Windows 10 - Deeper Impressions

[JorgeA]

Most of this we knew already, but it's good to learn that awareness of Win10's privacy issues continues to spread:

 

Microsoft backports privacy-invading Windows 10 features to Windows 7, 8

 

One of the assumptions made by various privacy advocates and journalists, including me, is that third-party utilities would be able to shut down the tracking Microsoft deployed in Windows 10. To some degree, that’s already happened, but there are certain new “features” of the operating system that can’t be blocked by any OS-level tweaks, including the hosts file. The updates listed above connect to vortex-win.data.microsoft.com and settings-win.data.microsoft.com. These addresses are hard-coded to bypass the hosts file and cannot be prevented from connecting. No software firewall can stop them, either, because the data doesn’t flow through the usual channels.

 

The only way to block some of these connections is if your router has a firewall you can configure and if that firewall allows you to block HTTPS connections instead of simply passing them through. Some users have reported that they can block these connections, but plenty of other devices can’t, at least not completely. It’s still possible to reduce the amount of information flowing to Microsoft, but disabling it completely seems to be impossible unless you build a software router or replace your current hardware with a dedicated box.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

What's worse is this:

 

Any of us with any experience at all in the real world realize that now that they've "gotten away with it", only an act of (whomever God looks up to when he wonders how HIS universe came into being) would be needed to get Microsoft to do documentation again.

 

Another aspect of this is the assumption that "serious business users will use Win 10 Enterprise" while "Win 10 Pro and below will be used by consumers".

 

Did someone forget about SMALL BUSINESS?

 

-Noel

 

I'm afraid you're right.

 

And indeed, this will present some big-time issues for small businesses. Wonder how lawyers' and doctors' offices will handle this. People joke about their having more money than God, but it seems to me even they would balk at having to shell out for an Enterprise license just to avoid the cr*p.

 

At least the Pro version includes gpedit.msc, which seems to be able to mitigate the data collection.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

This information might come in handy:

 

Why is Windows 10 connecting to akamaitechnologies?

 

After my becoming curious regarding privacy within Windows 10, I decided to dig a little deeper to analyze data that was being sent back and forth. Again and again the same address kept popping up, “akamaitechnologies.com”. So I decided to run a few tests within Windows 10 to see what would connect to this address.

 

[...]

 

...Ultimately the biggest pain point of Windows 10 so far has been why the privacy toggles in Windows 10 don’t turn off calls out to AkamaiTechnologies or other CDN servers. For the definitive answer regarding all of this we either need to wait for Microsoft be transparent in all of this or for a researcher to “crack the code” and find out exactly what is in the data sent and received in these communications. We know it is for the updates, version checks, and malware scans, but what about the rest of the time?

 

 

--JorgeA

 

[NoelC]

From what I can see the Akamai site serves updates and other data en masse.

They have a LOT of IP addresses, and given the dramatic increase in chattiness in Win 10 as compared to its predecessors it's not too surprising Microsoft has contracted out download services.

I block all but svchost from accessing them and am able to complete a Windows Update. I can't see any downside.

-Noel

 

 

P.S., there's another apparently contracted service I see contacted:  Edgecast Networks in Wichita Kansas.  Makes you wonder...  Does a Content Delivery Network ever become a User Data Reception Network?

Edited September 1, 2015 by NoelC

[TELVM]

[rn10950]

 

 

 

Is it just me, or did XP's share increase? Last time I checked it was around 11%

[NoelC]

There's a known bounce that happens on weekends, but these stat counting sites bounce around more than I'd like to see, given how many millions of web accesses they claim to be aggregating and counting. They don't even agree with one another terribly well.

This one shows trends...

http://gs.statcounter.com/#desktop-os-ww-daily-20150801-20150831

Note that Win 7 fell initially but now seems to be holding steady, and XP is in very slight decline over the month of August. Win 8.1 and "Unknown" seem to be losing ground to Win 10. That Win 8.1 adopters are moving on isn't terribly surprising. I seem to be one of the few who's turned it into something good.

Possibly one of the most interesting things to me is that the Win 10 adoption curve seems to be leveling off. Just as a guess looking at nothing but that curve, I'd say it's going to reach about 10% and stay there. That's pretty sad, given how aggressively MS is shoving the OS down people's throats.

-Noel

Edited September 1, 2015 by NoelC

[JorgeA]

Wow, if 10 leveled off at 10%, it would be a massive fail, considering as you said all the ways they've been pushing it.

 

And a lot of credit would have to go to the hundreds of millions of supposed dummies out there, who some hoped and others feared wouldn't know or care enough to prevent Win10 from getting onto their computers.

 

--JorgeA

[Formfiller]

Wow, if 10 leveled off at 10%, it would be a massive fail, considering as you said all the ways they've been pushing it.

 

And a lot of credit would have to go to the hundreds of millions of supposed dummies out there, who some hoped and others feared wouldn't know or care enough to prevent Win10 from getting onto their computers.

 

--JorgeA

 

I am surprised it's this low.

 

Aren't they pestering ALL non-domain connected Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs since over a month? I thought it would be at 15% now given this.

 

Amazing that so many people apparently decline the "free upgrade".

[Formfiller]

LOL on Channel9:

 

https://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/the-new-metro-apps-are-pretty-lame/c6977df05e6044ef847ca50601015adb

 

54 minutes ago

, 

NoelCarboni

 wrote

Apps have been around now for what, 3 years?

 

Metroboy:

Assuming you are talking about Windows 10 (UWP) apps.  No, they haven't, they've been around for about a month, and there are practically no third party UWP apps available yet.

WinRT is not the same as UWP.  UWP is an evolution of WinRT and adds thousands of APIs to it.

 

 

BS. UWP is just a new version of metro/WinRT/Windows apps/WTF/BBQ or whatever it was called.

 

That's like saying it would have been totally OK if applications for Windows in general sucked in 1998, because Windows 98 itself only appeared one month ago.

[JorgeA]

BS. UWP is just a new version of metro/WinRT/Windows apps/WTF/BBQ or whatever it was called.

 

ROFL

 

 

That's like saying it would have been totally OK if applications for Windows in general sucked in 1998, because Windows 98 itself only appeared one month ago.

 

Yeah. Even by their own accounting, Universal apps have actually been around since the first build of Windows 10, hence close to a year already. The OS hasn't changed that much such that something that worked in the initial Insiders build wouldn't work in the GA version.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

 

 

 

 

Is it just me, or did XP's share increase? Last time I checked it was around 11%

 

 

Yup. Believe it or not, XP actually went up about 0.40 percentage points.

 

Most likely it's a statistical artifact (margin of error and all that), but one would have thought that any difference from last month would have been downward.

 

--JorgeA

[dencorso]

Here's the older one, for easier comparison:
 

It sure seems 10's already flopped!

[JorgeA]

Word keeps spreading...

 

Amid Windows 10 controversy, Microsoft quietly releases privacy botching features to Windows 7 and 8

 

More interesting than the news item itself (which we already knew about) are the comments:

 

I guess the "issue" was Windows 7 not spying on me enough, "resolved" by adding more telemetry and other phone-home crap.

These have been marked it as ignored.

 

And here's one for the network-savvy to look into:

 

"Though, as PCWorld notes the update is only functional in the systems that participate in Microsoft's Customer Experience Improvement Program. ", - wrong. I'm not in program, but after installing update, my firewall catched diagtrackrunner.exe trying to send data home. Blocked, terminated, uninstalled, - just because bastards wasn't asking me.

[emphasis added]

 

--JorgeA

 

 

 

[Formfiller]

LOL, the same metrotards who declared the start menu to be worthless are fawning over it now with Windows 10:

 

http://betanews.com/2015/09/01/amid-windows-10-controversy-microsoft-quietly-releases-privacy-botching-features-to-windows-7-and-8/#comment-2230554138