“Reclaim Windows 10” Powershell Script • Hacker News Board

Re: “Reclaim Windows 10” Powershell Script

#201

Post by corndoge » Sun, Jan 08, 2017, 4:32 AM UTC

smallnamespace wrote: post #191

hysan wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe the bar was just really low, and you've got a strong argument if you say it shouldn't be anymore, but we are making progress... I was one of those people for longer than I can remember. Last year I decided that it was time for me to make this argument. I don't regret the time I spent learning, tinkering, and sometimes wrestling Linux into working. However, while Linux has made a ton of progress, the gap betwe…

Apple has really pushed the bar up in terms of what users expect from their computers out of the box, and that has affected Windows as well, so in some sense Linux has been swimming upstream? treading water? In the mid-90s I remember endlessly fiddling with CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT to squeeze out that extra 30kb of conventional memory to run some game. Buying peripherals was such a crap shoot that 'Plug and Play'…

I like how you picked Arch, which is notorious as one of the few distros without an installer program, and the most difficult to install. I also highly doubt that recompiling kernels are the norm, though I may just be going off of a decade or so of experience...

Re: “Reclaim Windows 10” Powershell Script

#202

Post by UnoriginalGuy » Sun, Jan 08, 2017, 4:36 AM UTC

rasz_pl wrote: post #194

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That didn't answer my question at all. You said above: > That's not true. Install and run wireshark then dial all you want, there will always be traffic every other minute or so to one of Redmond's servers from just idling. I literally did exactly what you said. Shutdown all third party applications on a Windows 10 Pro machine, loaded Wireshark 2.2.3, filtered out all LAN traffic/broadcast traffic/etc and watched. Di…

This is interesting, because I just did the same thing and there is plenty of garbage flying around to various akamai hosts every 20-60 minutes. Is your system volume license or retail?

Retail. 10 Pro specifically.

Re: “Reclaim Windows 10” Powershell Script

#203

Post by tux1968 » Sun, Jan 08, 2017, 4:44 AM UTC

kenjackson wrote: post #50

bostand wrote: post #24

I don't consider win10 telemetry that bad. You can dial it down a lot until it's just sending crash data when thing go bad. Pretty much all OSes have this. What I really don't like however is Microsoft pushing garbage like candy crush to my machine without my consent.

What's the problem with telemetry in general? For almost all of the important products I use I like to send usage info -- my expectation is that they're more likely to improve features that I use as a result. And if you use a web app, e.g., Google Apps, they get all this data plus more (and completely not anonymized).

Don't want any extra network usage when i'm connected to my cell phone hotspot and using up my monthly data cap.

Re: “Reclaim Windows 10” Powershell Script

#204

Post by sixothree » Sun, Jan 08, 2017, 4:49 AM UTC

qplex wrote: post #187

raffapen wrote: post #133

Being heavily involved in setting up standard developer workstations, I consider this to be the only practical approach. It's way beyond any specific config item (including telemetry). This is a sure way to get to a stable and consistent configuration. A few comments: - It is better to split such a mega-script into a set of named scripts, so admins can mix-and-match their own configuration set. - The configuration se…

This script is a good start. I would also change the default policy in Windows Firewall to drop all outgoing traffic, and then enable access on application basis, and for basic things such as DNS and DHCP. Windows 10 will still spam the DNS server for telemetry hostnames, and there seems to be nothing that you can do about that. And really, if you can, you should switch to a better OS that doesnt require you to work…

I seem to remember a tool that would allow you to do this but made it easy to enable specific application access. Does anyone remember this tool?

Re: “Reclaim Windows 10” Powershell Script

#205

Post by gumernatorial » Sun, Jan 08, 2017, 4:53 AM UTC

RainCloud wrote: post #102

bostand wrote: post #24

I don't consider win10 telemetry that bad. You can dial it down a lot until it's just sending crash data when thing go bad. Pretty much all OSes have this. What I really don't like however is Microsoft pushing garbage like candy crush to my machine without my consent.

What I don't get is, why do they have to store the telemetry data encrypted locally. Why can't I see what my computer is sending off.

Presumably so that other applications can't mine telemetry for nefarious reasons.

Re: “Reclaim Windows 10” Powershell Script

#206

Post by saghm » Sun, Jan 08, 2017, 5:09 AM UTC

corndoge wrote: post #201

smallnamespace wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has really pushed the bar up in terms of what users expect from their computers out of the box, and that has affected Windows as well, so in some sense Linux has been swimming upstream? treading water? In the mid-90s I remember endlessly fiddling with CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT to squeeze out that extra 30kb of conventional memory to run some game. Buying peripherals was such a crap shoot that 'Plug and Play'…

I like how you picked Arch, which is notorious as one of the few distros without an installer program, and the most difficult to install. I also highly doubt that recompiling kernels are the norm, though I may just be going off of a decade or so of experience...

I've been running Linux for about 4 years now (Ubuntu -> Mint -> Fedora -> Arch over the first year or so, been on Arch ever since), and I've never had to recompile my kernel (I did choose to do it once, but this was because I was interested in trying it out rather than something not working right; I'm a bit masochistic that way).

Re: “Reclaim Windows 10” Powershell Script

#207

Post by saghm » Sun, Jan 08, 2017, 5:15 AM UTC

> Restrict Windows Update P2P only to local network

I find this interesting as a security choice rather than completely disabling P2P updates, as I'd guess that a substantial number of users aren't in control of all machines on their network, and if the other computers on the network got their updates from peers outside the network, then you'll still end up getting the updates from those peers. Is completely disabling P2P updates not an option?

Re: “Reclaim Windows 10” Powershell Script

#208

Post by mjevans » Sun, Jan 08, 2017, 5:35 AM UTC

saghm wrote: post #207

> Restrict Windows Update P2P only to local network I find this interesting as a security choice rather than completely disabling P2P updates, as I'd guess that a substantial number of users aren't in control of all machines on their network, and if the other computers on the network got their updates from peers outside the network, then you'll still end up getting the updates from those peers. Is completely disablin…

It's a real question of how well it detects your /local/ network versus being on that over a third party VPN.

For desktops local network is fine.

For laptops it should be a no-go.

Re: “Reclaim Windows 10” Powershell Script

#209

Post by sjruckle » Sun, Jan 08, 2017, 5:48 AM UTC

sixothree wrote: post #204

qplex wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This script is a good start. I would also change the default policy in Windows Firewall to drop all outgoing traffic, and then enable access on application basis, and for basic things such as DNS and DHCP. Windows 10 will still spam the DNS server for telemetry hostnames, and there seems to be nothing that you can do about that. And really, if you can, you should switch to a better OS that doesnt require you to work…

I seem to remember a tool that would allow you to do this but made it easy to enable specific application access. Does anyone remember this tool?

Tinywall?

https://tinywall.pados.hu/

Re: “Reclaim Windows 10” Powershell Script

#210

Post by smallnamespace » Sun, Jan 08, 2017, 5:53 AM UTC

corndoge wrote: post #201

smallnamespace wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has really pushed the bar up in terms of what users expect from their computers out of the box, and that has affected Windows as well, so in some sense Linux has been swimming upstream? treading water? In the mid-90s I remember endlessly fiddling with CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT to squeeze out that extra 30kb of conventional memory to run some game. Buying peripherals was such a crap shoot that 'Plug and Play'…

I like how you picked Arch, which is notorious as one of the few distros without an installer program, and the most difficult to install. I also highly doubt that recompiling kernels are the norm, though I may just be going off of a decade or so of experience...

I mentioned Arch because its repos/kernel seem the most up to date and hence most likely to support newish hardware. Plus their docs for getting to run on new laptops seems pretty comprehensive [1].

Looking for directions for that laptop on Ubuntu returns a bunch of frustrated users and rather conflicting testimony:

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...

Disclaimer: not an Arch user myself

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Category:Laptops