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Ask HN: Dell Win10 laptop preconfigured to allow unwanted games through firewall
While installing and configuring a new database server on my new Dell Windows 10 laptop, I found the Windows Defender Firewall to be preconfigured to allow a number of King games (Candy Crush, Bubble Witch, March of Empires) plus some Xbox-named items through both Private and Public firewall elements.
I have never installed, used, or considered any King game on any device I have, nor do I have any Xbox usage.
Is this normal? Is there no risk here?
These are all under the "Allow an app or feature through Windows Defender Firewall".
I see no reference to this on Stackoverflow, either.
- rococode 9y agoNormal? Yes. Risk? Probably not that much, tbh. Annoying / unethical? Definitely. King has had deals with Microsoft for a while now so basically every OS release comes with some of their games pre-loaded on the start screen. Those games probably require certain privileges to function correctly so the permissions are built in as well.
- uxp100 9y agoSome king games were automatically installed for other users (not me, I think there must be some setting somewhere or I installed win 10 after it happened). An xbox app is also included in the default install. So I wouldn't be worried that your system had a virus or something, just that windows 10 does a bunch of stuff without asking. But I'm not completely sure.