It still amazes me how prevalent closed-source is on Windows. Even hacker-oriented, non-commercial things are closed-source.
Me too. I think the "windows way" get into the mindset of its users.
O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11
41–50 of 212 posts
Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11
#42Fedora is my preferred solution to this problem.
https://ameliorated.info/ works too
With Windows Update removed, and no way to patch the system without a full reinstall, I would not use ameliorated.info in any important capacity. The complete unability to patch zero-days makes it very unattractive. They recommend to just take admin privs from the default user. If you're this serious about privacy, use Linux. If you NEED Windows for a program, use a VM and nothing else. If you NEED Windows as your daily-driver... then you shouldn't be risking your daily driver with this. The ONLY update you can apply is simply to just reinstall the operating system. I do appreciate this kind of stripped-down build procedure, but fail to see a good-enough use case.
> Furthermore, as touched upon on the main page, 94% of critical Windows 10 vulnerabilities can be mitigated by revoking administrator privileges from the default user.
Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11
#43Free as in beer. I wouldn't trust such an intrusive proprietary application on my machine from a vendor who doesn't need to care about its reputation.
Had the same thought, but upon investigation I don't see the incentive for the vendor to do something shady with it. They have a clear business model: Develop software for Windows that companies need. See their About page: https://www.oo-software.com/en/company Hence, it is clear what benefit they draw from releasing this software for free: Marketing. They are not in the business of brokering user data or mining bitc…
Windows will most likely consider this malware, since it is effectively piracy (removes activation checks) and it does mess with Windows Defender by disabling a bunch of phone-home stuff like malware sample submission. If you're already getting people to disable Windows Defender and/or make an exception for the exe, it's suddenly super easy to also embed some custom C&C into it, either for mass use (eg. using a Windows service to have machines participate in a ddos botnet) or for targeted use - when a specific network block downloads it, the C&C sends a different payload that quietly looks for git credentials or trade secrets and ships them off.
They technically don't have an incentive now, but if they ever get one, it'll be super easy to abuse this position to embed malware. Don't think of the threat as the current company, but someone buying them for $millions and quietly doing this years later.
Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you talking about this tool or Windows itself?
Actually it can be seen as both. You're replacing an abusive part with another with the same potential of abuse and you can't check of modify either of them.
Confirmed abuse isn't the same as potential abuse.
Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11
#45Microsoft has faced so much criticism for their approach to telemetry - I don't really understand why they don't at least provide the option to opt out of all telemetry.
If they left it enabled by default, but provided an option to opt-out, realistically only a small segment of users would do so, and most of them would likely be power users who are already taking other steps to try to prevent telemetry being collected and/or sent. So they'd take an insignificant hit to telemetry, but would gain a lot in goodwill.
Any reason not to do this?
Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11
#46The simple fact that this even has to exist is hilarious.
Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11
#47I prefer https://privacy.sexy/ - it generates a script that I can read/edit.
Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lovely how on mobile, the reddit page is blocked: you need the app to access it.
https://i.reddit.com/r/TronScript/ Or https://old.reddit.com/r/TronScript/ If you have trouble opening any reddit website on mobile change "www" with just the letter 'i' or 'old'. Once they don't allow these workarounds I am leaving reddit for good.
Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11
#49Free as in beer. I wouldn't trust such an intrusive proprietary application on my machine from a vendor who doesn't need to care about its reputation.
They're a Microsoft gold partner. Their reputation is on the line.
Re: O&O ShutUp10++ – Free anti-spy tool for Windows 10, 11
#50Free as in beer. I wouldn't trust such an intrusive proprietary application on my machine from a vendor who doesn't need to care about its reputation.
Fair enough, though O&O has been around for ages (24 years) and I don't remember hearing anything bad about them (and have used their software in the past).