this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Privacy
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I'm certain this can be disabled in windows at any moment as without it loads and loads of criminal evidence would be available for discovery and litigation against the wealthiest people and businesses across the world.
A real fear is being a worker in a world with micromanagers inspecting your workweek, 3 second snapshots at a time.
Microsoft turns things back on all the time though. It doesn't matter what you set if they can unset it whenever they want.
Windows as is, is a valid, fast and private OS. The lack is that it is by default a bundleware, full of telemetries, spyware, services which nobody needs, trials and other crap "to improve the user experience". All this can be gutted by an advanced user. The alternastive for those which need use Windows, is to install one of the WindowsX series, an independent modification and optimization, without all these M$ crap.
Quick way of accomplishing the “de-bloating” of windows is by 1) managing your own DNS and blocking telemetry connections network wide (quite easy to do with PiHole + Docker Engine) or 2) installing Glasswire and blocking connections on the specific device however, I believe Glasswires Firewall is subscription based so this may be a turn-off for people.
Either work and are more efficient than digging around your Windows install and finding all the different variants of the same bloatware.
I use Portmaster, there go nothing in or out without my permissions.
Ah I figured Portmaster was only for Linux, I dabbled around their software and found it quite good!
I think the reason I stopped using it in lieu of OpenSnitch was because 1) most features were locked behind a subscription and 2) already had PiHole running so the firewall wasn’t something I really needed.
Regardless thanks for letting me know it works for Windows, I’ll started recommending it over Glasswire!
There are no need of subscriptions in Portmaster, it's FOSS. Well, the subscription is only if you want to use additional also the inbuild SPN service (optional service), which need an paid subscription like any good VPN (server cost money). I Prefer to use Portmaster over Pi-Hole, because Portmaster permits per app settings, Pi-Hole don'tm apart is way easier to setup, with already a good default settings, its almost download it, run install and peace. Then maybe open it, browse your listed apps and block their traffic if needed with an click.
Simplewall works quite well too! And it's free.
Windows has a built in firewall, so why install a paid one?
Not nearly as user friendly for the non-networking types hence why I recommend one with a fancy GUI.
Edit: Also, I suspect Microsoft will do Microsoft things and hide/prevent their telemetry from being blocked, ultimately I don’t know the state of Windows right now as I’ve made the switched to Linux many years ago.
I don't see anywhere where I can see the source code of that build. Not saying it's a bad project just that I'd like more transparency.
I'm more trusting of the debloat scripts that I can read and inspect. https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat
Well, there are several methodes, WinX is one of the options and naturally can't be OpenSource, because Windows isn't, even not in this debloated version. As you said, there are several FOSS tools to do it, maybe the best is the hellzerg Optimizer, very capable to eliminate the bad Windows habits and apart improving the system-
Yes, as said, the problem isn't the OS as is, it's all the crap, spy- and bloatware which M$ put in it.
@Zerush @muusemuuse all of that "crap, spy- and bloatware" is baked into the OS and the only reliable way to remove it isn't not use Windows.
The problem is 100% the OS.
It isn't, I use currently W11 24H2 with less than 0,9GB on disk, no unwanted nettraffic shown in Portmaster. Full BOOT in less than 5 seconds and snappy responses. No problems with it, no unwanted apps in the updates or other issues. This certainly wasn't the case as default in my new laptop. Well "un-microsofted" Windows, not even with it's original UI.
Tools that claim to lighten windows are almost always riddled with malware. You should never ever trust them. Those project build a base of loyal users, then change and add in malware later, compromising the system.
Windows is not a system you modify like that. It’s actually surprisingly Mac like in how you have to handle it. Be responsible. Build an OS up and out, bow down and back.
The hellzerg Optimizer is FOSS and well known since years, do not confuse with proprietary tools, like those from IObit or Ashampoo, these are certainly not recommended. Anyway, also with the default Windows GodMode you can do a lot, also with the Regedit, if you know well what you do (somewhat risky)
The windows registry is not a magical thing. That’s really all that dangerous. It’s just a giant central config file that you can store binary data in if you know what you’re doing. Malware can hide there too.
Agree, it's not recommended to edit the registry when you don't know exactly what you're doing, less in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, it's very easy to have to re-install the OS because of an total crash.
That’s not because the registry is important or powerful. It’s the opposite. Microsoft designs their shitty operating systems to always assume the registry is perfect. Question nothing. Everything is literal. There is no sanity checking or error handling. So if something is off about the registry, the OS will just shrug and blue screen.
Stop using windows. It’s for children.
I am very far from being a child ( I'm over 70 and I probably have grandchildren of your age) and I know very well what is expected of the operating systems. What is childish is consider a system better than others, forgetting that this is always dependent on the opinions and needs of the individual.
I have used both, Windows as well as different distros of Linux, and I know very well the advantages and limitations of both. You forget that many corporate applications and professional ones (games apart) do only exist for Windows, with alternatives poor in Linux or just work poorly with Wine or in virtual environment.
Linux certainly has many advantages over Windows, but it has a big problem of a huge amount of different distros, not always compatible with each other, being apart (still) in general a minority system, with little presence in the market, and also a presence of less the availability of software, far from the amplitude of catalogues for Windows, even in respect of FOSS and FLOSS. Linux has advantages in field-specific uses, Windows, apart from its defects, is in the global scope. It's very easy to say "use Linux" (Qu'ils mangent de la brioche) to someone who needs to use Windows for some reasons, instead of the way to get rid of the problems which he has with it.
But keep saying that the registry is of no importance, and with the following phrase that Windows stops working when something wrong is deactivated or deleted in one of the entries, just what I said before, this is childish and shows your "great knowledge" about how Windows works.
Cheers
Talk is cheap. Show me the code.