31–40 of 269 posts
I run Windows in a Parallels VM on my Mac. This VM needs to, on occasion, connect to the Internet. Any way I can--from the outside, without needing to trust Windows--be forced to whitelist what the VM is and isn't allowed connect to?
if gaming is the problem you can run Windows in a VM at 97% native speed with GFX passthrough, been doing this for almost 2 years now without any problems
the vfio subreddit has a lot of info: https://www.reddit.com/r/VFIO/
MS are then free to spy on me playing starcraft as much as they want
MS Support consistently and repeatedly told me that enterprise allowed me to disable this stuff. If I can't control the egress then I can't verify PCI compliance. I've already had to revert a client to Win 7 because they failed a PCI compliance audit using Win 10 Enterprise. Which, by the way, is very expensive for small businesses. Win 10 Enterprise isn't viable for business. I have a bunch of small business clients…
I don't think they do it on purpose. I think Windows is just a patchwork of cruft at this point. I'm sure the Enterprise version shares all the code with the non Enterprise versions which have all the spying ... analytics... enabled, so bugs are bound to happen that let this escape into the Enterprise version.
My confidence was already shaken with MS through their entire Win 10 Campaign and it's now completely gone. Their paid support services are hit and miss and if I'm going to end up supporting things that my client is paying MS to support then they're out and my client gets a smaller TCO overall. I'll have to work with some of them so their business remain viable during the transition but I'm willing to do that. Their growth is our growth. Payment plans, trade, whatever we can come up with to make this happen. For every one thing MS has done, loudly, in the attempt to instill trust they've done 5 things, quietly, that harm it. There are too many viable platforms available and if money is the only obstacle then I'll mitigate that for our clients benefit.
MS Support consistently and repeatedly told me that enterprise allowed me to disable this stuff. If I can't control the egress then I can't verify PCI compliance. I've already had to revert a client to Win 7 because they failed a PCI compliance audit using Win 10 Enterprise. Which, by the way, is very expensive for small businesses. Win 10 Enterprise isn't viable for business. I have a bunch of small business clients…
Also, do you remember what was the specific reason for failing the audit? This all sounds interesting since you've gone though that experience.
[0] https://twitter.com/m8urnett/status/866353982217699328
Edited to omit needless words
The connections in the first screenshot[0] aren't necessarily from Microsoft. This screenshot shows a DNS lookup for google-analytics.com followed by an attempt to use Teredo. If Chrome is installed then this could be from the Google Update service. It seems unlikely that Microsoft would send usage information to a Google site. [0] https://twitter.com/m8urnett/status/866353982217699328 Edited to omit needless words
"Also note this is a system with minimal software install, all default windows store apps removed, and nothing running on it."
The connections in the first screenshot[0] aren't necessarily from Microsoft. This screenshot shows a DNS lookup for google-analytics.com followed by an attempt to use Teredo. If Chrome is installed then this could be from the Google Update service. It seems unlikely that Microsoft would send usage information to a Google site. [0] https://twitter.com/m8urnett/status/866353982217699328 Edited to omit needless words
This is a little chilling. As a home user on Win7, I've avoided Win10, but thought I'd eventually upgrade, just to enjoy newer hardware. I'd thought I could just invest in Enterprise, about $100 these days, and be able to control the more intrusive aspects. Guess not. On a semi-related note, I'm using uMatrix, and it never ceases to amaze me how promiscuous every single web site is these days. It's not just in Soviet…
If you want to control your software, run software that you control.