Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you don't want it to?

Re:Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you... by amatecha on Thursday December 13, 2018 @02:36PM (#18675273)

Yeah, I just helped someone set up a new Win 10 laptop and I felt so bad for them with how unintuitive and instrusive of a process it was. It pushes you towards making/using an online Microsoft account, and making a non-internet account on the computer is a tiny text button (no outline, just text) which NO computer novice is going to know. Can only guess how many users have their online identity now permanently linked with their home computer usage because they thought they have to. Just seems so predatory and manipulative.

I mean, at the bare minimum, software companies (especially the most prominent and prevalent ones) should be adopting the "principle of least astonishment"[0] and not enabling sketchy crap by default. Also simply starting up a new computer and getting going shouldn't require paging through 5+ pages of inexplicable configuration steps that cannot possibly be effectively summarized by a one-line 12pt-font description.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishmen...

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Re:Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you... by exodust on Thursday December 13, 2018 @06:45PM (#18677197)

I'm about to set up a new PC for a relative with Win 10 Home, parts have just arrived. Any advice on set up procedures or things I can do to keep Microsoft from spying on them and collecting their data?

Or is it just not possible any more? Surely I can install the OS without creating a MS account? My intention is to disable all the nags, bloat and advertising bullying, leaving only an essential OS that doesn't bully my non-technical relatives.

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Re:Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you... by lurker_primo on Thursday December 13, 2018 @10:52PM (#18678336)

You can have an offline account which is not connected to a microsoft account in any way. They try to force you to connect a microsoft account. There are scripts that disable all telemetry - reddit.com/r/tronscript is a good resource. The issue is that we don't know when Microsoft turns it back on.

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Re:Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you... by exodust on Thursday December 13, 2018 @11:09PM (#18678417)

Okay thanks. The PC I'm assembling is for an 80yo guy who doesn't trust the internet, and would be horrified to learn how much Microsoft wants to track his usage.

I won't be telling him about that. He deletes emails and even text messages as soon as he's read them, for fear of them causing problems. The last thing he wants is Windows popping up some message, contextually trying to be smart and know what he's doing without him inviting that bot into his world.

Microsoft (and other giants) simply don't get it.

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Re:Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you... by zozbot123 on Friday December 14, 2018 @01:38AM (#18678903)

> The PC I'm assembling is for an 80yo guy who doesn't trust the internet

Why are you setting this guy up with Windows 10 then, instead of a system that actually respects the user and has decent security, like Debian GNU/Linux? (There is an enduring notion that Debian systems are hard to install or administer for the casual user, but one might argue that it is 5 years out of date - maybe even 10 years out of date.) Does he rely on some Windows-only hardware or software of some sort - and if so, could he run that on a dedicated, airgapped system?

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Re:Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you... by Casseres on Friday December 14, 2018 @12:18PM (#18682514)

Does he need any Windows-only software? If not, set him up with Linux. He's less susceptable to clicking on the wrong thing and getting malware as well.

There are some very user-friendly GUIs out there that are easy to install.

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Re:Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you... by eeeeeeeeeeeee on Friday December 14, 2018 @07:08AM (#18680252)

I’ve been running my Windows 10 desktop this way for a while.

Prepare for a lot of nags about logging in to a Microsoft account.

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Re:Is Windows 10 still telling what you're doing even if you... by amatecha on Friday December 14, 2018 @04:43PM (#18685095)

Yeah as someone else said, basically just create an offline account (there will be an option at the lower left of the screen when it's asking you to enter your Microsoft account address, IIRC). Then throughout the process basically just uncheck all the options for various metrics reporting. I believe there are some open source scripts to disable even more stuff, but I haven't tried that myself.

Oh also, I seem to recall I had to disable/hide Cortana _after_ the setup, as there was nothing in the initial computer setup that allowed me to turn it off (again, IIRC).

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