4 ms·
Yet another "helper" that diminishes computer user's computing experience for the sake of supposed privacy, then just sets completely arbitrary policies that ha
by UnoriginalGuy 10y ago
Yet another "helper" that diminishes computer user's computing experience for the sake of supposed privacy, then just sets completely arbitrary policies that have nothing to do with transmitting information back to Microsoft.
This program will mess up most Windows 10 installations. In ways that may take you months or even years to ultimately notice.
Let's look at some of these rules:
- "[Disable] Let websites provide locally relevant content by accessing my language list." Meaning websites cannot provide a translated version that you'll want (e.g. if you visit a Chinese website, they may not provide an English translation since you aren't sending the language list).
- "[Disable] Let apps access/control my camera/location/contacts/microphone/etc." Breaks all apps that use the custom permissions (e.g. Skype). With it enabled they would still prompt you for per-app permission (camera, location, contacts, etc), with it disabled they're treated like you don't have a camera/microphone/etc at all... But only for modern apps, Win32 can still access the camera/contacts/etc. Effectively you're just breaking all modern apps on Win10.
- Turn back on outdated insecure Bitlocker encryption, turn on incompatible Bitlocker modes, and turn on Bitlocker modes that only exist in higher versions (e.g. enterprise edition). Uhh, k? Why are they dicking around with Bitlocker policies?
- Encrypt the page file (Even on Bitlocker enabled systems?).
- Disable auto-complete, password manager, and other useful browser functionality in Edge & IE. Also clear browser history upon exit (i.e. break browser history).
- Actually disable OneDrive via GPO (i.e. don't just limit it, kill it).
- Break automatic web proxy configuration (may kick certain people offline depending on network setup).
- Disables SshBroker (SSH Sever) because, reasons..?
Just go look in the source code. This is amature hour. Someone's just gone through GPO, set a bunch of stuff without understanding what it did, noted down the corresponding registry changes and built this wrapper around it. But they never understood the GPO policies to begin with! Disabling the IPv6 helper may also kick people offline (even if it is very niche, what does that have to do with "privacy," what do 80% of these changes have to do with "privacy?").
I wish this nonsense didn't get upvoted on HN.