31–40 of 207 posts
I haven't personally used it but a friend of recommended it to me.
Anyone else have any experience with AME Windows?
Nearly 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…
I haven't used Windows for a long time but a look at the script makes me think people wouldn't be resorting to such measures if Microsoft wasn't including stupid crap in their operating system. > Disabling Telemetry breaks Windows updates > Automatic web searches in start menu > Application suggestions are silently installed (wat?) > Allow MS to collect activity history > Location tracking > Map updates (who the fuck…
Nearly 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…
I purposely disable SmartScreen because I don't need information about applications I'm running shipped off to Microsoft. Setting the current network to private is handy after a first-time install since Windows often doesn't prompt and defaults to public.
Nearly 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 sends all your file hashes and unique computer info to Microsoft. If you're not stepping into weird links and running weird executables it's really not doing much for you.
I started using Windows in the 3.x days, and the amount of crap I have to "fix" every time I make a new install increases with each successive version... and to think I used to be mildly annoyed at having to enable file extensions and showing full paths back in the 9x/2k days.
To be fair, you sometimes had to open the machines and fiddle with irq's and other things I already forgot about. I remember one machine, where I couldn't get sound blaster mouse, printer and modem to work at the same time. I do agree that nowadays software companies expect to just own you if you use their products. The sad part is that what Microsoft is doing is "normal" or even minimal compared to what Apple or Goo…
Nearly 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…
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 bajilion things that internet gurus will tell me not to because I don't know what's good for me. Needless to say, my PC runs faster, calmer and is actually malware free because I don't run unauditable things like Smartscreen on it.
Edit: I get WinMerge binary from GitHub repo, and KDiff3 from official website. As trusted as it can get, short of compiling myself.
This is a work machine so I can't control most of Windows behavior. Personal machine runs NixOS for 90% tasks + Windows dual boot for games without connecting to network because I can't be bothered with disabling Smartscreen and defender every other week.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I haven't used Windows for a long time but a look at the script makes me think people wouldn't be resorting to such measures if Microsoft wasn't including stupid crap in their operating system. > Disabling Telemetry breaks Windows updates > Automatic web searches in start menu > Application suggestions are silently installed (wat?) > Allow MS to collect activity history > Location tracking > Map updates (who the fuck…
macOS has a lot of this too. It’s weird Apple seems to get a pass but Microsoft gets attacked. (Ads in start is a huge problem though).
Seems to who?
Nearly 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've got WinMerge installed on my machines and I've never had that issue. Are you sure you're using trusted sources?
I’ve read some criticism towards this script and/or these kind of scripts in the comments. The criticism should instead be directed towards Microsoft, which decided to treat their customers (even alleged „Pro“ customers!) like babies and force useless bloatware, ads, telemetry and the absolute worst update system of any OS ever upon their users, thus making these kind of scripts necessary to begin with.
> The criticism should instead be directed towards Microsoft, Totally agree that MS deserves criticism as you correctly point out. However, criticism towards the script and similar is equally valid (and important).