So Windows 10 is actually spyware.

[obobski]

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/even-when-told-not-to-windows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to-microsoft/

 

And before the replies and cries of "It doesn't affect me" , yes it does affect you, and everyone else too.

 

That article's title reads a lot like clickbait (which unfortunately seems to be an ever-growing "feature" at ArsTechnica) - the actual article indicates nearly everything being complained about was successfully disabled, excepting a bit of innocuous telemetry data at the bottom that may be sending a random machine ID to a Microsoft server. This is a far cry from "it always tracks you and invades your privacy no matter what."

 

I agree with you that yes it does affect everyone, and it is good to have stuff like this documented in some way. I'm curious though - they mention setting a proxy on the local machine and that not being entirely effective, but what about a proxy set at an edge router or firewall component? This has been an effective means of securing or restricting various Windows things in the past at least.

[openthegate]

Earlier this week I could help an friend with the solution of my first post here. Splitting the computer through a dualboot system. Now he uses Windows for gaming and Gnu/Linux for the rest. At the beginning he was skeptical about that thing, but showing him how easy it works changed his mind. Yes, you have to be a bit tech savy, otherwise you loose your patience :D

 

What Windows 10 really is: http://digitalclaritygroup.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/trap.png

Edited August 21, 2015 by openthegate

[LadyMilla]

An interesting article comparing DX 11 and DX 12 performance:

 

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/DX12-GPU-and-CPU-Performance-Tested-Ashes-Singularity-Benchmark

 

Based on clues gathered from articles so far, it seems the best course of action is to hold off 'upgrading' to Windows 10 and buying DirectX12 video cards. By the time games supporting/requiring Dx12 start to appear, prices will probably drop, and the issues with Windows 10 will be addressed in one way or another (I wonder if the European Union will have something to say about the obscure parts of Microsoft's EULA for Windows 10).

[Vagrant0]

Earlier this week I could help an friend with the solution of my first post here. Splitting the computer through a dualboot system. Now he uses Windows for gaming and Gnu/Linux for the rest. At the beginning he was skeptical about that thing, but showing him how easy it works changed his mind. Yes, you have to be a bit tech savy, otherwise you loose your patience :D

 

What Windows 10 really is: http://digitalclaritygroup.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/trap.png

While that might be one solution, it does end up being rather annoying to deal with, especially if you're the sort who has a game running on one monitor, websites or videos open in another, with a music or chat application in the background. You would either be switching back and forth constantly, or be having to just use Windows for almost everything otherwise.

 

It also doesn't do much against the contact list and file information snooping that Windows 10 does. Even if you physically disconnect those drives containing those files before booting up Windows, there may be traces of those files present elsewhere as well as within RAM that WIndows would have access to... In addition to being a big pain in the ass.

 

 

http://www.wired.com/2015/08/cant-squat-spotifys-eerie-new-privacy-policy/

Spotify also seems to have gotten the impression that people are perfectly fine with this. I imagine other services will be following suit since they can get away with it now.

[openthegate]

EDIT: Enough said, I make my point here. Edited August 27, 2015 by openthegate

[LadyMilla]

Apparently, Windows 10 Enterprise, which, allegedly, allows you to disable telemetry and other 'spying' features will still talk to Microsoft servers:

 

https://voat.co/v/technology/comments/835741

[JimboUK]

Apparently, Windows 10 Enterprise, which, allegedly, allows you to disable telemetry and other 'spying' features will still talk to Microsoft servers:

 

https://voat.co/v/technology/comments/835741

 

Did anyone other than the blind fanboys really think that disabling the spyware actually disabled it? people are being asked to trust Microsoft and no one in their right mind is going to do that.

[obobski]

An interesting article comparing DX 11 and DX 12 performance:

 

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/DX12-GPU-and-CPU-Performance-Tested-Ashes-Singularity-Benchmark

 

Based on clues gathered from articles so far, it seems the best course of action is to hold off 'upgrading' to Windows 10 and buying DirectX12 video cards. By the time games supporting/requiring Dx12 start to appear, prices will probably drop, and the issues with Windows 10 will be addressed in one way or another (I wonder if the European Union will have something to say about the obscure parts of Microsoft's EULA for Windows 10).

 

Since this was written it has come out that nVidia blatantly lied about DX12 support (and tried to brow-beat/bully developers into continuing the lie - the developer of that benchmark being one of them), and the entire Maxwell line (along with everything else they've ever made) does not support DX12 in hardware (specifically there is no support for async compute, one of DX12's biggest new features), which is why the performance goes down when switched into DX12 (because DX12 calls are being intercepted by a driver shim - its similar to how older Intel GPUs "supported" pixel shaders). AMD GCN (which is HD 7000 series and above) supports DX12, and has decent driver optimization for it (apparently thanks to their development with Mantle), and the performance gains reflect previous synthetic measures (e.g. Futuremark's API efficiency test) - the newer generation GCN parts (Fury and later) should respond even better. Reportedly nVidia's "next gen" will finally bring DX12 to the table, at which time a more fair comparison can be done. I'm not fully clear from Intel's documentation what their DX12 support looks like - it appears that Broadwell supports it, but I haven't seen any benchmarks (seems like Intel would rather sell Skylake and is happy to forget about the cheaper, faster chip they've already released).

[LadyMilla]

There is a new article about the shady methods used by Microsoft to promote WIndows 10:

 

Guess what, one of the recent security updates for IE 11 includes adware to promote Windows 10.

 

When a security update is not a security update

[JimboUK]

There is a new article about the shady methods used by Microsoft to promote WIndows 10:

 

Guess what, one of the recent security updates for IE 11 includes adware to promote Windows 10.

 

When a security update is not a security update

 

I've got my Windows 7 updates disabled now and I'm relying on third party stuff to keep the nasties away, in the end I'll be using Windows for gaming and the Mac for everything else, no one in their right would trust Microsoft these days.