Disable these Windows 10 settings right now

CNET ^ | Sept. 26, 2021 4:00 a.m. PT | Alison DeNisco Rayome, Sarah Jacobsson Purewal

[BenLurkin]

Windows 11 may be on the way, but more than 1 billion people are still using Windows 10 -- and many have no idea about the default settings that collect information, make you see more ads and notifications and may be slowing down your device. (It will be free to upgrade to Windows 11 if you're already using Windows 10 -- here's how to download Windows 10 free if you haven't already. And here's how to tell if you can upgrade to Windows 11.)

If you're a Windows 10 user, you'll want to spend just a few minutes looking into these default settings, and potentially turning them off, for the sake of privacy, speed and convenience. Here are eight settings that are turned on by default that you can disable in Windows 10. (You can also check out the top Windows 10 tips and tricks, and how to troubleshoot common Windows 10 problems.)

[Hot Tabasco]

thanks

[Hot Tabasco]

Interesting, I followed some of the steps in that article and my downloading speed has already increased. It’s been really slow for quite some time.

[daniel1212]

"I get a big kick out of people here who think that they are special because they have been able to load Linux up on their computers and use an internet browser, word processor, spread sheet or some type of game on it. Congratulations to them all, but most of us have dabbled in Linux over the past 30 years or so. For various reasons Microsoft is still what most of us rely on for most tasks. "

True, plus for those who want better speed and efficiency by tweaking Windows and using sold freeware for it, then there is the time it would take to learn the coding needed to come close to that level one can easily have in Windows. However, majority use is not necessarily a barometer of superiority, for as seen with the majority using the Chrome inferior browser for years now (though the increase in extensions is helping), market share use can be the result of advertising, not informed choices, as in politics.

[daniel1212]

"The beauty of Linux, is it is hard to hack, as you need root authority to run executables, "

Unless (IIRC) you use Puppy, the most fun Linux browser. I myself as a single heavy user and tweaker does not like having to often run sudo this or that or provide my password. A simple click should do.

[daniel1212]

" lets not even mention the money I threw away on “massive” 50MB hard drives and the like."

Indeed. Now a 120GB SSD is about $25. Thank God it still lasts at that price.

[Salamander]

Mixed results.

The Asus touchscreen I hoped to experiment on will not take it.
Has a wrong CPU, blast it.

The Acer touchscreen will but I’m not really crazy about fiddling with that because I use it for die cut machine work.

Hilariously, the Alienware 17R5 will do it but I need something faster and less garbagy than Win10 on that, not something even more bloated and goofy.

I might make a Win10 backup/reinstall stick and guinea pig the Alienware.

It’s not been scraped to bare metal for years and is probably due for a reformat/reinstall, anyway

On a similar not, I am not super impressed by iOS 15 on the iPad.

Oh well.

[daniel1212]

What about Trusted Computing:

Trusted Computing (TC), also often referred to as Confidential Computing, is a technology developed and promoted by the Trusted Computing Group.[1] The term is taken from the field of trusted systems and has a specialized meaning. With Trusted Computing, the computer will consistently behave in expected ways, and those behaviors will be enforced by computer hardware and software.[1] Enforcing this behavior is achieved by loading the hardware with a unique encryption key that is inaccessible to the rest of the system.

TC is controversial as the hardware is not only secured for its owner, but also secured against its owner. Such controversy has led opponents of trusted computing, such as free software activist Richard Stallman, to refer to it instead as treacherous computing,[2] even to the point where some scholarly articles have begun to place scare quotes around "trusted computing".[3][4]

Trusted Computing proponents such as International Data Corporation,[5] the Enterprise Strategy Group[6] and Endpoint Technologies Associates[7] claim the technology will make computers safer, less prone to viruses and malware, and thus more reliable from an end-user perspective. They also claim that Trusted Computing will allow computers and servers to offer improved computer security over that which is currently available. Opponents often claim this technology will be used primarily to enforce digital rights management policies and not to increase computer security.[2][8]: 23  - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Computing

And see https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2021/07/03/windows-11-security-stink-reveals-massive-microsoft-ransomware-red-herring/?sh=4c32851a22e1

[fireman15]

Purest like me? How dirty Gates of you. Lol.

When it comes to Microsoft I spend far more time around here poking fun at effeminate Billy and his now much more manly looking ex-wife, Mel. I was trying to find the picture of him with long blonde hair and her with a butch doo but it has been purged from search results even in duckduck go. This is as good as I can do this morning

Yesterday my d@mned laptop took the latest update despite my disabling automatic updates to the fullest extent possible. So believe me this BS irritates me to no end. Last night every financial site that I go to was making me re-verify my unrecognized device. This morning I am trying to turn off “tapping” on my touchpad. In order to do this I have to revert to an earlier driver because the latest does not allow disabling this extremely annoying function. If you have buttons on your touchpad why do Microsoft and Synaptics insist on disabling them every few months.

[mad_as_he$$]

lol...I just did an mental inventory based upon your post. I have 6. Two persons in the house. I’m not even sure what one of them does; but I am certain that if I disable it Western civilization as we know it will end.

[Wilderness Conservative]

MY EYES! That minger is unseeable.

[fireman15]

I am close to swearing off Microsoft myself this morning. I am currently using my phone's “keypad”. I tried rolling back the the touchpad driver so that I could once again disable “tapping” It didn't work and rendered the touchpad almost unusable. I tried reinstalling the original driver from the HP website... No go. Now I am waiting for system restore which is taking a really long time. 20 minutes and counting. This is not the first time I have been through this BS.

There is something really weird about Melinda Gates... She was very attractive and then something about her appearance changed dramatically around 2013. Suddenly “she” seemed to transform into a bad and manly looking facsimile of herself.

[Wilderness Conservative]

I had been needing a new PC for a while so I loaded my most important files on a thumb drive and recycled the old puter. I told the geeks at the computer store to load Linux on the new computer. That made it all pretty easy. I repeated the process for my business laptop as well. At the end of the year, Windows is going to try to renew my 365 subscription on an Amex card that got canceled when those a..holes went bad a few months ago.

[fireman15]

I had been needing a new PC for a while so I loaded my most important files on a thumb drive and recycled the old puter.

When I retire a computer... I take the hard drive out and put it in a USB case. There is always something that I forgot to copy like old emails, downloads, or pictures stored in an out of the normal location. I typically do not figure out they are missing until months later. The cases are about $10 these days.

[Weirdad]

Where did I, regarding Microsoft, “say they’re trying to pull one over on your average home user” ??? I did not say that, it seems as though you surmised that, it’s logical for people to wonder about such a thing.

Gosh, wonder which of these I am “disingenuous” about when I made my point that Windows 10 has as default less secure less privacy oriented settings that, in fact, are genuinely deeply buried in a morass so complex that third party software as I described with OOShutUp10 arose?

disingenuous
dĭs″ĭn-jĕn′yoo͞-əs
adjective
Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating. [NOPE]
Pretending to be unaware or unsophisticated; faux-naïf. [NOPE]
Unaware or uninformed; naive. [NOPE]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

NOPE, I do not accept what you write.

I actually LIKE Windows, I even liked Vista really well after it was patched and upgraded in its final stages. Microsoft has been dumbing Windows down since esp with the Metro interface etc. but that’s largely another issue, though it does hide things. Loss of well done F1 help is long gone too, F1 now leads to what much of the time a vague web site that is not very educational.

It does not matter if they are “up front” if it takes “the average user” 30 minutes once a month to look through their looser default settings in order not to “gloss over” as you call it those “up front” settings. And then have it be “on them.” And Microsoft may be up front ABOUT having privacy settings, but many settings are in fact BURIED.

There are this many Windows related settings addressed in OOShutUp10. Not all are directly privacy-security but most are related to it including things that “make me the Opted-In product” by selling information about MY choices within a feature like “News and Interests,” unless I turn it off and avoid it:

Privacy - 22 settings
Activity History and Clipboard - 6 settings
App Privacy - 47 settings
Security - 4 settings
Microsoft Edge (new version based on Chromium) - 15 settings
Edge (legacy version) - 14 settings
Synchronization of Windows Settings - 7 settings
Cortana (Personal Assistant) - 8 settings
Location Services - 4 settings
User Behavior - 3 settings
Windows Update - 8 settings
Windows Explorer - 5 settings
Windows Defender and Microsoft SpyNet - 3 settings
Lock Screen - 3 settings
Miscellaneous - 14 settings

This adds up to 163 settings that “are on” the average user to address after each and every update.

If capable users find it SO difficult/time consuming to set the 163 opted-in default settings for better security and privacy that an entire (very popular) program (OOShutUP10) arises to make the job feasible (that job has to be re-checked and re-done regularly especially given that frequent updates often DO revert some settings back to defaults — or add new “features” that break the previous settings), then Microsoft is IN FACT hiding a lot from users whether they have ill intent or not. You called it “pull one over on your average home user,” but that was not anything I wrote.

Why does Microsoft not just buy OOShutUp10 and make their security/privacy settings work like it does, with the educational detail and all? It seems clear they could make it easier to flip the switches. Its on you to surmise more about that. They must have a reason.

They made that type of move with buying out the loved SysInternals and it’s programmer who for years wrote simple effective programs that compensated for various issues in Windows. (Although I am glad OOShutUp is still third party to reduce any conflict of interest pressure to reduce the effectiveness of the OOShutUP approach — it’s not touch screen friendly after all.)

[Salamander]

It has the TPM 2 but the processor isn’t on the dang compatibility list.
It was a $75 FB market place buy so I was fine with experimenting on it.
The other laptops not so much.

Rats.

:(

[Salamander]

Thanks!!

[Salamander]

I have desktops and laptops dating back to the 90s because I have a horror of throwing away electronics.

:D

[Salamander]

Frigging nanny OS even more obnoxious than Clippy.

[daniel1212]

"It has the TPM 2 but the processor isn’t on the dang compatibility list. It was a $75 FB market place buy so I was fine with experimenting on it."

Well, you may be able to run W/10 until at least 2025. By then you will have larger issues to be concerned with!