Microsoft spyware removal

RogerClark wrote:Guys,

Just thought you may be interested in this page

http://techne.alaya.net/?p=12499

As I’m not sure if you were aware that Microsoft have been effectively rolling out spyware (customer experience improvement monitoring features) to Windows 7 and Windows 8.

These are features that come pre-installed in Windows 10.

You should check whether the kb’s listed in this page are indeed spyware, but I know some kb updates are widely reported to be by spyware or nagware etc etc

I’ve now disabled all automatic updates on all my machines.

Actually there was only one laptop where it was still on automatic update, as I’d recently had to reinstall from original disk to get rid of some bloatware.

All my other windows machine notify me of updates but, as far as I’m aware, are not downloading or applying the updates.

Unfortunately from now on, I’m going to have to check every kb number (a week or two after its released) to see if anyone has identified it as a spyware

PS. I’d love to switch to Linux but its not possible to do it for my work as I need to use lots Windows only software.

I’m running native Ubuntu on all my machines since many years, the only Windows I have are within VirtualBox, where VMs are offen backed-up before massive updates, so in case of troubles, I can revert to previous VM.

I run windows VM’s inside windows sometimes.

I guess there would be no problem running Windows in a VM on linux if you have enough RAM

RogerClark wrote:I guess there would be no problem running Windows in a VM on linux if you have enough RAM

RogerClark wrote:Guys,

Just thought you may be interested in this page

http://techne.alaya.net/?p=12499

As I’m not sure if you were aware that Microsoft have been effectively rolling out spyware (customer experience improvement monitoring features) to Windows 7 and Windows 8.

These are features that come pre-installed in Windows 10.

You should check whether the kb’s listed in this page are indeed spyware, but I know some kb updates are widely reported to be by spyware or nagware etc etc

Ray – There is no doubt that the majority of desktops and a large portion of laptops run Windows, but its hardly a a religious argument to suggest this is not necessarily a good thing, as the current privacy row shows.

Incidentally while the Windows World would have you believe they occupy 99% of the known universe, in fact they are a relatively small player when it comes to OS’es installed on all devices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_sha … ng_systems

I also have a Windows background, and am as capable of writing code for windows (including clunky VBScript, and MS SQL) as the next man. Indeed I have been paid (reasonably well ) to do so in the past, but I still feel more at ease with Linux. I am not out to “convert” anybody, but I suspect Windows 10 may nudge one or two more people away from the Windows world, particularly when it becomes know exactly what the results of the Micro$oft spying are. Bill G’s successors are not gathering lots of information about their users just for the fun of it.

If I were a youngster starting out I would suggest learning as much as you can about as many operating systems and coding languages as possible, and use whichever is appropriate for the situation (or whichever your current paymasters require as the case may be).

I’m not sure if there are any articles analysing what data is collected, but when I went though and disabled the items from the Windows task scheduler, it was mildly disturbing to see that it collects data about what USB devices are connected to your computer and schedules that the data be sent back to Microsoft.

I don’t personally use any encryption dongles, but I’d imagine that this is a security risk for any organization that does use them.

I guess Microsoft already know I have a Maple R3 connected to my machine.

Oh !
Do you means M$ is looking at so low level ?
I’m glad to be on Linux … My Windows VMs rarely see what I’ve have on my USB ports …

Yes.

MS do appear to be collecting USB data, and there seems to be a scheduled service to send the collected USB data to MS Central

I believe that collecting USB data is done for statistics purpouse in order to choose wich drivers will be installed in the Windows distributions and in the Windows servers for automatic download.

zoomx wrote:I believe that collecting USB data is done for statistics purpouse in order to choose wich drivers will be installed in the Windows distributions and in the Windows servers for automatic download.

mrburnette wrote:zoomx wrote:I believe that collecting USB data is done for statistics purpouse in order to choose wich drivers will be installed in the Windows distributions and in the Windows servers for automatic download.

why collect the information from *all* of their customers, and not simply from a representative sample

Andy,

Once upon a time, I performed internal audits for a fortune 100 company. Statistics is a strange mistress… her rules are daunting when accuracy is necessary. ‘Representative sample’ is a near impossibility if a human is involved in the selection criteria. Rather, there are algorithms that can be run against the whole population that provide reasonable small samples that are guaranteed to be representative. The issue, is that the universe must not be tainted.

Ray

Disturbing press release this week saying Microsoft is answering the complaints about “telemetry” and “performance” monitoring – by permitting an opt-out/disable of these But only for enterprise licensees!

I give MS the benefit of the doubt – that they want this for product improvement and do not sell web site visit stats. Geesh, with $92B of cash in the bank, why would they need to take a publicity risk for a small amount of new revenue? I think much of the hype on all this is from the ever-present conspiracy fanatics. Just another tangent for them. Go focus on Apple, Wallmart, Amazon, Google, Planned Parenthood, UAL, if you want a better chance of real dirt.

We’ve almost come to seeing Kleenex ads pop-up when we sneeze.

anyone remember ?
whichbrowser IEdo you want to use, untick
and the microscopic fine imposed

Well…

My battle with windows 8.1 continues

I manually removed the spyware updates, and disabled all updated in the Windows Update settings

But today when I rebooted this laptop, Windows started applying updates.

After the reboot, I double checked that I had disabled all updates, and I had.

So either MS is now ignoring those settings, which is what Windows 10 does, as users no longer have the option to choose whether they want to or not.

Or I have a virus that patches its self into the Windows Update process, or makes it appear that its a Windows update.

Checking the WIndows update log, I don’t even see any updates listed for today, however there are multiple failed attempts to install something called “Windows 10 Pro”.

I never really wanted to have Windows 8.1 on this laptop, but it came with 8.1 and it wasnt possible even to boot a Windows 7 install disk on this machine So I was forced to stay with Windows 8.1 albeit a clean install to remove the manufacturers bloatware.

Anyway. I will be looking around for a compatible version of Linux to dual boot onto this machine in the near future, as although I suspect I may need Windows on here from time to time, I also suspect that most of the time that Linux will do everything that I will need.

Windows 10 is becoming like a Virus. Remember the new icon to dowload Win 10? I do not clicked to download it but one month ago I found a new folder of about 3-4Gb with a setup for installing Win 10.
Now there are some computer sites that are writing about this, so I am not the only one.
I simply deleted the folder. Microsoft says that it happens on computers that are good for Win 10 and updates are automatic.

zoomx wrote:
<…>
Microsoft says that it happens on computers that are good for Win 10 and updates are automatic.

mrburnette wrote:To willfully introduce W10 into that environment would mean that I am more stupid than my wife suggests.