't be telling him about that. He deletes emails and even text messages as soon as he's read them, for fear of them causing problems. The last thing he wants is Windows popping up some message, contextually trying to be smart and know what he's doing wi…

Does he need any Windows-only software? If not, set him up with Linux. He's less susceptable to clicking on the wrong thing and getting malware as well.

There are some very user-friendly GUIs out there that are easy to install.

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

#146

Post by apta »

fx1994 wrote: post #101
ep103 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4. Install Latest Windows Updates 5. Find that these settings have been set back to enabled again. 6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 every Tuesday. 7. Discover MS is still sending data, regardless of your settings. ^^ The above is why.

After spending two days to setup my Win10 Procame some glorious update and MS decided to reset settings on their own. That was the first and last time. Next day I downgraded to Win 8.1 Pro. Win 7 Pro memory and disk usage can't be compared to Win8 or Win10, but I'm happy.

Do you mean Win7 uses less or more memory and disk compared to Win 10?

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

#147

Post by Nerdfest »

wink wrote: post #108
linuxftw wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a (more than one, really) wonderful free operating system alternative that you can install on almost any PC. At the very least, you can dual boot. Critical mass starts with you.

Please don't act as if Linux was a viable alternative for everything. It's not. I appreciate trying to prod people, but this came off very elitist. -- someone who's been using Linux since 1998, Linux desktops for work stuff since ~2008 and has more machines with only Linux at home than ones with Windows, but still spends the majority of recreation time on a Win7 box because not all games run nicely with Wine, or at a…

While not a 'normal' user as such, I've used only Linux at home and at work (Win VM at work occasionally for rare corporate stuff). I develop software, control my guitar amp and audio equipment, play video games, do photo processing, watch videos ....

No, it's not a viable alternative for everything, it's damn close. Valve is doing some incorporation of Wine into Steam that should make many "Windows-only" games play effortlessly.

Don't use Linux if you don't want to obviously, but complaining because you can't play all games written for a completely different OS is a valid complaint. If you know people that are concerned about surveillance and privacy, don't scare them away. At least tell people about multi-boot.

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

#148

Post by Nerdfest »

flukus wrote: post #120
monetus wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you feel about critical mass for average users though? Debian updating its repositories every two years is kind of antithetical to the android and mac idea of software repositories. I've not tried elementaryOS, but I thought it was similar.

Average users hate updates, that's a major reason MS (and others like chrome) have to be so aggressive about forcing them, it's why so many stick with XP and 7. They hate security updates because they're an annoyance that does things they don't understand and they hate app updates that change the UI under their nose. If you gave them a system and promised nothing major would change for 5 years they'd be thankful.

You can run fully transparent updates in Linux using tools from Canonical, Oracle, etc. I have absolutely no idea how people put up with how badly Windows does updates, and really, XBox is not far behind.

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

#149

Post by Nerdfest »

grawprog wrote: post #103
jstimpfle wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, this is not mobile. I'm using my Desktop PC for real work. Desktop applications are more complex and have more complex interaction patterns than mobile apps. I might be able to restore my session manually (lose an undo buffer here or a private browsing session there) but its still an annoyance.

My KDE desktop will restore about 95% of my previous session in its previous state on restart even after a crash or power loss. It doesn't restore private browser sessions or running games in their current state or anything like that. But it restores most of my desktop software to exactly what i had open with undo buffers, terminal states and just about everything exactly the way it was. I'm not trying to excuse micr…

KDE these days has pretty much earned my forgiveness for the last couple of bid re-dos. It's a really fantastic DE again.

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

#150

Post by amatecha »

exodust wrote: post #114
amatecha wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I just helped someone set up a new Win 10 laptop and I felt so bad for them with how unintuitive and instrusive of a process it was. It pushes you towards making/using an online Microsoft account, and making a non-internet account on the computer is a tiny text button (no outline, just text) which NO computer novice is going to know. Can only guess how many users have their online identity now permanently linke…

I'm about to set up a new PC for a relative with Win 10 Home, parts have just arrived. Any advice on set up procedures or things I can do to keep Microsoft from spying on them and collecting their data? Or is it just not possible any more? Surely I can install the OS without creating a MS account? My intention is to disable all the nags, bloat and advertising bullying, leaving only an essential OS that doesn't bully…

Yeah as someone else said, basically just create an offline account (there will be an option at the lower left of the screen when it's asking you to enter your Microsoft account address, IIRC). Then throughout the process basically just uncheck all the options for various metrics reporting. I believe there are some open source scripts to disable even more stuff, but I haven't tried that myself.

Oh also, I seem to recall I had to disable/hide Cortana _after_ the setup, as there was nothing in the initial computer setup that allowed me to turn it off (again, IIRC).

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