I know nothing about Linux/Ubuntu, so I'm not making any firm commitments. If anything, it's a project down the line (if necessary at all). Thanks for the feedback.
Windows 10 Upgrade Reportedly Starting Automatically on Windows 7 PCs
- Thread starter Exterminator
- Start date
I know nothing about Linux/Ubuntu, so I'm not making any firm commitments. If anything, it's a project down the line (if necessary at all). Thanks for the feedback.
- Sep 15, 2014
- 246
Yep, last night I did an extensive experiment on win 10 trying to block anything that sends information to MS in one way or they other...
I have successfully completely disable Cortana and telemetry... That was easy through some policy and registry changes and they can no longer connect to the Internet whatsoever... The hard part is explorer.exe to stop it sending information mostly on boot... I kept blocking anything that is connecting to it and traced IP's down, adding to hosts file and so on... Managed to completely block it and no connections were made until I received an error message and the screen went black... lmao It kept finding new ip's to connect to.. MS has some serious backdoors on these systems, period...
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Pathetic... It's not a bad OS but it is people's choice if they want to upgrade or not, Microsoft should only reccomend.
- Jan 14, 2015
- 1,761
should you choose to go Linux route, you will need quite a bit of research + playing with different distributions in VM before starting to know how to maintain a Linux system.
Despite zorin, linux lite, xubuntu, and other variants of Ubuntu being user friendly, maintenance is not a walk in the park for a new user, specially when things start to break.
Windows can be replaced. For casual user, software used in windows can be found also in Linux (alternatives I mean), along with some cross platform support ones. Also WINE allows you to run native Windows programs, albeit not 100% perfect.
A few options:
Use of local account
In regards to telemetry etc:
- Group Policy Editor: Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Data Collection and Preview Builds. Double click Telemetry, hit Disabled, then apply. Works like a charm in Enterprise edition and some reports it works on Pro.
- Group Policy Editor: Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > OneDrive, double click Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage, hit Enabled, then apply.
- Group Policy Editor: Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Defender, double click Turn Off Windows Defender, hit Enabled, then apply. (yes, some claim that WD also collects data... so I'm tossing this in for the users who wish to turn it off)
- Registry Editor: Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\DataCollection, selectAllowTelemetry, change its value to 0, then apply.
- Manipulate Host Files (use take ownership tweak): Host file is in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc
- Make sure you take ownership of the hosts file, then just add this list of IPs (im pretty sure I didn't miss any.
http://pastebin.com/SqUXv2sD
In case Pastebin link doesnt work, then hastebin
- Finally, for the users who just want some basics:
http://lifehacker.com/what-windows-10s-privacy-nightmare-settings-actually-1722267229
There, all the windows 10 privacy issues covered in one post.
My own opinion: too much work, but I have already done those in 5 systems for my colleagues.
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- Nov 19, 2014
- 39
I thought win10 had some hardcoded ip stuff so you cannot block them even with hosts files?
- Jan 14, 2015
- 1,761
there probably is but I didnt dig that far into it as it was just wasting my time after doing all the above on 5 systems one after another.
The IPs on Hosts manipulation was actually the last step i done on the 5 laptops. Doesn't help when each colleague has 2 and 3 laptops.
They havent complained yet and been quite some time, so I suppose they are ok with everything above. There was one more colleague but that was on Home version and I said I wouldn't do it.
Could easily create a batch file for all steps above but again, I do not see a point when I do not use it myself. But yeah, all info is available for those who wish to isolate the privacy issues.
- Sep 15, 2014
- 246
Thanks already done all that except disabling Win Defender in Group Policy Editor but its already disabled since I got ESET smart security installed..
I am talking about the connection that explorer.exe is doing...
- Jan 14, 2015
- 1,761
connection on explorer.exe was and is present also in Windows 8.1
The IP for me is 111.221.29.122 and 111.221.29.76. That is what I see in my 8.1 currently.
Those are not listed in the host file list. Feel free to disable but you might need to google further and do it at your own risk.
If W10 forced upgrade is a concern, then best method is to disable automatic updates. After reviewing updates then one can manually hide unwanted updates.
One can review already installed updates and uninstall them, then afterwards, hide them so they do not get installed again.
The manual review of Windows updates is kind of a pain, but at least the user has a greater awareness of what is about to be\has been modified on their system.
If you mean something that will force the upgrade to W10 in such a way that the user cannot detect it whatsoever - well, I haven't heard about nor seen such a thing happen - yet...
If M$ doesn't meet their establish W10 upgrade goals, then of course, no one would find even more aggressive tactics to force W10 upgrades a surprise.
But what if Microsoft took precaution already and put something in the system earlier?
One can review already installed updates and uninstall them, then afterwards, hide them so they do not get installed again.
The manual review of Windows updates is kind of a pain, but at least the user has a greater awareness of what is about to be\has been modified on their system.
If you mean something that will force the upgrade to W10 in such a way that the user cannot detect it whatsoever - well, I haven't heard about nor seen such a thing happen - yet...
If M$ doesn't meet their establish W10 upgrade goals, then of course, no one would find even more aggressive tactics to force W10 upgrades a surprise.
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- Sep 15, 2014
- 246
lol True... Waiting for AMD to release the new processor Zen, then I am going to build my new desktop pc and probably gonna install and use win 7 or win 8.0..
When you have control computer sales all over the world, you think you own every system. #JeSuisWindows7 #StopMicrosoftCampaign #ThinkOnCustomers #MakeMeStopUsingHashtags
Seriously, they need to stop agressively updating computers, they'll just get people mad.
Seriously, they need to stop agressively updating computers, they'll just get people mad.
Was it an APU based system? Actually I updated all my drivers to win 10 compatible ones and then migrated to w10 from w7.
I use Xubuntu most of the times.
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Windows10 is giant spyware, so this quite useful for MS (advertising), the US government if everybody uses it (War on Drugs, War on Terror and War on Freedoms). The US government must answer to their corporate sponsors such as the Koch brothers.
To have any kind of privacy, very aggressive steps are required with Win10, which 99.9% of the public will never do. What average Joe or Jane for instance will go editing the registry, hosts file etc?
To increase privacy, see this Youtube vids:
For steps you can follow these Youtube vids, you don't need to delete to DiagTrack or dmwappushservice, you can disable them. There is actually some more you can do...Yeah M$ really did a number on their customers.
To have any kind of privacy, very aggressive steps are required with Win10, which 99.9% of the public will never do. What average Joe or Jane for instance will go editing the registry, hosts file etc?
To increase privacy, see this Youtube vids:
For steps you can follow these Youtube vids, you don't need to delete to DiagTrack or dmwappushservice, you can disable them. There is actually some more you can do...Yeah M$ really did a number on their customers.
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- Mar 1, 2016
- 50
Well Windows Automatic Updates tried to install W 10 on my W 7 Pro and my system gave them this error:
I kept getting OxC1900101-0x2000C (The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during APPLY_IMAGE operation) errors at about 6% completion of the upgrade.
Believe it or not I tried several times to install W 10 with the same error so I gave up. Now Windows update is still trying to update this computer! I wish them luck because I haven't found a fix for this error yet. So I guess I'll be on W 7 until the laptop dies. Where it's already 8 years old! LOLs
I kept getting OxC1900101-0x2000C (The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during APPLY_IMAGE operation) errors at about 6% completion of the upgrade.
Believe it or not I tried several times to install W 10 with the same error so I gave up. Now Windows update is still trying to update this computer! I wish them luck because I haven't found a fix for this error yet. So I guess I'll be on W 7 until the laptop dies. Where it's already 8 years old! LOLs
Did you disable AV before upgrading?Well Windows Automatic Updates tried to install W 10 on my W 7 Pro and my system gave them this error:
I kept getting OxC1900101-0x2000C (The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during APPLY_IMAGE operation) errors at about 6% completion of the upgrade.
Believe it or not I tried several times to install W 10 with the same error so I gave up. Now Windows update is still trying to update this computer! I wish them luck because I haven't found a fix for this error yet. So I guess I'll be on W 7 until the laptop dies. Where it's already 8 years old! LOLs
- Jan 8, 2011
- 22,361
A free upgrade would be useful for capable hardware, it's the users that don't want Free Software. They prefer to crack it.
- Jan 14, 2015
- 1,761
Tho even cracked can be upgraded, until well issues arise.
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