ironically enough every computer you buy now will likely come preinstalled with windows 10, darn you Microsoft!.
windows 10 user since day 1 and loving it.
more stable, loads faster, runs all my old software without issue, has far more good stuff on it then any of the previous OS's and its free (at the moment).
most of the so called bad stuff like privacy issues are just raised by paranoid twits who don't realise your internet service provider and just about every web site and search engine you use does exactly the same thing.
for clarification even if your computer downloads parts of windows 10 nothing will install or be used covertly or otherwise until you tell your computer to do so.
Just wanted to say that DuckDuckGo keeps your search queries anonymous and Hushmail is at the moment the most privacy oriented webmail that I know of. Their servers are based in Canada and they have a strict privacy policy, but will share your data if required to do so by a court order.
I used to use Lavabit which was even more secure but the FBI shut them down for not providing them with their user's emails. Which goes to prove that if you use any U.S. based webmail your email is probably being read by U.S. government alphabet agencies.
The Ghostery and Adblock plugins bock most kinds of tracking and targeted ads at other websites.
You're right that your ISP will know every website you visit and they may even share your usage with third parties, depending on their privacy policy. Most do, including mine.
If you're concerned about ISP monitoring you could use Tor, I tried it once but didn't like it. The lag was awful and all my search queries were returning websites in German language. Tor will stop your ISP from seeing exactly what you're doing, but they will know that you're using Tor and can guess at what you might be doing by analyzing packet sizes going to and from your PC.
An anonymous VPN service will also prevent your ISP from seeing what you're doing and will also look less suspicious to them. It will also have better speed, but they will charge you a monthly fee. An example would be: https://privateinternetaccess.com/
If - but who has nothing to hide? Do you really want people to read your bad poetry and mary sue fan fiction that you decided to keep for yourself? Did you ever start writing an angry and hateful e-mail only to realize it wouldn't do any good and delete it? Did you ever say something behind someone's back that you wouldn't want him to hear. Do you really want anyone to know the kind of bdsm prôn you're into?
If any of this gets recorded and stored outside your control, it can mean that it gets to people that will care about it. Microsoft might not, the NSA might not, the hacker that "freed" the data and put it on the public server doesn't. But your co-worker and your significant other might.
There is a reason why humans always put value on privacy, and it wasn't because it was very difficult to broadcast all the details of your personal life back in the old days.
That isn't to say that you need to worry about this particular stuff in regards to Windows 10 or Microsoft specifically.
But never claim you don't have anything to hide. Most people do. It's not a skeleton in the closet usually, but it's still stuff that might make you or others feel uncomfortable and could hurt your personal life or your career.
I agree, but by using a connected device you have already made a fatal error. If one used paper and pen, you could review it, and if necessary shred it, burn the bits, and spread the ashes out the window while driving down a highway doing 88 mph. Chances are pretty good that it will have remained private, other than the sound of the shredder, the smoke, and perhaps a fine for littering while speeding (unless you live in Europe and use the Autobahn at night).
Even better would be to fully think something out before taking action. Still the safest bet... for now...
The idea that it's going to force you to upgrade to windows 10 is complete myth and is garbage. you can also disable the excessive spying in windows 10 as well. no it shouldn't be there in the first place but since it can be knocked out it's not that big of a deal. it also can NOT disable softwares you may have or anything of the such if for example you have a game emulator.
The argument "if you have nothing to hide why worry" is completely bogus and does more harm than good. Here in the US you can never know for sure in the 27,000 pages of statues if they can't find something to slam you with. You can call that paranoid if you wish but considering the federal government will admit that they don't even know how many laws there are is kind of telling. You can let government watch you because "you have nothing to hide" but what happens if the rules change? Suppose you for example oppose a tax hike yet most of the powers that be want it to go through, so they crack down on folks who oppose it in some form or fashion. What then? Suppose gaming were to become illegal, then what would you do? yes i know those examples are far reaching but they're something that all of us understand. Further it's none of their business what we all use our computers for. I personally have some old maps and custom missions for older games that I never released as part of my modding. Sometimes I make a level or mission that I want to keep for myself and that's my right to do so as a modder/mapmaker. I don't care for people knowing that those levels and missions exist but beyond me telling folks they exist or me deciding to release that content it's none of anyone's business.
There are certain activities as well that people want to keep to themselves for whatever reason. Even if you know what someone is doing they still want to keep it to themselves. This is part of why we have doors on bathrooms. It's no secret what goes on in a bathroom but people still want to keep that activity to themselves and rightfully so. Call me paranoid if you wish but do you honestly want someone knowing everything you do, every time you swap games, swap toons, put on a different music set list, or something along those lines?
Then there's the business side of things. What of all this spying going on when a business is trying to invent a new product or something along those lines? What of criminal investigations as well? police do not always have the full story going into an investigation. What of for example a guy who's car is parked on the street of a major prostitution street for 3 hours every thursday? the pattern would suggest criminal activity, when in reality he's helping his elderly parents with their groceries each week who happen to live in that particular area. Another example, what of a guy who is parked outside a bar for 2 hours every friday night? the pattern would suggest he drinks, yet in reality they may have the best bbq wings in the area and he never drinks so much as one beer while he's there. Suppose that pattern comes up when he tries to get his license renewed. Point being there is far far too much potential for abuse with mass surveillance.
Overall it's a bad idea and there's a million different things I could come up with. anyways these are some of my thoughts.
law is a funny thing, a government cannot prosecute someone for breaking a law before that law is in existence, take for example the law of no smoking in enclosed spaces, virtually every smoker in the world is guilty of that before the law was created but you don't see any of them being prosecuted for doing so.
so if for example you are a gamer and suddenly it were to become illegal, you cannot be prosecuted because you were a gamer before the law was changed just if you continue playing after the law is in force.
as for someone knowing exactly what people are doing on the internet, don't you realise your internet service provider already does.
moral is if you want to stay private don't use the internet.
and don't just stop there what about the recent talk talk hacking scandal, or any other company that uses the internet and has your details.
there is a guy at work who thinks he is safe because he hasn't got a computer, little does he realise who much of his personal info is on computers and can be accessed via the internet.
people need to realise in this day and age 100% privacy is a myth, if you rule your life by that standard and are so concerned about what windows 10 can and cant do above just about any OS you might use you are kidding yourself.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
I will probably buy a Win 10 install disc soon. Yes I could get the free upgrade, but there are occasions where you may want to do a fresh install, such as a bad malware infection or you get a BSOD at boot, or your hard drive decides to kick the bucket. I like to always have that disc.
You can get the actual disk version for free. Simply perform your upgrade and then once complete, download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. This tool will download a disk .ISO image of the Windows version you select. The download it straight from Microsoft and is identical to the store bought version of the product. From that time forward, to do a fresh install, you simply boot from this disk and install. When prompted to enter a key, leave it blank and click 'next.' After install, your computer will connect to the Internet and activate automatically.There is no need to purchase a 'store bought' copy, save the money.
For others that use Windows 10 or wish to use it, the tracking software can be disabled. I recommend anyone using Windows 10 apply the Disable Windows Tracking tool found here to ensure their privacy is being protected. All of the Windows tracking can be disabled by the user, Microsoft simply makes it all hard to find. This tool does it all in one handy utility and works quite nicely. If you're still concerned, you could always use a software firewall to monitor outgoing connections. I have done this to monitor my test machine, and so far the Tracking Disable tool seems to have eliminated all 'suspect' outgoing traffic.
Windows 10 is a good OS, provided you take the necessary steps to ensure your privacy as a user. Microsoft isn't going to take your Credit Card number and send it all over the internet, that violates a ton of Federal Laws. Use some common sense and think about things before reacting. Don't take my word for it, do your own research and go with what you feel comfortable with. The information is out there for anyone to look up, and once you do, you'll likely find that as long as the proper steps are taken, Windows 10 is perfectly fine and perfectly safe to install.
The idea that it's going to force you to upgrade to windows 10 is complete myth and is garbage. you can also disable the excessive spying in windows 10 as well. no it shouldn't be there in the first place but since it can be knocked out it's not that big of a deal. it also can NOT disable softwares you may have or anything of the such if for example you have a game emulator.
The argument "if you have nothing to hide why worry" is completely bogus and does more harm than good. Here in the US you can never know for sure in the 27,000 pages of statues if they can't find something to slam you with. You can call that paranoid if you wish but considering the federal government will admit that they don't even know how many laws there are is kind of telling. You can let government watch you because "you have nothing to hide" but what happens if the rules change? Suppose you for example oppose a tax hike yet most of the powers that be want it to go through, so they crack down on folks who oppose it in some form or fashion. What then? Suppose gaming were to become illegal, then what would you do? yes i know those examples are far reaching but they're something that all of us understand. Further it's none of their business what we all use our computers for. I personally have some old maps and custom missions for older games that I never released as part of my modding. Sometimes I make a level or mission that I want to keep for myself and that's my right to do so as a modder/mapmaker. I don't care for people knowing that those levels and missions exist but beyond me telling folks they exist or me deciding to release that content it's none of anyone's business.
There are certain activities as well that people want to keep to themselves for whatever reason. Even if you know what someone is doing they still want to keep it to themselves. This is part of why we have doors on bathrooms. It's no secret what goes on in a bathroom but people still want to keep that activity to themselves and rightfully so. Call me paranoid if you wish but do you honestly want someone knowing everything you do, every time you swap games, swap toons, put on a different music set list, or something along those lines?
Then there's the business side of things. What of all this spying going on when a business is trying to invent a new product or something along those lines? What of criminal investigations as well? police do not always have the full story going into an investigation. What of for example a guy who's car is parked on the street of a major prostitution street for 3 hours every thursday? the pattern would suggest criminal activity, when in reality he's helping his elderly parents with their groceries each week who happen to live in that particular area. Another example, what of a guy who is parked outside a bar for 2 hours every friday night? the pattern would suggest he drinks, yet in reality they may have the best bbq wings in the area and he never drinks so much as one beer while he's there. Suppose that pattern comes up when he tries to get his license renewed. Point being there is far far too much potential for abuse with mass surveillance.
Overall it's a bad idea and there's a million different things I could come up with. anyways these are some of my thoughts.
law is a funny thing, a government cannot prosecute someone for breaking a law before that law is in existence, take for example the law of no smoking in enclosed spaces, virtually every smoker in the world is guilty of that before the law was created but you don't see any of them being prosecuted for doing so.
so if for example you are a gamer and suddenly it were to become illegal, you cannot be prosecuted because you were a gamer before the law was changed just if you continue playing after the law is in force.
as for someone knowing exactly what I am doing on the internet, don't you realise your internet service provider already does.
Your example assumes that everyone stops being a gamer after it were to become illegal, which lets be honest, not many of us would be likely to do. with that alone your entire argument falls apart. could they prosecute you for the gaming you did before it were to be illegal, no. Could they prosecute you for gaming you do after it was illegal, yes they could. The service provider only has a record of anything because you use them as a gateway. Even then the point is irrelevant as they're not permitted to just go blabbing what you search for and all of that to just anyone they wish. Government also must get a warrant to access that data.
Bottom line it's still none of their business what you do online. if they want to know because they think you're committing a crime then get a warrant. As I said even if they know what you're doing, such as if I were to search for modding tools to make better levels and so on, it's none of their business.
"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again." - Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek Generations
The idea that it's going to force you to upgrade to windows 10 is complete myth and is garbage. you can also disable the excessive spying in windows 10 as well. no it shouldn't be there in the first place but since it can be knocked out it's not that big of a deal. it also can NOT disable softwares you may have or anything of the such if for example you have a game emulator.
The argument "if you have nothing to hide why worry" is completely bogus and does more harm than good. Here in the US you can never know for sure in the 27,000 pages of statues if they can't find something to slam you with. You can call that paranoid if you wish but considering the federal government will admit that they don't even know how many laws there are is kind of telling. You can let government watch you because "you have nothing to hide" but what happens if the rules change? Suppose you for example oppose a tax hike yet most of the powers that be want it to go through, so they crack down on folks who oppose it in some form or fashion. What then? Suppose gaming were to become illegal, then what would you do? yes i know those examples are far reaching but they're something that all of us understand. Further it's none of their business what we all use our computers for. I personally have some old maps and custom missions for older games that I never released as part of my modding. Sometimes I make a level or mission that I want to keep for myself and that's my right to do so as a modder/mapmaker. I don't care for people knowing that those levels and missions exist but beyond me telling folks they exist or me deciding to release that content it's none of anyone's business.
There are certain activities as well that people want to keep to themselves for whatever reason. Even if you know what someone is doing they still want to keep it to themselves. This is part of why we have doors on bathrooms. It's no secret what goes on in a bathroom but people still want to keep that activity to themselves and rightfully so. Call me paranoid if you wish but do you honestly want someone knowing everything you do, every time you swap games, swap toons, put on a different music set list, or something along those lines?
Then there's the business side of things. What of all this spying going on when a business is trying to invent a new product or something along those lines? What of criminal investigations as well? police do not always have the full story going into an investigation. What of for example a guy who's car is parked on the street of a major prostitution street for 3 hours every thursday? the pattern would suggest criminal activity, when in reality he's helping his elderly parents with their groceries each week who happen to live in that particular area. Another example, what of a guy who is parked outside a bar for 2 hours every friday night? the pattern would suggest he drinks, yet in reality they may have the best bbq wings in the area and he never drinks so much as one beer while he's there. Suppose that pattern comes up when he tries to get his license renewed. Point being there is far far too much potential for abuse with mass surveillance.
Overall it's a bad idea and there's a million different things I could come up with. anyways these are some of my thoughts.
law is a funny thing, a government cannot prosecute someone for breaking a law before that law is in existence, take for example the law of no smoking in enclosed spaces, virtually every smoker in the world is guilty of that before the law was created but you don't see any of them being prosecuted for doing so.
so if for example you are a gamer and suddenly it were to become illegal, you cannot be prosecuted because you were a gamer before the law was changed just if you continue playing after the law is in force.
as for someone knowing exactly what I am doing on the internet, don't you realise your internet service provider already does.
Your example assumes that everyone stops being a gamer after it were to become illegal, which lets be honest, not many of us would be likely to do. with that alone your entire argument falls apart. could they prosecute you for the gaming you did before it were to be illegal, no. Could they prosecute you for gaming you do after it was illegal, yes they could. The service provider only has a record of anything because you use them as a gateway. Even then the point is irrelevant as they're not permitted to just go blabbing what you search for and all of that to just anyone they wish. Government also must get a warrant to access that data.
Bottom line it's still none of their business what you do online. if they want to know because they think you're committing a crime then get a warrant. As I said even if they know what you're doing, such as if I were to search for modding tools to make better levels and so on, it's none of their business.
and you don't think they (government) could find all this out without windows 10, get real.
they probably know more about you then you do.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
This is concerning. I would go over to Linux but the lack of game support is annoying.
Or is that no longer the case? Been a while since I've looked at Linux.
It's getting better, especially since Steam is now available there. But it will never be guaranteed. And of course, other stuff you might want to use might never make it there.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Let me get this straight. Because other companies engage in unethical data collection and spying, it's OK for Microsoft to do it too?
First you need to determine if the data collection they do is actually unethical.
A lot of that has also to do with the basic services they provide. Just as an example - Google, Facebook, or Microsoft will collect your personal message, e-mails and what not - but that is because you are using a service that can't possibly function without storing this data.
The interesting question is often more what they do with the data. And what data you have to provide them to get a service you need.
Microsoft's privacy statement is pretty exhaustive: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/
It might seem frightening what kind of stuff they collect or what they use it for - but their statement also gives you a pretty good idea what they collect and for what purposes they use it. I don't really remember reading such detailed statements elsewhere, but I might have just done the usual thing of scroll over it so I can finally use the service.
Advertising. Many of our services are supported by advertising. We use the data we collect to help select the ads Microsoft delivers - whether on our own services or on services offered by third parties. The ads we select may be based on your current location, search query, or the content you are viewing. Other ads are targeted based on your likely interests or other information that we learn about you over time using demographic data, search queries, interests and favorites, usage data, and location data - which we refer to as "interest-based advertising" in this statement. Microsoft does not use what you say in email, chat, video calls or voice mail, or your documents, photos or other personal files to target ads to you. You may opt out of receiving interest-based advertising from Microsoft by visiting our opt-out page. More information about advertising controls is available in the Access and Controls section of this privacy statement. Further details regarding our advertising-related uses of data include:
This might be particular interesting, because they also explicitely exclude certain information they have from using it for advertisement. I am pretty certain that Google uses your mail information to help targeting ads. Maybe that isn't even a bad thing - advertisement for stuff you don't want might be even more annoying than ads about stuff you want, but of the course, the latter is also likely to get you to actually spend money on something.
Of course, we have nothing to hide because we're all good guys:
Finally, we will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails in Outlook.com, or files in private folders on OneDrive), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to:
comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies;
protect our customers, for example to prevent spam or attempts to defraud users of the services, or to help prevent the loss of life or serious injury of anyone;
operate and maintain the security of our services, including to prevent or stop an attack on our computer systems or networks; or protect the rights or property of Microsoft, including enforcing the terms governing the use of the services - however, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property of Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer's private content ourselves, but we may refer the matter to law enforcement.
So if tomorrow the USA decides that virtual space ships are illegal or if the law enforcements believes that because you called the second cousin twice removed of a suspected terrorist because he could get you tickets for that heavy metal concert you're now also a terror suspect, your data might still be lawfully handed out to the government. And if after the office party a drunk FBI agent leaves his notebook in the taxi and some guy finds it and releases the videos of you and your significant other on Youtube... bad luck.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
And if after the office party a drunk FBI agent leaves his notebook in the taxi and some guy finds it and releases the videos of you and your significant other on Youtube... bad luck.
and you don't think they (government) could find all this out without windows 10, get real.
they probably know more about you then you do.
they could, just not legally without a warrant. This is part of why they need these companies is because they can't collect everything on their own. They don't have the manpower to do so. Even more so with all the TRIBBLE government collects that they say is meant to "catch terrorists," with what they take in just one day, just a single day, it's physically impossible for them to analyze this data in a timely manor to make use of it. By the time they've analyzed the data it will be of no use to them.
Even still by your logic should you just let them have the data since "they probably know more about us than we know about ourselves?" Of course you shouldn't. They want the data, get a warrant, it's that simple. As others have pointed out there's ways around everything if you know how to do it. If you want to allow them access to everything on your computer and so on then more power to you. As for me, they want my data, they get a warrant. Overall you're far reaching on this one.
"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again." - Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek Generations
and you don't think they (government) could find all this out without windows 10, get real.
they probably know more about you then you do.
they could, just not legally without a warrant. This is part of why they need these companies is because they can't collect everything on their own. They don't have the manpower to do so. Even more so with all the TRIBBLE government collects that they say is meant to "catch terrorists," with what they take in just one day, just a single day, it's physically impossible for them to analyze this data in a timely manor to make use of it. By the time they've analyzed the data it will be of no use to them.
Even still by your logic should you just let them have the data since "they probably know more about us than we know about ourselves?" Of course you shouldn't. They want the data, get a warrant, it's that simple. As others have pointed out there's ways around everything if you know how to do it. If you want to allow them access to everything on your computer and so on then more power to you. As for me, they want my data, they get a warrant. Overall you're far reaching on this one.
and that's just what they let you know about.
I especially like the bit that says "The information the government is able to collect includes not only entire emails and cell phone calls, but also browsing histories, receipts, and itineraries. In other words, in case you didn't already know this, everything you do online or over your cell phone is actually being screened as you do it."
even voicing concerns over privacy on this very forum is probably enough to raise a red flag on you.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
I always disable Windows Update. It's the number 1 source of trouble for me, countless times did programmes stop working or did I encounter other problems after updates were installed.
Thanks for the heads up OP i turned off auto updates i prefer choice to having something i may or may not want to have forced upon me last i checked i lived in a "free" nation, oh look i made a funny
Honestly? Why all the paranoia about what Windows 10 watches and does not watch inside your computer.
- It is reasonable to expect a certain level of privacy inside your own home.
- However, by plugging into the Internet and clicking on <I agree>, without reading the ToS, you have already given someone permission to look at and use the data created whenever you interact with someone else's website.
- Most of us are not important enough individually for the NSA or some North Korean cyber warrior to latch onto and spend every waking moment recording our every keystroke.
- The majority of people's discomfiture seems to come from what might happen instead of what actually has happened. Along with the possibility they might be under observation. Because we all have that 'friend of a friend's second cousin from Omaha' who was innocently strolling through the Internet when the Bad People noticed him and proceeded to drag him off into some Internet Hell where he resides to this day howling piteously.
Personally, I don't give a damn whether or not they are watching me prance about in front of my laptop wearing a feather boa, stripper heels and little else. Why? Because as long as they are wasting time, money, and man hours watching me, they are leaving someone else alone. The thought it may take years of therapy to erase that image from their brain is an unexpected happy bonus.
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
Honestly? Why all the paranoia about what Windows 10 watches and does not watch inside your computer.
- It is reasonable to expect a certain level of privacy inside your own home.
- However, by plugging into the Internet and clicking on <I agree>, without reading the ToS, you have already given someone permission to look at and use the data created whenever you interact with someone else's website.
- Most of us are not important enough individually for the NSA or some North Korean cyber warrior to latch onto and spend every waking moment recording our every keystroke.
- The majority of people's discomfiture seems to come from what might happen instead of what actually has happened. Along with the possibility they might be under observation. Because we all have that 'friend of a friend's second cousin from Omaha' who was innocently strolling through the Internet when the Bad People noticed him and proceeded to drag him off into some Internet Hell where he resides to this day howling piteously.
Personally, I don't give a damn whether or not they are watching me prance about in front of my laptop wearing a feather boa, stripper heels and little else. Why? Because as long as they are wasting time, money, and man hours watching me, they are leaving someone else alone. The thought it may take years of therapy to erase that image from their brain is an unexpected happy bonus.
indeed if someone gets off on knowing I play sto, watch episodes of criminal minds on sky go and bought a pooh bear stuffed toy for my grandkids first birthday fill your boots.
they would find out a lot more about me if they just check out my facebook page anyway.
mind you someone did hack my bank account once, they felt so sorry for me when they see how little I had they actually made a deposit. (joke)
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Personally i think it should be up to us the consumer if we want a product or not and what microsoft is doing is forcing something on people who may or may not want it.
Personally idc what it does or does not do its the fact i prefer freedom to choose the product i want on my laptop or devices and not have something forced upon me.
I will probably buy a Win 10 install disc soon. Yes I could get the free upgrade, but there are occasions where you may want to do a fresh install, such as a bad malware infection or you get a BSOD at boot, or your hard drive decides to kick the bucket. I like to always have that disc.
I'm a huge fan of Spybot. I use Spybot free at work and use Spybot Pro on my PC at home. Since they are supporting Anti-Beacon I know it's going to be a trustworthy little app.
Select the 32 or 64 bit version that matches your current copy of Windows.
1. Double-click the media creation tool and select "Create instillation media for another PC".
2. Select which edition of Windows 10 you want; it has to be the same as the version of 7/8 you're running, so if you're running Windows 7 Professional select that.
3. Click the next button and select "ISO File". Choose a location to download it to.
4. Burn the .ISO file straight to a DVD.
5. *IMPORTANT* UPGRADE to Windows 10 FIRST so it can register your valid copy of Windows 7/8 as well as your computer hardware. This will make it so you won't need to put in a serial key as Win 10 will already be registered for your system. If you go straight for a clean install without registering your OS/Hardware it will require a serial key that you need to purchase because your valid Win 7/8 key won't work.
6. After upgrading to Win 10 either from using the media creation tool or through Windows update, put the DVD in and reboot your computer. Boot from disc and you should have the option for a clean install of Win 10.
Edit: You can use the Win 10 disc you created to upgrade, or clean install, as many computers as you want, but you'll need to upgrade each computer first through Windows update to register them.
Also, before upgrading/installing Win 10, make sure to backup your files to an external hard drive or something.
For those worried about data collection in Win 10: 'Telemetry' is what you're looking at turning off or removing. You'll need to google that yourself since it involves editing the registry or using the command prompt console to get rid of it. I used a command prompt to completely remove it and so far it doesn't seem to have been reinstalled and Win 10 is still running just fine without it.
Edit: Yep. Looking at that video of Spybot it shows 'Telemetry' being blocked when using that anti-beacon feature.
I'm fine with the built in Windows Defender though.
I will probably buy a Win 10 install disc soon. Yes I could get the free upgrade, but there are occasions where you may want to do a fresh install, such as a bad malware infection or you get a BSOD at boot, or your hard drive decides to kick the bucket. I like to always have that disc.
You can get the actual disk version for free. Simply perform your upgrade and then once complete, download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. This tool will download a disk .ISO image of the Windows version you select. The download it straight from Microsoft and is identical to the store bought version of the product. From that time forward, to do a fresh install, you simply boot from this disk and install. When prompted to enter a key, leave it blank and click 'next.' After install, your computer will connect to the Internet and activate automatically.There is no need to purchase a 'store bought' copy, save the money.
For others that use Windows 10 or wish to use it, the tracking software can be disabled. I recommend anyone using Windows 10 apply the Disable Windows Tracking tool found here to ensure their privacy is being protected. All of the Windows tracking can be disabled by the user, Microsoft simply makes it all hard to find. This tool does it all in one handy utility and works quite nicely. If you're still concerned, you could always use a software firewall to monitor outgoing connections. I have done this to monitor my test machine, and so far the Tracking Disable tool seems to have eliminated all 'suspect' outgoing traffic.
Windows 10 is a good OS, provided you take the necessary steps to ensure your privacy as a user. Microsoft isn't going to take your Credit Card number and send it all over the internet, that violates a ton of Federal Laws. Use some common sense and think about things before reacting. Don't take my word for it, do your own research and go with what you feel comfortable with. The information is out there for anyone to look up, and once you do, you'll likely find that as long as the proper steps are taken, Windows 10 is perfectly fine and perfectly safe to install.
I wouldn't trust some random app from GitHub. I will be using Anti-Beacon because it's made by Spybot which is a well-known antimalware company.
I've used every version of Windows since 3.1. Every version since 7 has been very stable. Yeah, the UI in 8 and 8.1 sucked, but the OS itself was fine. Anyway, people complain that they're getting Windows 10 for free and being upgraded to it quickly, but then they whine and complain when their Android or iOS device isn't being upgraded to the latest version.
I will probably buy a Win 10 install disc soon. Yes I could get the free upgrade, but there are occasions where you may want to do a fresh install, such as a bad malware infection or you get a BSOD at boot, or your hard drive decides to kick the bucket. I like to always have that disc.
You can get the actual disk version for free. Simply perform your upgrade and then once complete, download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. This tool will download a disk .ISO image of the Windows version you select. The download it straight from Microsoft and is identical to the store bought version of the product. From that time forward, to do a fresh install, you simply boot from this disk and install. When prompted to enter a key, leave it blank and click 'next.' After install, your computer will connect to the Internet and activate automatically.There is no need to purchase a 'store bought' copy, save the money.
For others that use Windows 10 or wish to use it, the tracking software can be disabled. I recommend anyone using Windows 10 apply the Disable Windows Tracking tool found here to ensure their privacy is being protected. All of the Windows tracking can be disabled by the user, Microsoft simply makes it all hard to find. This tool does it all in one handy utility and works quite nicely. If you're still concerned, you could always use a software firewall to monitor outgoing connections. I have done this to monitor my test machine, and so far the Tracking Disable tool seems to have eliminated all 'suspect' outgoing traffic.
Windows 10 is a good OS, provided you take the necessary steps to ensure your privacy as a user. Microsoft isn't going to take your Credit Card number and send it all over the internet, that violates a ton of Federal Laws. Use some common sense and think about things before reacting. Don't take my word for it, do your own research and go with what you feel comfortable with. The information is out there for anyone to look up, and once you do, you'll likely find that as long as the proper steps are taken, Windows 10 is perfectly fine and perfectly safe to install.
I wouldn't trust some random app from GitHub. I will be using Anti-Beacon because it's made by Spybot which is a well-known antimalware company.
Use whatever tool you're comfortable using. I was just trying to save you a few bucks on the disk.
Comments
Just wanted to say that DuckDuckGo keeps your search queries anonymous and Hushmail is at the moment the most privacy oriented webmail that I know of. Their servers are based in Canada and they have a strict privacy policy, but will share your data if required to do so by a court order.
I used to use Lavabit which was even more secure but the FBI shut them down for not providing them with their user's emails. Which goes to prove that if you use any U.S. based webmail your email is probably being read by U.S. government alphabet agencies.
The Ghostery and Adblock plugins bock most kinds of tracking and targeted ads at other websites.
You're right that your ISP will know every website you visit and they may even share your usage with third parties, depending on their privacy policy. Most do, including mine.
If you're concerned about ISP monitoring you could use Tor, I tried it once but didn't like it. The lag was awful and all my search queries were returning websites in German language. Tor will stop your ISP from seeing exactly what you're doing, but they will know that you're using Tor and can guess at what you might be doing by analyzing packet sizes going to and from your PC.
An anonymous VPN service will also prevent your ISP from seeing what you're doing and will also look less suspicious to them. It will also have better speed, but they will charge you a monthly fee. An example would be:
https://privateinternetaccess.com/
I agree, but by using a connected device you have already made a fatal error. If one used paper and pen, you could review it, and if necessary shred it, burn the bits, and spread the ashes out the window while driving down a highway doing 88 mph. Chances are pretty good that it will have remained private, other than the sound of the shredder, the smoke, and perhaps a fine for littering while speeding (unless you live in Europe and use the Autobahn at night).
Even better would be to fully think something out before taking action. Still the safest bet... for now...
law is a funny thing, a government cannot prosecute someone for breaking a law before that law is in existence, take for example the law of no smoking in enclosed spaces, virtually every smoker in the world is guilty of that before the law was created but you don't see any of them being prosecuted for doing so.
so if for example you are a gamer and suddenly it were to become illegal, you cannot be prosecuted because you were a gamer before the law was changed just if you continue playing after the law is in force.
as for someone knowing exactly what people are doing on the internet, don't you realise your internet service provider already does.
moral is if you want to stay private don't use the internet.
and don't just stop there what about the recent talk talk hacking scandal, or any other company that uses the internet and has your details.
there is a guy at work who thinks he is safe because he hasn't got a computer, little does he realise who much of his personal info is on computers and can be accessed via the internet.
people need to realise in this day and age 100% privacy is a myth, if you rule your life by that standard and are so concerned about what windows 10 can and cant do above just about any OS you might use you are kidding yourself.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
You can get the actual disk version for free. Simply perform your upgrade and then once complete, download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. This tool will download a disk .ISO image of the Windows version you select. The download it straight from Microsoft and is identical to the store bought version of the product. From that time forward, to do a fresh install, you simply boot from this disk and install. When prompted to enter a key, leave it blank and click 'next.' After install, your computer will connect to the Internet and activate automatically.There is no need to purchase a 'store bought' copy, save the money.
For others that use Windows 10 or wish to use it, the tracking software can be disabled. I recommend anyone using Windows 10 apply the Disable Windows Tracking tool found here to ensure their privacy is being protected. All of the Windows tracking can be disabled by the user, Microsoft simply makes it all hard to find. This tool does it all in one handy utility and works quite nicely. If you're still concerned, you could always use a software firewall to monitor outgoing connections. I have done this to monitor my test machine, and so far the Tracking Disable tool seems to have eliminated all 'suspect' outgoing traffic.
Windows 10 is a good OS, provided you take the necessary steps to ensure your privacy as a user. Microsoft isn't going to take your Credit Card number and send it all over the internet, that violates a ton of Federal Laws. Use some common sense and think about things before reacting. Don't take my word for it, do your own research and go with what you feel comfortable with. The information is out there for anyone to look up, and once you do, you'll likely find that as long as the proper steps are taken, Windows 10 is perfectly fine and perfectly safe to install.
Your example assumes that everyone stops being a gamer after it were to become illegal, which lets be honest, not many of us would be likely to do. with that alone your entire argument falls apart. could they prosecute you for the gaming you did before it were to be illegal, no. Could they prosecute you for gaming you do after it was illegal, yes they could. The service provider only has a record of anything because you use them as a gateway. Even then the point is irrelevant as they're not permitted to just go blabbing what you search for and all of that to just anyone they wish. Government also must get a warrant to access that data.
Bottom line it's still none of their business what you do online. if they want to know because they think you're committing a crime then get a warrant. As I said even if they know what you're doing, such as if I were to search for modding tools to make better levels and so on, it's none of their business.
Star Trek Online volunteer Community Moderator
and you don't think they (government) could find all this out without windows 10, get real.
they probably know more about you then you do.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
It's getting better, especially since Steam is now available there. But it will never be guaranteed. And of course, other stuff you might want to use might never make it there.
A lot of that has also to do with the basic services they provide. Just as an example - Google, Facebook, or Microsoft will collect your personal message, e-mails and what not - but that is because you are using a service that can't possibly function without storing this data.
The interesting question is often more what they do with the data. And what data you have to provide them to get a service you need.
Microsoft's privacy statement is pretty exhaustive: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/
It might seem frightening what kind of stuff they collect or what they use it for - but their statement also gives you a pretty good idea what they collect and for what purposes they use it. I don't really remember reading such detailed statements elsewhere, but I might have just done the usual thing of scroll over it so I can finally use the service.
This might be particular interesting, because they also explicitely exclude certain information they have from using it for advertisement. I am pretty certain that Google uses your mail information to help targeting ads. Maybe that isn't even a bad thing - advertisement for stuff you don't want might be even more annoying than ads about stuff you want, but of the course, the latter is also likely to get you to actually spend money on something.
Of course, we have nothing to hide because we're all good guys: So if tomorrow the USA decides that virtual space ships are illegal or if the law enforcements believes that because you called the second cousin twice removed of a suspected terrorist because he could get you tickets for that heavy metal concert you're now also a terror suspect, your data might still be lawfully handed out to the government. And if after the office party a drunk FBI agent leaves his notebook in the taxi and some guy finds it and releases the videos of you and your significant other on Youtube... bad luck.
Like I said, do it in a cave...
they could, just not legally without a warrant. This is part of why they need these companies is because they can't collect everything on their own. They don't have the manpower to do so. Even more so with all the TRIBBLE government collects that they say is meant to "catch terrorists," with what they take in just one day, just a single day, it's physically impossible for them to analyze this data in a timely manor to make use of it. By the time they've analyzed the data it will be of no use to them.
Even still by your logic should you just let them have the data since "they probably know more about us than we know about ourselves?" Of course you shouldn't. They want the data, get a warrant, it's that simple. As others have pointed out there's ways around everything if you know how to do it. If you want to allow them access to everything on your computer and so on then more power to you. As for me, they want my data, they get a warrant. Overall you're far reaching on this one.
Star Trek Online volunteer Community Moderator
Defending The Galaxy By Breaking One Starfleet Regulation After The Next.
you think not...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/meagan-reed/the-government-knows-about-you_b_3427700.html
and that's just what they let you know about.
I especially like the bit that says "The information the government is able to collect includes not only entire emails and cell phone calls, but also browsing histories, receipts, and itineraries. In other words, in case you didn't already know this, everything you do online or over your cell phone is actually being screened as you do it."
even voicing concerns over privacy on this very forum is probably enough to raise a red flag on you.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
- It is reasonable to expect a certain level of privacy inside your own home.
- However, by plugging into the Internet and clicking on <I agree>, without reading the ToS, you have already given someone permission to look at and use the data created whenever you interact with someone else's website.
- Most of us are not important enough individually for the NSA or some North Korean cyber warrior to latch onto and spend every waking moment recording our every keystroke.
- The majority of people's discomfiture seems to come from what might happen instead of what actually has happened. Along with the possibility they might be under observation. Because we all have that 'friend of a friend's second cousin from Omaha' who was innocently strolling through the Internet when the Bad People noticed him and proceeded to drag him off into some Internet Hell where he resides to this day howling piteously.
Personally, I don't give a damn whether or not they are watching me prance about in front of my laptop wearing a feather boa, stripper heels and little else. Why? Because as long as they are wasting time, money, and man hours watching me, they are leaving someone else alone. The thought it may take years of therapy to erase that image from their brain is an unexpected happy bonus.
indeed if someone gets off on knowing I play sto, watch episodes of criminal minds on sky go and bought a pooh bear stuffed toy for my grandkids first birthday fill your boots.
they would find out a lot more about me if they just check out my facebook page anyway.
mind you someone did hack my bank account once, they felt so sorry for me when they see how little I had they actually made a deposit. (joke)
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Personally idc what it does or does not do its the fact i prefer freedom to choose the product i want on my laptop or devices and not have something forced upon me.
No need to wait. You can create an install disc, for free, using the Windows Media Creation Tool from Microsoft. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Select the 32 or 64 bit version that matches your current copy of Windows.
1. Double-click the media creation tool and select "Create instillation media for another PC".
2. Select which edition of Windows 10 you want; it has to be the same as the version of 7/8 you're running, so if you're running Windows 7 Professional select that.
3. Click the next button and select "ISO File". Choose a location to download it to.
4. Burn the .ISO file straight to a DVD.
5. *IMPORTANT* UPGRADE to Windows 10 FIRST so it can register your valid copy of Windows 7/8 as well as your computer hardware. This will make it so you won't need to put in a serial key as Win 10 will already be registered for your system. If you go straight for a clean install without registering your OS/Hardware it will require a serial key that you need to purchase because your valid Win 7/8 key won't work.
6. After upgrading to Win 10 either from using the media creation tool or through Windows update, put the DVD in and reboot your computer. Boot from disc and you should have the option for a clean install of Win 10.
Edit: You can use the Win 10 disc you created to upgrade, or clean install, as many computers as you want, but you'll need to upgrade each computer first through Windows update to register them.
Also, before upgrading/installing Win 10, make sure to backup your files to an external hard drive or something.
For those worried about data collection in Win 10: 'Telemetry' is what you're looking at turning off or removing. You'll need to google that yourself since it involves editing the registry or using the command prompt console to get rid of it. I used a command prompt to completely remove it and so far it doesn't seem to have been reinstalled and Win 10 is still running just fine without it.
Edit: Yep. Looking at that video of Spybot it shows 'Telemetry' being blocked when using that anti-beacon feature.
I'm fine with the built in Windows Defender though.
I wouldn't trust some random app from GitHub. I will be using Anti-Beacon because it's made by Spybot which is a well-known antimalware company.
Use whatever tool you're comfortable using. I was just trying to save you a few bucks on the disk.