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Reclaim Windows10
41–50 of 207 posts
Re: Reclaim Windows10
#42I would recommend https://winaero.com/download-winaero-tweaker/ which handles everything in a nice GUI, lets you export settings for use on new machines, etc.
Re: Reclaim Windows10
#43Nearly all of these "clean up" scripts are a horrendous idea to run on your machine, I see right at the top that this script disables SmartScreen, a service that absolutely should not be disabled unless you want your machine to get owned. It then proceeds to set your current network as Private (aka "open all the ports") regardless of which network you're connected to - hope you're at home! Other changes are completel…
SmartScreen exists solely to warn you about executables you already trust and be annoying.
Fortunately you can just disable it from the settings though.
Re: Reclaim Windows10
#44Nearly all of these "clean up" scripts are a horrendous idea to run on your machine, I see right at the top that this script disables SmartScreen, a service that absolutely should not be disabled unless you want your machine to get owned. It then proceeds to set your current network as Private (aka "open all the ports") regardless of which network you're connected to - hope you're at home! Other changes are completel…
Could not disagree more, SmartScreen is a horrendous idea.
You should only be installing verified trusted apps you can verify the sources or hash for, farming this out to a third party, even if its MS, is a great way to open yourself up to watering hole attacks.
Furthermore, you are encouraging poor user behaviour with "oh man this app said my app is good" and then ending up with all manner of poorly vetted bloatware, not to mention antitrust and legal issues.
Really it should be possible to completely remove and/or replace this whole component.
As for network, why aren't running from behind a properly secured connection? That's just bad practice. If you want to connect from a coffeeshop or whatever, set your firewall to block everything by default.
Re: Reclaim Windows10
#45Nearly all of these "clean up" scripts are a horrendous idea to run on your machine, I see right at the top that this script disables SmartScreen, a service that absolutely should not be disabled unless you want your machine to get owned. It then proceeds to set your current network as Private (aka "open all the ports") regardless of which network you're connected to - hope you're at home! Other changes are completel…
most of these things also look for registry file entries that point to non existing files and they have no regards for parametric entries (i.e. c:\users\{current}\blah) so they wreak havoc on your installed services and applications.
Re: Reclaim Windows10
#46Nearly all of these "clean up" scripts are a horrendous idea to run on your machine, I see right at the top that this script disables SmartScreen, a service that absolutely should not be disabled unless you want your machine to get owned. It then proceeds to set your current network as Private (aka "open all the ports") regardless of which network you're connected to - hope you're at home! Other changes are completel…
Well, the "Smart" screen says that WinMerge and KDiff3 are malwares. Naturally I trust both of them more than so called SmartScreen because unlike Smartscreen, I can inspect their code. Yes, the binaries can contain malware, but the first principles tell me that trustability score is inverse of what is being reported by MS. Naturally I have disabled Smartscreen and Windows defender and admin rights alerts and bajilio…
It sounds like you, sir or madam, need to get rid of Windows entirely. May I suggest macOS (and Parallels running Ubuntu Linux if you like WSL)?
Re: Reclaim Windows10
#47Nearly all of these "clean up" scripts are a horrendous idea to run on your machine, I see right at the top that this script disables SmartScreen, a service that absolutely should not be disabled unless you want your machine to get owned. It then proceeds to set your current network as Private (aka "open all the ports") regardless of which network you're connected to - hope you're at home! Other changes are completel…
Well, the "Smart" screen says that WinMerge and KDiff3 are malwares. Naturally I trust both of them more than so called SmartScreen because unlike Smartscreen, I can inspect their code. Yes, the binaries can contain malware, but the first principles tell me that trustability score is inverse of what is being reported by MS. Naturally I have disabled Smartscreen and Windows defender and admin rights alerts and bajilio…
That is fine but probably not good for most users. It is easy to tell it not to filter those apps. You can make exceptions. Just shutting it off totally is like changing a router to allow all ports and traffic in because it blocked a port you were using vs making a firewall rule.
Like I found that SmartScreen and defender blocked my ethminer but that is in general pretty smart because it is common to have it unwittingly installed, and I simply said it is OK to run.
Re: Reclaim Windows10
#48Bloatbox is an open source alternative with a GUI: https://github.com/builtbybel/bloatbox
They have also made a privacy and security related app https://github.com/builtbybel/privatezilla
Re: Reclaim Windows10
#49If you have access to it, through partner or MSDN or corporate licensing or otherwise, it is really worth installing the Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB/LTSC versions.
It has most of the annoying things that plague consumer versions of Windows 10 stripped out, and it gets a very different cadence of updates, restricted to security and quality fixes. No Cortana, no Edge installed by default, no built-in Store universal apps.
It's rock solid; I have never gotten a bad update pushed to any of my boxes running LTSC over the past five years. If you want a Windows workstation that just works, and will continue to work without fiddling, this is it.
Re: Reclaim Windows10
#50Nearly all of these "clean up" scripts are a horrendous idea to run on your machine, I see right at the top that this script disables SmartScreen, a service that absolutely should not be disabled unless you want your machine to get owned. It then proceeds to set your current network as Private (aka "open all the ports") regardless of which network you're connected to - hope you're at home! Other changes are completel…
Well, the "Smart" screen says that WinMerge and KDiff3 are malwares. Naturally I trust both of them more than so called SmartScreen because unlike Smartscreen, I can inspect their code. Yes, the binaries can contain malware, but the first principles tell me that trustability score is inverse of what is being reported by MS. Naturally I have disabled Smartscreen and Windows defender and admin rights alerts and bajilio…
I use both of these and have never received a malware indication. Sounds fishy.