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Recently (just within the last couple of days), I've been thinking about setting up a Windows 7 Enterprise VM for occasional use. Am I correct in understanding

Recently (just within the last couple of days), I've been thinking about setting up a Windows 7 Enterprise VM for occasional use. Am I correct in understanding that this telemetry crap is going on in Windows 7 also!? I don't really keep up-to-date on it (I use only OS X and Linux on the desktop) but I was under the impression that only Windows 8 and Windows 10 were affected by this telemetry ("spying", IMO) issue?

walterbell 10y ago
Telemetry was aadded to Windows 7 around Aug 2015, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10110155 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10110155. With a bit of effort, most of the update KBs can be identified and manually removed. It's still a pain though, because there are many sites with conflicting claims about which updates can be removed safely. I also found at least one update that reinstalls itself after removal. Since then, Microsoft has moved to monthly updates which combine security fixes + functional changes. If you want only security fixes, you need to disable automatic updates and download a separate security-only monthly rollup. It's a shame, but we're approaching the point where we will need to whitelist all outbound traffic using a firewall that is external to the operating system. Anything that isn't whitelisted should be blocked, logged and audited. Someone should start a VPN service that blocks Microsoft, Google and Apple telemetry. If we had regulators, telemetry could be forced to use stable domain names to enable network filtering, and telemetry traffic would be unbundled from application traffic.
- jlgaddis 10y ago
  Thank you. I thought maybe I wouldn't have to worry about the telemetry (read: "spying") too much if I stuck with Windows 7 Enterprise (although it wouldn't be on a domain), but apparently that's not entirely true. I have media that has SP1 slipstreamed and saw that there was a "comprehensive"(?) update that Microsoft put out, reducing the need to downloads hundreds of updates. I'd have to double-check the date on it but I think it was recent enough to include some of the updates you mentioned. I suppose I had gotten my hopes up that I could just install a volume licensed copy of Windows 7 Enterprise and "be okay". I should have known better. :/

walterbell 10y ago

Telemetry was aadded to Windows 7 around Aug 2015, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10110155 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10110155. With a bit of effort, most of the update KBs can be identified and manually removed. It's still a pain though, because there are many sites with conflicting claims about which updates can be removed safely. I also found at least one update that reinstalls itself after removal. Since then, Microsoft has moved to monthly updates which combine security fixes + functional changes. If you want only security fixes, you need to disable automatic updates and download a separate security-only monthly rollup. It's a shame, but we're approaching the point where we will need to whitelist all outbound traffic using a firewall that is external to the operating system. Anything that isn't whitelisted should be blocked, logged and audited. Someone should start a VPN service that blocks Microsoft, Google and Apple telemetry. If we had regulators, telemetry could be forced to use stable domain names to enable network filtering, and telemetry traffic would be unbundled from application traffic.

jlgaddis 10y ago
Thank you. I thought maybe I wouldn't have to worry about the telemetry (read: "spying") too much if I stuck with Windows 7 Enterprise (although it wouldn't be on a domain), but apparently that's not entirely true. I have media that has SP1 slipstreamed and saw that there was a "comprehensive"(?) update that Microsoft put out, reducing the need to downloads hundreds of updates. I'd have to double-check the date on it but I think it was recent enough to include some of the updates you mentioned. I suppose I had gotten my hopes up that I could just install a volume licensed copy of Windows 7 Enterprise and "be okay". I should have known better. :/