The tips, ads, and recommendations you see will be more generic and may be less relevant to you.
And this is treated as a bad thing?!
The number of ads you see won’t change, but they may be less relevant to you.
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.
People have always said turning those off reduces what’s collected, but I’m a devoutly pessimistic skeptic. Is there a way to verify what telemetry is collected? I’m not fluent but I’d think something like two VMs with different telemetry setting and wireshark. Has anyone tried?
In the past I’ve heard of power shell scripts you can run to actually disable or uninstall stuff. I wouldn’t trust these toggles to do much at all.
I don’t think so, but this sounds like a super interesting idea. I might try this later!
If you do, I’d be super interested in hearing about your results or reading a writeup from you.
I’ve been super busy as of recent, but I’ll try to remember to reply to you if/when I do :)
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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.
Ooooh, there’s also nLite, if you wanted to make a custom version for yourself!
Those were fun times!
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Lolno
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This is most people’s reaction to using Windows for any reason.
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Let’s narrow it down to normal ppl :) 'Cause those having nothing to hide are enabling enshitification.
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?”
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.
Candy crush is what they put as “recommended software” if I remember correctly.
I had this on my first installation a few years ago, but then never again. I’m using Pro.
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
Piholing the windows telemetry domains helps some. But yeah, you aren’t wrong.
Personally I’m using: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/d43m0nhLInt3r/socialblocklists/master/Windows/windowstelemetryblocklist.txt
But that update date gives me some pause, so someone correct me please.
thanks for the link!
I currently use the nextdns list (as well as all of their other native tracking lists):
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nextdns/native-tracking-domains/main/domains/windows
You don’t strictly need a PiHole. You can also import a giant
hostsfile.PiHole if you want it network-wide (also covers mobile devices and TVs) -
hostsfile if you only need to modify one machine.It’s a great piece of software.
Shoutout to the PiHole team!
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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?
privacy.sexy
I second this, I use it all the time.
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.
First time?
if you care about privacy linux is the best honestly
If he is using Windows in a VM, he probably already runs Linux as his base OS and is using the VM for a windows only app
Maybe also not Ubuntu or RHEL? I heard they also collect telemetries and hard to trun off. Unsure.
The telemetry is opt in so feel free to use them. (Correct me if i am wrong)
Ubuntu will ask you if usage data can be collected and sent to canonical when you first log in after installation. You get to look at the exact data that would be sent before making a decision and if you say no, then they’ll comply with that and never ask you again.
Great to know
i actually uninstalled the telemetry package and it stopped even being able to enable telemetry
Wait until you get to the screen that asks you if you want to share your data with their 300 friends.
(we will share your data regardless of your choice :/ )
Its nice to be asked tho lol
@TheImpressiveX i found looking glass recently and will definetly try it out, but as I understand this kvm method needs a second GPU for passthrough to 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.
If linux had all these settings on installation everyone would be saying that it’s to hard for normies to install
