Tossed WinSpy out the window today

Started by Gregg, August 13, 2015, 11:08:44 AM

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Gregg

I thought we had a thread here about Windows 10, but searching the forum for Windows 10 is like searching for the word "the" pretty much.

I put WinSpy 10 on the guinea pig the day it came out. Knowing that the FREE upgrade would most likely have the same EULA all the pre-release versions had I installed the Enterprise LTSB. Wiped the and installed fresh on half the drive (was going to put 8.1 in the other partition). When it got time to accept the EULA it said to read the box that the software came with. Hmmm, funny but I downloaded it, I did not get a box so I had to agree to who knows what. I really wanted to read that EULA too!

The only problem during the install was I did not use the express settings and went through all the on/off switches to turn off all the spies, clicked next, it sat there for a minute and came right back with all the options turned on. I had to go through that 2 more times and 3rd time was the charm.

So it's installed and I get in and the video is total crap to say the least. It's NVidea and it is such a major player you would think it could have a decent driver. It defaulted to the default driver which really has no usable resolutions other than for a 4:3 monitor. The wide screen ones it does have I've never seen a monitor that supports those dimentions.

The colors reminded me of my old IBM PS/2 from a time before the earth's crust cooled. A whopping 16 colors, but it did 256 I think, they decided no one needs to know that info in Win8. Everything so was so bleached out it was really hard to see not to mention the worms crawling across the screen. Installing the driver was impossible, it just wouldn't allow it. It would go through the motions and then just say not gonna happen. Fortunately, I've been around the block quite a few times, I had all the driver files and inf files and I just right clicked on the inf and chose install. It did it's thing and the screen came right to life with vibrant colors. It readjusted the size to the 1080p the monitor supports even.

Now it's time to dig into the settings. After three times turning all that crap off it was all on.  ::)  Cortana still is running under the hood tho if you can trust M$ it's not listening/seeing/spying on my every mouse click/keystroke.

All I could wonder is how the corporate/business world is going to embrace this madness. I hope by screaming a resounding NO! I hope enough of the general public screams HELL NO as well.



mario

The following article is in german, but I think you can follow the screenshots to disable the creepy stuff http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Windows-10-Datensammelwut-beherrschen-2774941.html

mario

I guess that is why M$ did not use the 9 as a version else you might called it windows 9.11  :)

Gregg

I know how to shut all but one thing off, the last and I forget which doesn't give you an off switch, only a more or less switch. With my experience of turning it all off at install only to find it all on again after, I'll just say no.

I put 8.1 on it with Classic Shell, I'm good to go for years on that machine. It will probably die before it has to be upgraded to whatever is available at the time 8.1 runs out.

perindu

There's a link to disable windows 10 spy at http://pxc-coding.com/portfolio/donotspy10/

I think i cross with something similar at github but can't remember it.

Been tested it since preview but not like it so much .. :)

Gregg

I know this is old, but what I did not know back when I started this thread is Win10 has a keylogger. Keyloggers have always been considered malware, so Win10 is one big piece of malware IMO.

This one will shut down the keylogger as well.
https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

Gregg

It's about time someone did something! Of course it has to be some country other than the US as usual.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/20/france_windows_10_microsoft/