Are Windows 10 Stop spying tool safe?

Software & Operating Systems Windows
1

I was wondering if the tools that provided on the internet are safe to use it to kill Windows 10 spying software and hosts. is it safe? or does it affect the Windows 10 experience? I really wonder since it disables a lot of things!

Thanks,

1 Like
2

There are plenty of them.
Some are good some are bad.
I believe shut up 10 or something is kinda the most used one.

Are they really effective? idk really.
I mean i will prevent some annoying stuff, but not all of it.
Telemetry tracking is kinda impossible to disable.
Settings will be restored every major update anyways.
MS owns gazillion tracking domains on the internet, pretty difficult to block them all.

But not all telemetry tracking is bad imo.
things like crash report etc are pretty usefull.

1 Like
3

You’re never 100% sure. Especially with less popular ones. You would have to analyze the source code thoroughly to be sure what is squeaking in the grass.

If something very bad happens on the mass scale, sooner or later it will be loud about this program.

1 Like
4

Shutup10 will stop most of the major telemetry with it’s default setup. You can choose to disable more but not all telemetry is bad.

5

If you can’t opt-out… it’s bad

1 Like
6

Shutup10 is fine, download it directly from O&O.

7

you can opt out, its just that doing so makes your life a pita.

8

@Pavilions
Yes it is… its decent. Ive checked traffic it doesnt stop it all nor will any tool tbch… and some tools are malicious in and of themselves so be careful

I hate to be this guy but if it really bothers you dont just install linux… research it first and what programs you use their alternatives if they have support for what you do etc and consider installing Linux lol

9

Best thing is to get the Enterprise edition which lets you turn off the telemetry and also delay updates for much longer than other versions. Unfortunately you can’t easily buy it…

10

Not that id buy for them. What id do is get a small volume license which is expensive but does the same thing

11

The only way to 100% stop things like this in your OS, if your OS vendor is hostile to your privacy are to:

  • firewall it from the internet entirely (i.e., block all traffic outbound to the internet from that machine with a seperate firewall device, and permit it to get to LAN machines only. yes including windows update)
  • air-gap it

Anything less may result in any random windows update (including “security only” patches) re-enabling the telemetry.

Really, if you disagree with Microsoft using telemetry without your consent, you should be getting off the platform IMHO.

Well, unless air-gapping the machine from the network is acceptable to you, but in 2019 i suspect that is unpalatable.

1 Like
12

Incorrect, Windows 10 does not permit users to opt-out of telemetry in the Home and Pro versions.

I play videogames so I’m stuck with Windows. Disabling telemetry with Shutup10 works fine. It’s annoying that I need to keep doing it, and it pisses me off, but it works.

1 Like
13

>cant opt-out

>shutup10 lets you opt out

pick one

3 Likes
14

Microsoft does not permit users to opt-out, as I correctly noted. There’s no button in the UI or group policy that works. Shutup10 makes tons of low-level changes to do it. Since the user has root, they have no way to stop that. They would if they could.

1 Like
15

Deep-dive Digging through Linux OS with their ‘general store’ of amazing array of distros /desktops where it appears there is not much for telemetry so far in the 3d research - SO FAR!

Anyone else know how it is with Linux and which distro?

All I know is that life after Windows after a 1 year hiatus from everything is enlightening.

16

I’m only concern about these kind of tools is that if they mess up some kind of registry of crucial part of Windows 10 to function well. I tried it once but I wasn’t sure if my Windows is the same or not because I didn’t use it that much at that time.

17

If you’re concerned with Linux distribution telemetry (some do it to a limited degree) probably go with Fedora or Debian as I believe they are 100% about freedom and would not permit that in their policy (but do check yourself).

Those that cop flack for it (e.g., Ubuntu) - it is mostly trivial to get rid of - i think its the Amazon store app or signing in with an Ubuntu account for example.

But again, to re-iterate - if you install a “telemetry free” hacked version of Windows, your battle is not won.

Any windows update may re-enable it at any time (so you need to either run without updates which is a bad idea when exposed to the internet even behind NAT, or air-gap/firewall). If you’re that concerned about it, shifting platforms, firewall from the internet or air-gap are the only real options.

Anything else is just security theatre (and you may as well deal with the fact that you’re running spyware, because it will return).

1 Like
18

Appreciate the information and candor in the matter for firewalling and air gap especially makes sense using Windows.

Taking my time wrapping the data around a fairly complex (n the planning stage) build analyzing hardware/firmware/vssoftware - the usual.

19

AFAIK, Clear Linux is the only telemetry-laden distro, but of course anything is possible from a mom & pop built distribution.

I doubt that any popularly-ranked distro will find its way to the top of the Distro Watch ranking, without someone discovering its telemetry (if present). If looking for a safe distro, I’d start by looking at, say the top 2 dozen most popular Linux flavors.

1 Like
20

Thank you for the ‘DistroWatch’ link. More dry gun powder power information Microsoft/Apple et al never does or ever will render.

Understood that the desktop/ home business using GNU/Linux is tiny at about possibly 3% - HOWEVER - the tipping point is reaching critical mass in a fibonacci sequence or exponential way as time proves the math.