O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11 • Hacker News Board

Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11

#131

Post by Dylan16807 » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

matthewfcarlson wrote: post #98

dannyw wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telemetry isn't just a tool for product managers, but it's also a goldmine for national security agencies (more than just the NSA; Bing is unblocked in China for a reason). Anti-government meme made with GIMP at a specific timestamp? One search through the telemetry logs to find who exported a file at that exact moment. Any data collection is also government surveillance unless proven otherwise.

Microsoft provides a tool that allows you to see all telemetry that’s captured https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/01/24/micro... I don’t work for microsoft anymore but I laugh at these sorts of suggestions. I don’t know much about bing but I do know a decent bit about the telemetry pipeline and the idea of an anti government meme detection is ludicrous at best.

> the idea of an anti government meme detection

That's a fun strawman you made, but the actual idea in the post was that telemetry might note when different programs do events like save.

Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11

#132

Post by iratewizard » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

marcodiego wrote: post #64

iratewizard wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're a Microsoft gold partner. Their reputation is on the line.

Their with microsoft, you mean. Considering microsoft's reputation with regard to telemetry and other abuses, I'd say it doesn't mean much.

Partners aren't with Microsoft. They're vendors and service providers that live off of scraps from the mothership. If they were to do something malicious, it would potentially cost them their business. I'm sure Microsoft itself doesn't care if under 1% of desktops use tools like this to turn off their telemetry.

Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11

#133

Post by Forbo » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

estaseuropano wrote: post #121

npteljes wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I acted like this for a long time, and my trust remained broken.

Great, this is the most constructive answer. Eternal useless pessimism instead of at least trying simple steps to solve the issue. Great credit to the authors of the tool. I used it many times when I was stuck with windows - and I'm grateful that they did all the work to make it.

The most constructive answer is to stop using/supporting/supplying demand for software that doesn't respect the user. Rather than people trying to remove the same warts over and over, progress could be made on a more permanent solution; namely, identifying gaps in the open source ecosystem where the only current solutions are proprietary.

Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11

#134

Post by andrepd » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

estaseuropano wrote: post #121

npteljes wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I acted like this for a long time, and my trust remained broken.

Great, this is the most constructive answer. Eternal useless pessimism instead of at least trying simple steps to solve the issue. Great credit to the authors of the tool. I used it many times when I was stuck with windows - and I'm grateful that they did all the work to make it.

But I have already solved the issue: I stopped using Windows.

Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11

#135

Post by larodi » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 5:46 PM UTC

dmos62 wrote: post #36

It still amazes me how prevalent closed-source is on Windows. Even hacker-oriented, non-commercial things are closed-source.

everything is closed source, apart from the building blocks that comprise it. all clouds are closed source, most of the finance is closed source, MacOS is closed source, iOS - too. games - closed source, critical infrastructure - closed.

okay...let's think. lets take for example postgresql. all right is opensource, we all love it. but how some company uses it - well this is not open source. only few businesses dare to be open source and typically open the non-critical parts.

why so much pressure on MS?

the idea that the world is embracing opensource is absolutely disconnected with the reality ever since the idea of open source came to existence.

once again - even when the building are open source, the way they are tied together is usually not. and their usage in business systems - also not open source. period.

there is fair chance, that whoever is reading this comment works is paid by a company that is using open source, but is not open sourcing.

Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11

#136

Post by gizmodo59 » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 5:49 PM UTC

judge2020 wrote: post #59

tumblewit wrote: post #53

Its funny how Windows and Android, the two most widely used operating systems, are a privacy nightmare and basically spyware at this point. Remember you can install tools and ROMs that are privacy focussed but also realise only a minor percentage of the users bother or are aware of these. I wonder what the sales pitch would be to sell privacy focussed products to the average Joe.

Both of these are the cheaper option in their respective market. iOS and macOS are expensive because the hardware is expensive (as in, the hardware in part pays for the development of the software), and Linux is expensive in that it's almost always more time-consuming to set up since it doesn't have Windows' first-class driver, hardware, and software support.

Not sure why macOS (M1) is expensive here. For the hardware/performance/software you get it’s not really expensive if you compare the alternatives like surface or any of the intel based laptops. Sure, you can get a cheap laptop for under 500$ but that won’t last long either.

Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11

#137

Post by gigel82 » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 5:51 PM UTC

There are a lot of open source scripts and tools on GitHub for accomplishing the same goal (in various state of being out-of-date, abandoned, etc.); I started collecting the ones that appear somewhat active here: https://github.com/TemporalAgent7/awesome-windows-privacy

I plan on going through them to weed out duplicates and duds. You shouldn't trust any of those blindly, but definitely read through the code; I'm particularly interested in coming up with a list of services and scheduled tasks that can be safely disabled without impacting any of the applications and services I'm using (I want Windows Update, OneDrive, Office, Defender, Store and store apps, MS Account login and Xbox Gaming for example, which most tools want to disable).

Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11

#138

Post by mejutoco » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 6:00 PM UTC

estaseuropano wrote: post #121

npteljes wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I acted like this for a long time, and my trust remained broken.

Great, this is the most constructive answer. Eternal useless pessimism instead of at least trying simple steps to solve the issue. Great credit to the authors of the tool. I used it many times when I was stuck with windows - and I'm grateful that they did all the work to make it.

I did not take the comment in the same light. I think it is great that people are creating such software. Seems useful for many users.

But looking at the broader context npteljes has a point.

Why fight an insecure tool (let's say Windows is insecure for the sake of the argument, I do not have a strong opinion about it) then patch the security on top. Surely the obvious choice is to stop using the insecure tool.

Sometimes people want a technical answer, when the answer is to do the obvious. I don't think that is pessimism.

Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11

#139

Post by Jenk » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 6:09 PM UTC

jakobdabo wrote: post #123

npteljes wrote: post #92

Very nice that I turn off everything I want one time, but what about the next update that will randomly toggle some settings back? How about new settings for new features that are added? I think it's foolish to go use software like this, and expect some privacy to happen. Windows and its user are just not on the same page. What refreshed my hope in IT is the FOSS ecosystem. Where software is passively uncaring about…

I have to use Windows once in a while (circumstances). Best way to forget about the existence of spyware (aka telemetry) that I found is to not connect a Windows box directly to internet. I configured my router to give it a gateway and DNS IPs which don't exist in the network. Eat that, Microsoft. And I can still connect to internet by manually setting a SOCKSv5a proxy to the router in Firefox and other software that…

Since the 21H1 update you might start noticing connection drops since a new wlan autoconfig feature has been added: if windows can't ping home reliably, it will restart your nic.

Yep.

Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11

#140

Post by npteljes » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 6:12 PM UTC

devwastaken wrote: post #105

npteljes wrote: post #92

Very nice that I turn off everything I want one time, but what about the next update that will randomly toggle some settings back? How about new settings for new features that are added? I think it's foolish to go use software like this, and expect some privacy to happen. Windows and its user are just not on the same page. What refreshed my hope in IT is the FOSS ecosystem. Where software is passively uncaring about…

Historically tools like these were broken by windows updates and could not keep up with Microsoft's violent efforts in breaking them. You can't even turn off windows defender in the registry anymore, which is the sole reason windows performs terribly on low end devices. It sends the CPU and 5400rpm disk to 100% use all the time. Windows is a threat to national security and Microsoft must be sanctioned. Business if th…

I agree. Windows is malware. Its good or bad bits are irrelevant, it's perfectly usable as an OS, but in the meantime it's loaded with malicious intent and its business advantage is ruthlessly exploited at every turn. So I don't think that the tool itself is that much useful either. It's good popularity for their creators, that's for sure, who very successfully jumped on the Win10 telemetry paranoia bandwagon.

And who I think should change to Linux or BSD is not just business, it's governments especially. How they enable an auto-updating system of another superpower is beyond me.