Windows 10 Protection

The first post will be long and focus on a deadly since of many computers - even AV's for those of you that run them, will see a potential threat known as a "key logger", and most people are quick to delete the little tracker - or are they?

 

It is not well known to the general public that W10 not only has a key logging software running at all times, but if you use your voice to text - that too, is monitored and send back to microsoft!  The company admitted that “we may collect voice information” and “typed characters.” In the past, people would debate wtih me, stating that it was “intended for testing, not day-to-day use,” and that Microsoft recommended against installing the Preview on a computer with sensitive files. And they further stated that “seriously doubt that the worst spyware features will remain in the finished product.” OOPS!!

 

Many of my friends know that I am an anti-google (duckduckgo is my search of choice, along with startpage), I am also very against W10, as it feeds on the uninformed and those that are not very tech savy. Microsoft admits their tracking of everything you do on the pc. But this is my toy, I paid for it, and do not want to keep transmitting data back and forth. You can find all of their privacy statement here. It is very very creepy - those that defend W10, I have concluded they do so, because they do not know what they let in their house!

 

So can you turn the thing off? Yes, but it might cost you.

1. Click on Settings(Start menu’s left pane)
2. You will not see it at first, the scroll bar is not very visible, so use your mouse wheel and you will see PRIVACY pop up at the bottom. Last I remember there was a "EASE OF ACCESS" on the left and "UPDATE SECURITY" on the right of the PRIVACY icon. click it
3. Click GENERAL SECTION
4. Turn off Send Microsoft info about how I write to help us improve typing and writing in the future.
5. Take a look at the rest, you'll see that several other "monitoring" features are turned on
6. Go to the "Speech, inking and typing" and click  "Stop Getting to Know Me"

There are other sections you might want to take a look at that control your camera, microphone and other areas. This is just a small tip of the iceburg of M$ watching you.

 

Here is a great app to turn off much of these in a single click

http://pxc-coding.co...lio/donotspy10/

 

Cheers

Hi.

I might be trolling you after all.

 

Most people have heard about "MS spy" in Win10 but one of the problem I have with, or may be not, BBzero/bblean is that most of the modern apps (cortana, settings, onenote etc) don't work. Wouldn't that mean that the "keylogging" is also not working? I haven't tested or research this, most of the time I'm now stuck on plain old windows because we have a company software that behave bad with BBzero (something to do with the way it was built around the app store). I might be wrong here because such a piece of crap would be so ingrain in the OS but...we never know.

BACK TROLL - BACK BACK!!!

 

that's the key phrase - "we never know"

 

at least back in the dos/desqView w3.0 - win98 and even xp we had a pretty good idea what was on our machine. and could do with it what we wanted, without fighting our system. But these days,NO CLUE what is in that windows folder, it's a mystery what *box can run under 10meg but it need 10-25gb to run windows - what is all on there?

 

everything is constantly monitoring you - to the point that - it almost better to return back to the BBS days :-) at least then only one or two people were watching you, and you knew them heheheh

 

but sadly, to answer your question, w10 is still watching you, all you did was change clothes :-) (shell) In otherwords, you painted your car and it looks cool but it has the same lame engine under it running

 :-)

For now I have installed DoNotSpy10 on my Win 10. And I am considering reinstalling Windows 7.

To all those that aren't suspicious about Win 10 spying on you... why was it free to download and install? Why was Windows pushed to the world so fast? What do you mean 'fast'? Well... MS developers were not even ready with implementation of many drivers to support AV, display devices etc. Did none of you hear of the infamous 'black screen of death' in Win 10? Win 10 wasn't a finished product. Why do suddenly hidden folders turn up in Windows where you don't have access? even if you are local administrator. So what's the reason behind all this?

 

I assume the main reason is security and I'm totally not opposed to upholding security to the highest level, because of terrorists attacking democracy the last years, but I do like my privacy. I guess it really is a difficult issue the world and governments have to deal with. So in that regard I do not blame Microsoft or any government. Blame terrorism.

well just to clarify for me, I am sure the "engine" is pretty powerful - but at the cost of my privacy? I'll pass

Cellphones are already making batteries NON-REMOVABLE iso you cannot remove them to stop spying. Even with your phone off, as long as the abattery is on, the phone can be activated. Unless the battery is removed.

 

and OJRED is correct, M$ used the same tactic google does - give it for free, and people will beat a path do your door with all their personal info for you

 

actually M$ forced it. thats why many of my not-so-savy friends would wake in the morning to find win10 installed via the update.

UPDATE: DoNotSpy10 does not work as intended.

I disabled Groove, photos, calculator etc from being started in the background, and maybe this setting has indeed changed in Win 10, but Win 10 simply ignores the settings and pre-loads these apps. I'm currently not in the mood to reinstall Win 7 and I have nothing to hide, but I don't like this a bit.

unfortunately, that is everyone fall-back-phrase: "..I have nothing to hide"

It's not about "hiding" it's personal privacy. I don't have people following me around in the store takng noites, when I go on vacation, someone else riding with me taking notes, etc.. Im not even doing anything wrong, but I do not need to be followed. That is what it is about.

 

Microsoft is guilty of automatically installing select UWP applications that are not part of Windows 10 core AppX provisioned packages and more importantly, without asking. As a matter-of-fact, IOBitUnInstaller, one of the better uninstallers, does not list some of these aps in order to remove them! The advertisement link tiles on Start are also an annoyance and cannot be removed en masse. For Microsoft to add these without giving the end user the choice to opt-out, e.g. under the Customize Settings section of the Windows 10 setup was a poor decision. This is really no different than allowing the OEMs to install their crapware on most retail purchased computers and you unfortunately still have these same UWP apps to contend with on a Microsoft Signature Edition computer.

 

Most of these applications and links are of little or no value to those using Windows 10 Pro in businesses that do not want and/or cannot afford to use Windows 10 Enterprise, it simply creates unnecessary work for admins. but the solution I found are listed below.

 

Remove Specific Windows Apps from Current Account in PowerShell

Remove Specific Windows Apps from All Accounts or New Accounts in PowerShell

Remove All Windows Apps Except Store Specific from All Users in PowerShell

Full tutorial: Apps - Uninstall in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

I personally have not tried any of these steps as I dumped win10 a long time ago. However many of my friends are stubborn, so I help research these annoyances for them. Yes I do try to pursuade them to downgrade to at least win7 (xp 64 I find is better - may not have bells and whistles, but for what I do, it's perfect)

Neither of you mention it so, I figured I would... in case you weren't aware of it's existence.

Ancil is a set of scripts that I run once a month after Windows 7 Update. It can be used on 8.x and 10 as well.

You can hand edit the main script if you are so inclined.

Ancil: https://voat.co/v/ancile

How well received would scripting be for g'ma and g'pa? mom & dad? and the not so tech-savvy win10 users?

I think people should just switch to Linux and be done with it LOL

Mint is very nice for the noob Linux migraters

Well, I'm a g'pa and I have to say I am slightly offended by that generalization, but I get your drift. There are a lot of technically challenged people.

I just don't see how it is that difficult to right-click the ancile.cmd and choose "Run as administrator" - you don't have to edit the script. It is also not that difficult to schedule a task to automatically run Ancile once a month after the "security update".

But, whatever...

As for Linux, I have yet to use a Linux distro that didn't require me to open a terminal or run a BASH script to get something or other working, tweaked or fixed at some point. Then again, I haven't used every distro out there.

If your looking for an OS for the technically challenged, get them a Chromebook.

Another alternative OS (though not quite ready for prime time) is Android x86 for PC. There is already:

The Android x86 project: http://www.android-x86.org/

a couple of branches:

Phoenix OS: http://www.phoenixos.com/

Remix OS: http://www.jide.com/remixos

and Intel is working on it's own variant.

Granted, they are in their infancy but in 3-4 years Android x86 could really challenge for market share considering the sheer amount of users familiar with the OS via their phones. It's just a matter of getting Android software designers to optimize more apps for tablet/PC use.

Remix OS has been able to be install in a virtual machine for some time and the latest Phoenix OS 2.0 Alpha ISO can now be installed in a virtual machine as well, if you want to try them out.
 

Well, I'm a g'pa and I have to say I am slightly offended by that generalization, but I get your drift. There are a lot of technically challenged people.

I just don't see how it is that difficult to right-click the ancile.cmd and choose "Run as administrator" - you don't have to edit the script. It is also not that difficult to schedule a task to automatically run Ancile once a month after the "security update".

But, whatever...

As for Linux, I have yet to use a Linux distro that didn't require me to open a terminal or run a BASH script to get something or other working, tweaked or fixed at some point. Then again, I haven't used every distro out there.

If your looking for an OS for the technically challenged, get them a Chromebook.

Another alternative OS (though not quite ready for prime time) is Android x86 for PC. There is already:

The Android x86 project: http://www.android-x86.org/

a couple of branches:

Phoenix OS: http://www.phoenixos.com/

Remix OS: http://www.jide.com/remixos

and Intel is working on it's own variant.

Granted, they are in their infancy but in 3-4 years Android x86 could really challenge for market share considering the sheer amount of users familiar with the OS via their phones. It's just a matter of getting Android software designers to optimize more apps for tablet/PC use.

Remix OS has been able to be install in a virtual machine for some time and the latest Phoenix OS 2.0 Alpha ISO can now be installed in a virtual machine as well, if you want to try them out.
 

 

[StartRant]

Well you have to be careful about what you get offended by - I'm a g'pa with 6 grandkids - and I am TOTALLY offended by my generation not keeping up to the point that the kids know more than we do. Its so bad that at work they think me an outcast because I know not only more than the kids (as it should be) but more than them - half of my gen still use stupid flip phones, and those that DO use "smartphones" treat them like "dumbphones" I mean they are still texting with their "thumbs" and have a calculator on their desk? ???

 

here gramps can you do this!?(Yes thats me)

http://mydancepad.webs.com/

(No one has accused me of looking my age - let alone acting like it) People always ask how I keep my hair to grow fast, and hold my age - I tell them: Gaming. I love DDR, and decided to make my own. And I am better than most kids and teens that play it - they think its cool when I take my kids - I don't watch - I bet them lunch I can smoke em - noo I dont make them pay up LOL, But I love to see my boys light up when they get told they have a cool dad - So ya - my gen sucks!

 

I personally think kids today no longer respect adults simply because adults fail to keep up with them. Seriously, what can you teach them that they dont' already know. They'll just scoff and walk away. At work, kids come to me for advice on many things - because I REALLY DO KNOW what the heck is going on. And have MANY tricks up my sleeve.  Many of my peers (and older) I have spoken to are not interested - one lady at works stated ".. I am not living in the past, I'm just not moving forward" DER!! She also complains about the modern math - modern math is simple.

[/EndRant]

 

 

As far as "right-click": I do in home pc tune ups for the last 7yrs - many if not all of my "older" folks don't even know what a start button is. God forbid I get them on a cmd prompt or powershell. What is "ancile.cmd"? scheduling a task? None, and I mean None of my older clients not even know what scheduling app is let alone how to get to it - over 90% of my staff at my work (2nd job) bring their pc's//laptops to me. They have ZERO idea what I am doing when I use the tools on their pc. If it is one thing I learned in the pc world, is that we "experts" forget that what we take for granted - is hacking terms with todays clients. And since people do not know what your doing, that breeds fear.  Example for Pitkon, skinning is almost second nature, and all the tools he can use blindly, but many of us fumble over it or nervous about using any of the terms for fear we'll mess up our design.

 

I am not afraid of leaning and embracing new things and new ideas, but being a manager over the years, I have learned how to translate those ideas to a language the "not-so-informed" can understand and learn too.

 

 

At the risk of repeating my self :-) (comes with age) people live in the past on many facets of technology, and Linux is no exception - modern linux os no longer needs the "bash" to do anything if you get the correct distro that suits your needs - I happen to like playing in the terminal, but then I am an advance user. Thats why I mentioned MINT. As it works like windows. Actually, if you go to distrowatch.com many of the top distros are all self contained and have no need for the terminal window (it's actually buried in menus much like windows cmd prompt is - its just not needed anymore), peppermint, ubuntu (has a side bar instead of a bottom bar) Solyd (my fave)

 

As far as OS's

Take a look at REACTOS

It its a windows emulator - they were actually able to in court over ride microsoft and able to keep working on it (been around since the 90's - looks like Win2k/win98 but runs modern windows everything)

There are actually a lot of good OS's out there, but I dont think they will take root as there is nothing common. some are really nice

 

Cheers!

 

ps

If this post sounds offensive - it's just a coincident. Like I tell my wife when it comes to text messages - there is no voice inflection - if it sounds rude - it is because it is the way you would say it.

https://tweakhound.c...acy-settings-2/

 

This guide also helps, after you remove all of the windows 10 app bloat which you won't be using with blackbox anyway.  The only thing you lose out on right now anyway is certain windows games like Gears of War 4.  I honestly

broke the windows store which I could get it back but don't need it right now don't care, I never go back to normal windows shell.

 

I also do a few things that might not be recommended like diable UAC entirely to fix problems between blackbox admin mode and the such.  UAC is not particularly neccesary, just an extra door.  Also if you're worried about windows turning settings back on after update you can disable the windows update service.  This is not really recommended long term, but it allows you to allot time to both update and check for any changes that may of been reverted.

...

If this post sounds offensive - it's just a coincident. Like I tell my wife when it comes to text messages - there is no voice inflection - if it sounds rude - it is because it is the way you would say it.

 

No worries. I suppose I am an exception to the rule but, not all us 'grups' are complete luddites.

Yes, I've known about ReactOS for some time. I had high hopes for it but, unfortunately, 'the audit' set them back a few years and progress has been slow due to a lack of funding. I thought that, with the arrival of Windows 10, they might get some corporate sponsorship but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I got started with computers back in the mid '80s. Being a life long amateur musician and audio recording enthusiast, I first used a Commodore 64 to sequence MIDI for hardware synthesizers and time syncing to 4 track reel to reel. Around '95 I assembled my first custom PC and it just snowballed from there. I chose PC over Apple for economic reasons and just stuck with it.

I've tried Linux many times (and continue to keep an eye on it) but there are just too many limitations (software wise) to audio production despite the 'real time' kernel. REAPER (a professional DAW) may change all that with a Linux version it is developing that will have native VST support, but it isn't there yet.

After all the time I spend eekng out all the resources I can from a machine, tweaking settings and disabling services I don't need so I can get the absolute best performance I can get, M$ wants to run all that spy crap in the background.

All I can say is, I don't want that happening on my PCs.

It's not so much the privacy issue that ticks me off, that ship sailed long ago for all of us especially those on social networks and online gaming (of which I do neither). Instead it is the audacity of M$ to incorporate spyware right into the OS. They broke my trust and they'll never get it back.

My 'studio' PC (Windows 7 64-bit) connects to the network only by way of a removable USB wireless adapter for file transfers, backups and security updates. The security updates have become a joke as it turns out that the security firm has become a burglar.

 

wow. crowmag! you're old enough to have used the commodore 64...well mate it does us no good to remember this piece of antique, I've used it too,

 

anyway...i am shocked to hear how much you all seem stucked on A computer. I barely own a computer nowadays.

my apologies if you are offended by what i'll say but android does not worth a fart. if the thing can inject advertisement in my apps it's nothing near privacy. i've got an android phone but i stoped using most of the apps because i really hate advertisement tailor made to my gender. nationality. browsing habit and skin color.

 

if i really need some privacy while i'm on the net i'll use tail os on my thumb drive on a random computer that i've borrowed on a random wifi. i don't store anything of importance on my computer, i use it only to come here, to stream movies or facebook or publish a thing or two on my blogs. nothing that's not already public domain.

 

i have only this principle: if you own something that cannot hold in your pockets then you are f*****. if whatever you own is not replaceable then you are doubly f****

 

cheers

p.S. klyxmaster. I never used windows 10 preinstalled. all computers bought bought by the office we reinstalled win10. idk but i have full access to the bios...may be you should check this method of installation...

 

wow. crowmag! you're old enough to have used the commodore 64...well mate it does us no good to remember this piece of antique, I've used it too,

 

It's worse than you think, it was an SX-64 'suitcase computer' (portable for gigs) and I was already in my mid 30's...

anyway...i am shocked to hear how much you all seem stucked on A computer. I barely own a computer nowadays.

Because there are some things that would be just too cumbersome to do on a hand held device such as tracking, mixing and mastering 30 or more tracks of audio each with one or more effects plugins or virtual instruments. Or, making detailed mechanical drawings using CAD software which would also be a PITA on a smaller device.

my apologies if you are offended by what i'll say but android does not worth a fart. if the thing can inject advertisement in my apps it's nothing near privacy. i've got an android phone but i stoped using most of the apps because i really hate advertisement tailor made to my gender. nationality. browsing habit and skin color.

I'm not offended in the least. My mobile phone is nothing more than a $50 LG Rebel Trac Phone with data usage set to 'WiFi Only' and only a handful of apps (MAPS.ME, Solid Explorer, Pulsar audio player etc.). I need nothing more. TBO, I wouldn't even own one if there were still such a thing as pay phones (I have a land line). It is nice to have a camera at all times though...

The only other mobile device I own is a Galaxy Tab A 8" (WiFi only) that I use to rent books from my local library, display diagrams and electronics schematics, run unit conversion\calculator softwares, keep a calendar and notes that I use when working in my hobby shop (where I spend a lot of my time).

My interest in Android x86 is simply to get a slightly bigger screen by running those apps on a used 'netbook' instead of paying hundreds of dollars more for a bigger tablet.

I know that most people need to be 'connected' all the time but, basically the majority of the time I spend on the internet is in the morning while drinking coffee, catching up on correspondence and reading the news & weather. And of coarse I do shop online. That's about two hours a day - or one pot of coffee.

Growing up in an era where the internet did not exist and being retired, a lot of this 'internet of things' stuff is just a convenience to me and not a necessity as it is for many people and their jobs. So, my perspective is a bit narrow.

Ads? Meh, I see no difference from TV where you have to put up with ads in exchange for the 'free' programming except that I get ads targeting me specifically. And, I see those only in a web browser as I only use paid apps that have none.

I gather M$ has started putting ads in the W-10 Start Menu now?

Oops...didn't realize that when you said retired you really meant it. Well I'm not too far anyway.

 

I use Autocad too, I am a draughtman, so I do understand the basic necessities of owning a computer, may be I did not explain my thoughts well.

 

I meant I cannot understand this focus on only One computer, making it the sole machine where you store your private life, connect to a/multiple networks, work and play. Personally I own 3 computers with 4 OS's (dual booting linux on two), On one of the them I completely destroyed all wireless life and its primary use is to store and work offline. On the other (my wife's Lenovo I barely maintain the system by doing cleanup and regular updates. She use it for browsing youtube, facebook etc. My daughter has her tablet and a very old laptop for youtube that I also maintain. 

 

For any other uses I have a laptop, from work, and my thumb+any computer I can plug in. That's where the barely come in, I don't really have a use for A personal Computer.

 

You know I really don't understand this Paid Software thing. I rarely download and pay for software. Most software I paid for are for professional reasons (MS office pro) or some games I really liked on Nintendo. I always support free software and open source for my private use. In my professional life I never recommend buying commercial softwares...I'll recommend a particular software engineer/programmer for a custom software that my boss business will have exclusive use. We have more control on the input and output, we also pay for the support and man it's something else to lift your phone and say "Hello Bruce, we have some issues with the accounting software..." . Instead of the sleepy or dynamic voice of some unknown support engineer that already answered three dozen customers before you. Fast food softwares like the one on android store...I really hate it when you email the company and they give you some shitty answer as to why you can't have access to this or that. When they take weeks to answer it's the worse.

 

I don't use MS start menu man...we are on blackbox4windows.com I have an alternate shell!!! Or I use Classic Start Menu (another fine piece of free software) I donate whenever I can. I also use Ad Muncher and Ublock Origin (that you can't do on android without breaking the warranty by rooting the damn $50 phone...if it's rootable), so ads on MS? Haven't seen any in years.

 

Besides Facebook is free and has no paid alternative, in this era the latter is more than a fancy piece of code. The default browsers (chrome included) are also free...which you paid for but you still get targeted ads.

P.S. On android have you tried AudioVision player (free no ads till now) and totalcommander (paid but I believe a power user like you will find it useful), T-UI as alternate home (shell whatever) with an easy orthodox like file manager and launcher?

Oops...didn't realize that when you said retired you really meant it. Well I'm not too far anyway.

Yeah, the 'bbDinosaur' label is literal, unfortunately

I see what you mean about just one computer holding everything important, that would be foolish. I actually have 3 PC's that I use exclusively; 2 desktops (one in my home studio and one in my bedroom) and an old laptop out in the garage, mostly for watching 'how-to' videos. The network router has a drive connected for backup purposes but I only turn that on when I need to.

All my PCs use Blackbox as shell, Explorer shell is just way too tedious. I don't know what I would do if I had to switch to Linux and I lost bbInterface and bbIconBox. But, at least I would have a custom menu...

The paid apps I was referring to were for Android only. On PC, a good 90% of the software I use is freeware. I have both Chrome and Firefox installed but I I mostly use FF with Classic Theme Restorer install which allows bbLeanSkin to skin the windows properly. A big reason I have Chrome installed is so I can share a Windows printer with my Android devices pretty effortlessly.

I haven't tried AudioVision, I did try the Total Commander on android but ended up liking Solid Explorer better. It's also a 'dual pane' file manager (in landscape mode) and it was only like $2-$3. MAPS.ME is free as is Google Maps but MAPS.ME allows me to DL and store maps on my phone's SD card instead of Internal memory for 'offline' use. I guess I take for granted the Google apps I use; Docs, Drive, Gmail, Keep - all 'free' save for the targeted ads when I'm in a web browser.

 

Maps.me is my numero uno app too. I'll try solid explorer, i use esfile explorer for my mid range phone (not so cheap lg but bought it for laser cam) but I'm always looking for new file managers for my girl tablet (damn cheap prestigio but solid). I'm not a power user but I like power toys

 

Team viewer on android is the only tool i use for PC-Android remote. As much as I like chromium on pc, I can't bear the damn thing on android. I use Tint browser for "normal browsing" and privacy browser (the latter a bit difficult to find on store but here's a link: https://www.stoutner.com/) with which I have the ability to disable cookies & javascript.

 

I don't use BB on Linux, like you said the lost of bbiconbox and interface (and bbstylemaker for me) is unbearable. I use xfce (or awesome wm)... bit old school but hey I'm old...enough...

 

waiting for moj to release the new bb