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German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

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Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#31
post #3

Does anyone know if there is a tool to safely remove telemetry executables from Win10? Is it possible to remove these?

There is a tool to safely remove all Windows 10 telemetry. It's called Linux.

Great let me know when Linux can run the apps I need for work and I can reliably install it on any hardware and expect it to work without issue. I like Linux as anyone else around here, but to claim it can replace Win10 for the average user is a stretch.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#32
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...through official means. I don't for a second doubt you can turn it off completely. But unofficial solutions come with tons of potential issues.

Could just block all communication with Microsoft by the OS. Or, move to non-Windows OSes like the retail giants already have. Kroger and Walmart run Suse Enterprise Linux (relevant Uptime Funk reference) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYRlTISvjww

Not in a government or business environment using Office 365. 365 requires all sorts of open connectivity to function.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, which is why you disable Windows Update too. The people who work on Windows these days should probably all be fired. Out of a cannon. Into the sun.

Telling users to disable updates it's not a good recommendation.

Sure it is. Microsoft software deployment on client is a dumpster fire.

Blindly installing Windows updates these days is very dangerous and should be avoided. Your best approach for avoiding malware is to use browsers like Firefox and Chrome. Critical task workflows should be in LTSB, iOS or ChromeOS.

Microsoft’s guidance is to have around four deployment rings each for Windows and Office, and only immediately patch 10-20% of your enterprise environment and defer to avoid impacts from the quality issues that are very common as Microsoft is supporting like a half dozen Windows 10s.

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

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#34

to be fair every OS can and does do telemetry, say nothing about each software application calling back home in a similar way - such feedback helps speed up improvements however linux OS makes explicit notice of this and its simple to disable

> such feedback helps speed up improvements

Recent MS "improvements" indicate things should not have been sped up.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#35
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw this tool being recommended in r/windows10. I have tried it, no issues so far, though haven't tested to see if it does disable telemetry. https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

This tool is great. Only problem is you have to regularly re-run it because Windows Update will revert changes.

Not saying that this is carrying anything malicious at all, but there's certainly a chance that a tool to clear out telemetry or something else critical in the bowels of the OS is sending info back to that group now or can be malicious. Just a friendly warning to be weary about these types of applications.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#36
post #24

I am surprised that they using server names like "alpha.telemetry.microsft.com". when I see something like "microsft" in an E-mail or link I immediately suspect that somebody is trying to fake being from Microsoft. Or are these spelling errors in the article? Edit: these domain names are in the report too. Very strange. I would get very nervous if I saw "microsft" in a firewall log.

https://www.ip-tracker.org/locator/ip-lookup.php?ip=Microsft...

It does seem MS owns that domain, but to be actively using it --- especially for telemetry --- raises red flags for me too. Using misspellings of names is something malware often does.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#37
post #3

Does anyone know if there is a tool to safely remove telemetry executables from Win10? Is it possible to remove these?

Pi-hole seems to block windows telemetry domains by default. I don't know how complete the blocking is but there are a lot of domains like the ones listed in this thread on my top blocked domains list.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#39
post #27
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> microsft.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.3_filename

Why would they use the short names in URLs? I thought they make sense only for file names.

I'm mostly joking.

However, I've been observing Microsoft since the Windows 2.0 era, and I can't completely discard the possibility that Microsoft actually would use 8.3 domain names. Using 8.3 names "for legacy compatibility" in unusual places is something they've done before.

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