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And this is treated as a bad thing?!
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Send only info about your device, its settings and capabilities, and whether it is performing properly.
In other words, even after turning off all the settings, your data still gets collected.
The rest of the installation process wasn’t fun either. It was worded in this weird, condescending tone, like “Let’s get everything set up for you”, and “Let Cortana help you get things done!”.
Thank goodness for FLOSS and GNU/Linux.
I remember installing Windows XP. sigh.
I had one of the 23 machines in the world that ran Windows ME flawlessly. :(
I was lucky if everything worked. Usually it had troubles with peripherals, network, or even the USB drive it was on. But none (?) of this crap.
Absolutely disgusting! Literally the only reason why I still use Windows is the fact many games I play have anti-cheat spyware that doesn’t work on Linux.
For me it’s this and very specific audio production stuff. Linux audio production has come leaps and bounds over the years, but I need specific vst plugins that I don’t think I could get running in Linux. Also because what I’m doing has very quick turnaround times, I’m worried that if I did get that stuff working it could basically break at any time and I’d be boned.
I am in a very similar situation with audio production. I have a lot of plugins and tried to see what I could get working with yabridge on my Linux laptop in my free time. Some stuff worked flawlessly, while a lot of other important plugins did not work at all. I hope that some day more stuff works and the tool gets more streamlined for less technical users, but for now it is not quite where it needs to be for my use case. In the mean time I switched to a DAW that has a Linux version (Bitwig) and I am slowly working towards switching to only using plugins that have a Linux version. I am far from a point where I can comfortably switch though, so for now Windows is an occupational hazard.
Yet another reason I stay away from any game that has online multiplayer PVP teams based setting. I trust anti-cheat as much as I trust that random file you find on [Insert Sketchy Website Link].
I got lucky that almost all the multiplayer games I play run under Linux. There’s only one or two that I would need Windows for to play again.
You can use Win10Privacy to bodily castrate nearly all built-in spyware and telemetry.
Downside is that it’s a damn powerful program, with few guardrails, so if you don’t have good knowledge of Windows internals you run a non-trivial risk of accidentally lobotomizing an important feature of your install by enabling the wrong setting. I mean, all settings can be easily reversed, but you gotta know which specific one did the nerfing in order to undo the oopsie.
For example, even the midrange firewall settings are mostly safe, except… a single one of them completely kills Microsoft Office Click-To-Run. It won’t install, and it won’t launch even if you installed it before you applied Win10Privacy. So if Microsoft Office is an essential (Access or Excel absolutely needed, for example), be careful.
Link to the program?
Link to the program?
There is also privacy.sexy. they have a bunch of scripts to do just about everything you want to increase windows privacy. They have a GUI that will help you customize the scripts and you can roll back if you want.
Yeah, Windows sucks. I recommend the LTSC version for minimized tracking. But even then, I had to use third-party software and hacks to minimize it further. I don’t ever plan to go back after switching to Linux.
LTSC sounds great or else there must be something like MicroXP for windows 10/11 where someone has debloated it down to the bare bones.
@BananaOnionJuice @Neon_Shadow Tiny11 is a project where windows 11 has been stripped down to the absolute barebones, there may still be some telemetry that needs to be disabled (O&O shutup is good for that). It’s designed to work on older machines with as little as 4gb ram, so it would be perfect for running in a VM, in fact that’s what I’m planning to do.
What’s that
LTSC is the enyerprise/business version that have extended period for patches with less bloat. It’s similar to LTS with Ubuntu.
Not to mention being forced to create a MS account if you’re online.
Not on Win10 and you can get around it on Win11
With win10 you should be able to click the small text to get a local account but yeah I think with newer win11 installers you have to be off the internet for a local account. And then when you do log in with your MS account to save your license (important when using a Win7 OEM key to license win10) it would convert your profile to online, and then you had to “do steps” to put it back to local. Annoying af
When installing Windows 11, say you want to log in with your Microsoft account, then when it asks for email address and password enter a@a.com and any random password. It will say the account has been deactivated and let you create a local account. No need to be offline.
Even if offline…
But It can be bypassed with dodging and weaving (shift+(some button) the bypass command thingie…)
Safe to say that normal people won’t be casually bypassing it
This is why if I ever have to get win10 on a VM on my laptop, I am absolutely not updating, ever. Not even gonna give that VM Internet access. Anything I’d need it for, I can passthrough a thumb drive with the files I need. I would hope to God they don’t have a way to hoover up data without internet connection and with no macrohard account connected.
First time?
Oh and that seems to be ltsc or an older win 10 build too! If you want the creeps get a normal win 11 home iso and try it out with a burner account… You might be surprised what they got in charge for you. (A lot of ads and tracking with up selling, tho I don’t know how much Home edition costs, pro costs like 130€ or so and has the same crap built in but the ability to make an offline account(they still ask you to “upgrade” to online))
No the offline account trick still works.
You have to use CLOI to get around it, I don’t consider that functional for the average user
This is most people’s reaction to using Windows for any reason.
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Yeah, those granpas asking me to fix their machines are like, “and, what do we do with my OneDrive which I don’t understand what it is?”
Let’s narrow it down to normal ppl :) 'Cause those having nothing to hide are enabling enshitification.
Chris Titus debloat script is the only thing that makes Windows even remotely usable these days.
Thata true, but you if used in a vm you should be careful as preset selections could end up removing functions on your guest vm.
Shows gun “Can I please borrow your money?”
“H…how much?”
“Not a lot, just 5 billion”
Same vibe.
“You can also opt out, and only have to give me 1 billion.”
It’s like a mini game to get the choices right
Can not recommend. The levels were very difficult but short and the final reward was shit
Yea, it’s really shitty.
Enterprise folks don’t have this problem because they use the WAIK (or whatever it’s called now) to customize the installer.
Anyone can use it, and from what I’ve read, the Win10 generation of the kit is much easier to use than previous versions (which were pretty bad).
But yea, this stuff is awful.
Checkout things like WinDebloat, Privatezilla, Winaero Tweaker, and LoveWindowsAgain. There’s some overlap between them (as they were built for different purposes), but they all pretty much kill telemetry at the service or installed level (as in remove the components providing telemetry).
Yea, it’s BS you have to do this. And screw MS for this crap.
LTSB or LTSR I forget which. Toss some classic shell in there, boom, Win 10 like you remember Win 7 was like. Too bad they fucked up 11 so bad I switched to Ubuntu.
It’s LTSC (Long Term Service Channel) nowadays - It’s the LTS version of Windows 10. Fewer updates, more stability of your OS in general. It’s neat!
No Windows Store by default, but it’s possible to install that separate, should you really need it.
Only issue is some software won’t install the longer the LTSC version is out.
I think the pro version doesn’t have most of this too. I’ve never seen an ad in w10 and 11
They don’t show explicit banner ads or anything, but every now and then there will be links to “recommended software” in your start menu’s app drawer or the notification thing in the bottom right (not the taskbar, that foldable drawer thing).
You can disable those as well, but not by default.
I had this on my first installation a few years ago, but then never again. I’m using Pro.
Candy crush is what they put as “recommended software” if I remember correctly.
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Lolno
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That reminded me of TinyXP - a modified version of Windows XP to be like some 100MB install, instead of the typical 2GB of default bloat.
Good shit.
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Ooooh, there’s also nLite, if you wanted to make a custom version for yourself!
Those were fun times!
One of the many reasons I always run privacy.sexy every time I need to install windows (on both bare metal and inside a VM).
What the fuck. How have I never seen this before?
I shall yoink that, thank you very much.
Yoink it so effing hard!
I use O&O ShutUp10++ (oosu10) to do the same thing. Makes Windows feel like Windows, instead of an ad machine.
Whenever people complain about ads I have NO idea what they’re talking about.
Edge will say it’s “maintained by your organization”, which seemed spooky, but that’s just a side-effect from having some privacy.
And the link to OOSU10, in case anyone wants it: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
Edge will say it’s “maintained by your organization”, which seemed spooky, but that’s just a side-effect from having some privacy.
Ooooooh, so that’s why I started seeing that shit. I thought I had a virus, lmao. Cheers.
privacy.sexy
I second this, I use it all the time.
