The tips, ads, and recommendations you see will be more generic and may be less relevant to you.
And this is treated as a bad thing?!
The number of ads you see won’t change, but they may be less relevant to you.
Send only info about your device, its settings and capabilities, and whether it is performing properly.
In other words, even after turning off all the settings, your data still gets collected.
The rest of the installation process wasn’t fun either. It was worded in this weird, condescending tone, like “Let’s get everything set up for you”, and “Let Cortana help you get things done!”.
Thank goodness for FLOSS and GNU/Linux.
Absolutely disgusting! Literally the only reason why I still use Windows is the fact many games I play have anti-cheat spyware that doesn’t work on Linux.
For me it’s this and very specific audio production stuff. Linux audio production has come leaps and bounds over the years, but I need specific vst plugins that I don’t think I could get running in Linux. Also because what I’m doing has very quick turnaround times, I’m worried that if I did get that stuff working it could basically break at any time and I’d be boned.
I am in a very similar situation with audio production. I have a lot of plugins and tried to see what I could get working with yabridge on my Linux laptop in my free time. Some stuff worked flawlessly, while a lot of other important plugins did not work at all. I hope that some day more stuff works and the tool gets more streamlined for less technical users, but for now it is not quite where it needs to be for my use case. In the mean time I switched to a DAW that has a Linux version (Bitwig) and I am slowly working towards switching to only using plugins that have a Linux version. I am far from a point where I can comfortably switch though, so for now Windows is an occupational hazard.
I got lucky that almost all the multiplayer games I play run under Linux. There’s only one or two that I would need Windows for to play again.
Yet another reason I stay away from any game that has online multiplayer PVP teams based setting. I trust anti-cheat as much as I trust that random file you find on [Insert Sketchy Website Link].
While I agree, I almost exclusively play MP games. (I’m just not very much into SP ones, idk)
.
Maybe also not Ubuntu or RHEL? I heard they also collect telemetries and hard to trun off. Unsure.
.
The telemetry is opt in so feel free to use them. (Correct me if i am wrong)
Ubuntu will ask you if usage data can be collected and sent to canonical when you first log in after installation. You get to look at the exact data that would be sent before making a decision and if you say no, then they’ll comply with that and never ask you again.
Great to know
deleted by creator
This is most people’s reaction to using Windows for any reason.
removed by mod
Yeah, those granpas asking me to fix their machines are like, “and, what do we do with my OneDrive which I don’t understand what it is?”
Let’s narrow it down to normal ppl :) 'Cause those having nothing to hide are enabling enshitification.
Yeah, Windows sucks. I recommend the LTSC version for minimized tracking. But even then, I had to use third-party software and hacks to minimize it further. I don’t ever plan to go back after switching to Linux.
LTSC sounds great or else there must be something like MicroXP for windows 10/11 where someone has debloated it down to the bare bones.
@BananaOnionJuice @Neon_Shadow Tiny11 is a project where windows 11 has been stripped down to the absolute barebones, there may still be some telemetry that needs to be disabled (O&O shutup is good for that). It’s designed to work on older machines with as little as 4gb ram, so it would be perfect for running in a VM, in fact that’s what I’m planning to do.
What’s that
LTSC is the enterprise/business version that have extended period for patches with less bloat. It’s similar to LTS with Ubuntu.
Yea, it’s really shitty.
Enterprise folks don’t have this problem because they use the WAIK (or whatever it’s called now) to customize the installer.
Anyone can use it, and from what I’ve read, the Win10 generation of the kit is much easier to use than previous versions (which were pretty bad).
But yea, this stuff is awful.
Checkout things like WinDebloat, Privatezilla, Winaero Tweaker, and LoveWindowsAgain. There’s some overlap between them (as they were built for different purposes), but they all pretty much kill telemetry at the service or installed level (as in remove the components providing telemetry).
Yea, it’s BS you have to do this. And screw MS for this crap.
LTSB or LTSR I forget which. Toss some classic shell in there, boom, Win 10 like you remember Win 7 was like. Too bad they fucked up 11 so bad I switched to Ubuntu.
It’s LTSC (Long Term Service Channel) nowadays - It’s the LTS version of Windows 10. Fewer updates, more stability of your OS in general. It’s neat!
No Windows Store by default, but it’s possible to install that separate, should you really need it.
Only issue is some software won’t install the longer the LTSC version is out.
I think the pro version doesn’t have most of this too. I’ve never seen an ad in w10 and 11
They don’t show explicit banner ads or anything, but every now and then there will be links to “recommended software” in your start menu’s app drawer or the notification thing in the bottom right (not the taskbar, that foldable drawer thing).
You can disable those as well, but not by default.
Candy crush is what they put as “recommended software” if I remember correctly.
I had this on my first installation a few years ago, but then never again. I’m using Pro.
First time?
Not to mention being forced to create a MS account if you’re online.
With win10 you should be able to click the small text to get a local account but yeah I think with newer win11 installers you have to be off the internet for a local account. And then when you do log in with your MS account to save your license (important when using a Win7 OEM key to license win10) it would convert your profile to online, and then you had to “do steps” to put it back to local. Annoying af
When installing Windows 11, say you want to log in with your Microsoft account, then when it asks for email address and password enter [email protected] and any random password. It will say the account has been deactivated and let you create a local account. No need to be offline.
You can enter any random email and password, there’s no need to type any specific one. Or you could add the registry key that prevents the requirement.
Not on Win10 and you can get around it on Win11
deleted by creator
One of the many reasons I always run privacy.sexy every time I need to install windows (on both bare metal and inside a VM).
I shall yoink that, thank you very much.
Yoink it so effing hard!
What the fuck. How have I never seen this before?
I use O&O ShutUp10++ (oosu10) to do the same thing. Makes Windows feel like Windows, instead of an ad machine.
Whenever people complain about ads I have NO idea what they’re talking about.
Edge will say it’s “maintained by your organization”, which seemed spooky, but that’s just a side-effect from having some privacy.
Edge will say it’s “maintained by your organization”, which seemed spooky, but that’s just a side-effect from having some privacy.
Ooooooh, so that’s why I started seeing that shit. I thought I had a virus, lmao. Cheers.
And the link to OOSU10, in case anyone wants it: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
privacy.sexy
I second this, I use it all the time.
Wait until you get to the screen that asks you if you want to share your data with their 300 friends.
(we will share your data regardless of your choice :/ )
Its nice to be asked tho lol
Or you could have tried Windows 10 AME. It has none of this stuff.
OSes are tools. You should not care. Use the one best for a particular job.
removed by mod
Lol
Explain to me how this is a valid reason or argument. This looks to me like circlejerking, a primitive internet behaviour.
This is not reddit or 4chan.
removed by mod
That reminded me of TinyXP - a modified version of Windows XP to be like some 100MB install, instead of the typical 2GB of default bloat.
Good shit.
nLite, eXPerience, WinPE days were old. AME is not built like that. It is debloated and stripped of components that results in same thing as the custom ISO builds of yesteryear though.
Ooooh, there’s also nLite, if you wanted to make a custom version for yourself!
Those were fun times!
deleted by creator
“You can also opt out, and only have to give me 1 billion.”
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
In the past I’ve heard of power shell scripts you can run to actually disable or uninstall stuff. I wouldn’t trust these toggles to do much at all.
I don’t think so, but this sounds like a super interesting idea. I might try this later!
deleted by creator
I’ve been super busy as of recent, but I’ll try to remember to reply to you if/when I do :)
deleted by creator
@TheImpressiveX i found looking glass recently and will definetly try it out, but as I understand this kvm method needs a second GPU for passthrough to Linux.
I remember installing Windows XP. sigh.
I was lucky if everything worked. Usually it had troubles with peripherals, network, or even the USB drive it was on. But none (?) of this crap.
fair. i used Windows 2000 a crapton, and I think 2000 was the king of true Plug N Play. that bitch would take ANYTHING. hell, even these days I’ll stick modern Kingston USB 3.0 drives into it, just to see if it works, and it won’t even bat an eye 🤣
I had one of the 23 machines in the world that ran Windows ME flawlessly. :(
Hey now, mine ran it flawlessly after three days of tinkering and then rebooting twice a day afterwards.
