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Windows Privacy Dashboard: GUI for Windows 10 Privacy Settings
- slg 6y agoJust to be clear, is this a closed source application that I am supposed to install to modify my OS and the only contact information for the people who made it are Steam accounts? And the primary motivation for installing this software is that I don't trust the multinational corporation that could lose hundreds of billions of dollars if they inappropriately abuse my privacy? But of course I trust Barnacle, Vegetorius, and Janeyris.
- nvr219 6y agoYeah... this is the kind of thing I'd have installed in the '90s but not today no sir
- xook 6y agoThis particular statement is sobering in an unexpected way. How the times change wrt software and personal sovereignty.
- prepend 6y agoWhat more do you need beyond their press kit?
- oddlama 6y agoWhile I get your point, I think when using Windows, the majority of ibstalled software will be closed source. And most, if not all of them have been granted the same level of priviledge a some point during installation.
- romanovcode 6y agoMajority of applications do not require UAC access allowance as well so those are not a problem.
- slg 6y agoThat is fair. I would be lying if I said I never installed potentially dodgy software from the internet. My primary problem here is the motivation behind the software. The reason this software exists is fundamentally about a lack of trust. We don't trust Microsoft with the level of data that Windows 10 collects. That is a perfectly reasonable position to have. However if that is your opinion, it seems frankly bizarre to trust these nameless developers who have zero accountability for this software. Microsoft is at least accountable to the law, the stock market, and their customers. There is hundreds of billions on the line if they screw you over. If Barnacle screws you over, the only thing on the line is their copy of Ultra Street Fighter IV.
- bproven 6y agoYeha I agree, considering it is free why not open source it to alleviate those concerns?
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoOpen source comes with a cost to the developer. There was an interesting discussion about it on HN a couple of months ago.
- prophesi 6y agoIt's possible to set up your repo to have issues disabled, which will get rid of the majority of FOSS's costs. When it comes to privacy/security tools, it makes sense to make it open source, since they usually are given an insane amount of privileges to modify your machine.
- tonyedgecombe 6y ago* the law, the stock market, and their customers* In that order. We are last. In fact I'm not even a customer anymore, I haven't paid for an update to Windows since Windows 8 was released.
- bastardoperator 6y agoI thought it looked like a fake GitHub page on mobile too. It has some distinction but you’re right, it’s suspect. Steam, LOL.
- DaiPlusPlus 6y agoAnd their logo is too similar to Stardock's - I thought this was an actual Stardock product to begin with (because this is exactly the kind of program Stardock would make). I downloaded it, but I won't install it - there's something fishy about this whole thing. There's no reason for this program to not be open-source - especially if it all it does is tweak the registry and apply GPO settings.
- userbinator 6y agoThis sort of paranoic fearmongering is exactly the sort of propaganda that pushes society towards that authoritarian corporate dystopia in which trust is forced by those in power, and which you have no control over. We are slowly losing our freedom to choose even whom to trust, thanks to this idea that these "multinational corporations" are somehow deities. You highly underestimate the skill of the community, and how it only takes one person to find out and spread the news if something is amiss. Source isn't needed, and doesn't tell the whole story anyway. (See: Ken Thompson Hack.) the multinational corporation that could lose hundreds of billions of dollars if they inappropriately abuse my privacy The corporation which has lawyers and knows exactly how to spin their spyware to carefully evade such laws? Windows 10 would clearly be considered spyware 10 or even 5 years ago. Yet somehow Microsoft has convinced the general public that it isn't, and we are supposed to still trust them? Edit: downloaded it to take a look. Appears to be written in easily-reversible .NET and not even obfuscated, so go ahead and analyse it yourself if you don't trust it. (If it was obfuscated, that would make my suspicion jump.) Edit2: looks like people still think I'm wrong - go look at the binary yourself instead of blindly downvoting just because you don't want to do the thinking yourself. The more power you let them have, the more they will abuse it.
- catalogia 6y agoIt's not fearmongering to question the low standard Windows developers and their users seem to consider routine. That Windows users have chosen to accept Windows becoming spyware is just another manifestation of that same problem, not a refutation of it!
- vezycash 6y agoKnowledge comes before acceptance. Apart from those of us who live on tech sites, normal users would be completely clueless. Even among those who know, only a fraction would be bothered enough to take action.
- catalogia 6y agoMany Windows users may not know there's a better way, but I can hardly think that's an excuse for developers writing proprietary freeware for Windows. Surely they've heard of open source at some point, they just don't give a damn.
- CawCawCaw 6y agoFortunately for you the whole thing is written in unobfuscated .NET so the source can be easily recovered.
- lvs 6y agoWhy couldn't they just put up the source then? A closed-source privacy tool is quite the contradiction.
- userbinator 6y agoI wish people would stop thinking of open-source like it's some sort of panacea. The Ken Thompson Hack should be enough proof that what really matters is what gets run, not what the source code says. For decades, the Windows community thrived with mods and such, all without source code. If you have an unobfuscated .NET binary you pretty much have the source, and it will be honestly what it says it does.
- prophesi 6y agoIt's not a panacea, but it's objectively better than closed-source. Thank you for pointing out that the binary is unobfuscated.
- lanisik655 6y agocorrect. Шt amazes me that people blame WPD for closedsource, but they themselves use shutup10 :facepalm:
- lvs 6y agoStraw man. Nobody said it's a panacea.
- lanisik655 6y agosure sure, shutup10 - closed source (with Obfuscated DLL inside), Microsoft partner :3
- fsflover 6y ago> corporation that could lose hundreds of billions of dollars if they inappropriately abuse my privacy In fact they are already doing this, most probably breaking the GDPR.
- whalesalad 6y agoScreenshots are hiding on the press page. https://wpd.app/press/ https://wpd.app/press/ The rest of the marketing site is well done... surprised screenshots aren’t front and center!
- nogridbag 6y agoThe back and arrow buttons on the slideshow look like they're part of the app. I initially clicked away because I thought it was a single screenshot.
- m_st 6y agoIt's a 'responsive design' error, when opened on desktop you can see a good screenshot in the upper right corner of the page.
- xnx 6y agoIt is unclear in what ways this is different/better than O&O ShutUp10 (https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10), aside from that tool having a much worse name.
- alliao 6y agowow I used to use O&O Defrag when I had hdds I'd trust them again
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoTo me it comes across as less dodgy - no apparent money making scheme.
- encom 6y agoI don't see any dodgy moneymaking schemes for any of them. Care to elaborate?
- greggman3 6y agoSo according to HN if you aren't paying for it you're the product. That has me worried. If this was just a repo on github I'd have a little more faith that this isn't just a trojan in disguise (not saying it is but it's scary to give an app enough access to know and set this stuff)
- nickjj 6y agoI'm not sure but I've been using ShutUp10 for years now and it's super reliable. It's one of the only solutions I've seen that disables the automatic Bing based internet search feature when you use Win+S to search your system.
- LeoPanthera 6y agoThis looks extremely similar to ShutUp10, which has a long pedigree and is widely considered to be trustworthy.
- lanisik655 6y agocap here: WPD has been around almost since the release of Windows 10.
- cbsks 6y agoWill it let me disable web searches from the start menu? That’s currently my biggest gripe with windows 10. There are a few stack exchange questions about it but the answers are all outdated and don’t work for me.
- mrits 6y agoWorst feature in the history of features, maybe ever.
- jdsully 6y agoBut someone on Bing got a huge bonus from the engagement metrics - so it averages out.
- vezycash 6y agoInstall EVERYTHING (awesome windows search software). Pin it to taskbar. Rearrange the pinned icon so it's the first. Now, Windows+1 shortcut key will open Everything.
- nXqd 6y agoSuper, didn't know this
- kyriakos 6y agoEverything is amazing, one of the first things I install on a fresh Windows installation.
- myfonj 6y agoOr you can set up some global non-colliding hotkey (e.g. Win+Shift+F) in Everything > Tools > Options > Keyboard > Toggle window hotkey.
- manwithaplan 6y agoI disabled the default system Win+S: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced] "DisabledHotkeys"="S" ; Write out EI to disable the shortcut Win+E and Win+I. then after a restart set Win+S in Everything.
- api 6y agoIf your OS needs special tools to keep it from being a privacy joke, your OS has larger issues.
- abafazi 6y agoYou're right it does have issues, but far better than any other alternative Operating System, at least in my case (games)
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- hendersoon 6y agoYou aren't wrong, but if you're a gamer you have you choice. It's Windows or Windows.
- oehtXRwMkIs 6y agoYou're mostly right but I play a lot of games and Proton is good enough for me at least. I think it's a combination of not caring about games that don't run as well because they don't run as well or not caring for them in the first place.
- joering2 6y agoI crashed many Win 10 versions trying to turn off bunch of telemetrics and cortana and store and other calling home services by tweaking registry and never quite succeed. Until I find Henry++ Simplewall. Brilliant tool - instead of tweaking regs etc you just shut down access to internet to bunch of services. And boy there is hundred of them trying non stop. So while your windows 10 works fine, cortana, store, telemetry and windows updates believe you have no internet at all.
- ents 6y agohttps://github.com/henrypp/simplewall https://github.com/henrypp/simplewall
- joering2 6y agoYepp. I installed on multiple Windows and donated many times; I suggest you do the same (I am not related to this project in any way). The only "issue" I ever had was with Dropbox updates. Dropbox main instance would download its new update, name it somewhat randomly and then use that program to trigger update from the internet. This would trigger simplewall to ask for permission, but by the time you click "yes" the update would already fail. Minutes alter Dropbox downloads same install with new file name and the whole whack-a-mole game starts all over. In this case you need to whitelist Dropbox IPs: in user rules create new rule: tcpip v6, any direction with remote rule: 162.125.35.0:443-162.125.36.255:443 - this will allow any new Dropbox update to download new version and safely call home to finish install.
- manduz 6y agoprefer open source options from mirinsoft: https://github.com/mirinsoft/sharpapp https://github.com/mirinsoft/sharpapp https://github.com/mirinsoft/spydish https://github.com/mirinsoft/spydish
- thiht 6y agoWhen your product is a GUI, the first thing I expect to see on the home page is a screenshot. I wonder why the same mistake keeps getting made again and again.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- morganvachon 6y ago...it's right there. Look to the right of the logo and download buttons. https://imgur.com/kHrmgSJ.png https://imgur.com/kHrmgSJ.png
- nailer 6y agoTelemetry is Spyware (see their screenshots) now? You might dislike telemetry but finding out if and how software fails is an entirely different thing from watching you to deliberately invade your privacy.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- nlitened 6y agoI think it’s reasonable to let the user decide.
- bravoetch 6y agoYes, telemetry is spyware when it's enabled by default. If you don't think this is a privacy invasion, please consider that many people take the opposite view.
- nailer 6y agoYou're considering everything which impacts privacy to be spyware. Spyware has a definition. You don't get to change it.
- iphone_elegance 6y agoIt's not spyware, software has just gotten so bloated/bad and project management so clueless that we really need to broadcast everything you do and everything that goes wrong back to the mothership
- pacifika 6y agoI won't install an OS that requires these steps.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- pedrogpimenta 6y agoThank you for your input.
- ecmascript 6y agoHow much will it take for users to stop using Windows? It seems like corporations can put whatever they want in products and people will just continue to consume them. Maybe it's time to switch to Linux if you don't like to be tracked and have ads everywhere for a product that is not free.
- rypskar 6y agoWhere are all the ads in Windows? I have Windows on most my computers and Ubuntu on one. The only place I see ads are in Ubuntu when connecting through ssh. Right now there are ads for MicroK8s and Canonical Livepatch.
- wokkel 6y agoI get Spotify, Candy crush and Office buttons in my start menu that I didn't install. It's not the same, but pretty close in terms of the OS doing things I didn't ask it to.
- adolfojp 6y agoA bare installation option would be nice but bundling software with operating systems isn't new. As sad as it may sound Candy Crush is the new 3D Pinball, which you could argue was an "ad" for the full version of Full Tilt! Pinball.
- vocatus_gate 6y agoTron's stage 2 debloat script will remove all the bloat apps. https://github.com/bmrf/tron/tree/master/resources/stage_2_de-bloat/metro https://github.com/bmrf/tron/tree/master/resources/stage_2_d... I run the Tron project, it's open-source and these scripts are updated frequently based on community input.
- DanBC 6y agoWindows 10 has a bunch of different versions. I'd be interested to know if ads appear in each of them at the same rate. Here's an article talking about where ads appear: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3039827/7-ways-windows-10-pushes-ads-at-you-and-how-to-stop-them.html https://www.pcworld.com/article/3039827/7-ways-windows-10-pu...
- detay 6y agonot open source. won't install, won't suggest.
- jzzskijj 6y agoAlso some other privacy tools have silently broken/disabled domain administrator's access to computers. The tools are not necessarily tested in domain networks at all and for example in work environments that may cause time consuming issues to solve.
- LeoNatan25 6y agoI tend to share this sentiment, or at the very least come from a reputable company such as O&O. I personally tend to modify the Windows install image these days to not include offensive components, as well as disable offending features in group policy.
- nnt38 6y agoHow can i learn to modify windows install images?
- LeoNatan25 6y agoLook into unattended installs, the WIM format. I use NTLite, which is not free, but worth the money. There are other, free, tools which you can also use.
- romanovcode 6y ago100% true. These kind of applications that you must run as administrator I would never run unless they are not open source. To me this application is useless.
- ubercow13 6y agoAlmost every Windows software requires administrator privileges to install itself.
- prophesi 6y agoAre there any open source alternatives for this?
- livre 6y agoThat program is just a dashboard for quickly configuring group policies and the Windows firewall. It's programmed for .NET, if you don't trust it decompile it, get the list of policies and their values and set them manually. ILSpy does a great job at decompiling it. For the firewall part you can install AdGuard Home[1], set it as your DNS and add the host lists[2] if you want it to auto update or use WindowsSpyBlocker[3] and keep it updated manually. [1] https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome [2] https://github.com/crazy-max/WindowsSpyBlocker/tree/master/data/hosts https://github.com/crazy-max/WindowsSpyBlocker/tree/master/d... [3] https://github.com/crazy-max/WindowsSpyBlocker https://github.com/crazy-max/WindowsSpyBlocker
- shomyo 6y ago>The real privacy dashboard for Windows >not open source nope.avi