New features could be released/deployed at *any* time, there is no "patch Tuesday" anymore for 10. So creates even more of a problem for you.. IMO, there is just too much going on in the background or under the hood that we don't know about. It just doesn't "feel" right....
Yes yes I know. Updates are getting release randomly on Windows 8 also. I have it set on manual so they don't get installed automatically. I was thinking of using Autoruns to save a list of all auto run objects before updating and then after updating. Comparing both would show what those updates changed.
Ok, yep. I wasn't aware that 8/8.1 were getting updates at any time though. I thought this was new to 10.
Ok, but I doubt that 8 and 10 are on the same update system. I think 8 is still driven by update Tuesday. 10 is any time it wants, which makes it difficult for some.
True but it is mostly Windows defender with a definitions update, I have my Windows update set to notify for download notify to install.
I'm trying out the proposition that W10 - and other mobile & tablet OSes are primarily souped-up browsers, designed to be in cahoots with cloud services & marketing. For which privilege, you get the OS (or browser) "free", and you provide the hardware to run it on, and give up undisclosed amounts of privacy value. Increasingly, I want neither the OS or the browsers to be on a real machine with access to my real (local) data, they will be on a VM. And the persona I use with them is my "public" one. In other words, it's not a desktop operating system, it's a cloud one; and any future upgrade needs to be to a different operating system if you want a real local desktop OS. In other other words, prepare yourself to upgrade to a 'nix OS in due course, if that local desktop without cloud hooks & risks is what you want. In parallel, and perhaps more concerning, is that the MS Office suites are being increasingly torn from my local desktop in terms of functionality and licencing, and so are even worse - confidential data goes on them necessarily, and they are more and more cloud-dependent (unless you're enterprise). That's the theory anyway, I'd be interested in dissent?
They are more open, that's for sure, and this is mostly because people are used to: * Not reading EULA's; * Being dependant on "smart" things; * Using Flash, Facebook, Google; * Using Windows; So the vast majorty of Windows users won't even read the license agreements. And of those who will read it, most won't care. But that doesn't mean they didn't invade their users' privacy before. They did, yet again most don't care.
I can't dissent. Thanks for posting a possible compartmentalization strategy. @deBoetie or whomever -- has there been any testing for VM porosity with Windows as host or guest? As do I. As am I. I suspect W10's obviousness as a snoop has done us a favor.
I'm going to. My machines are oldish, mid to late lifespan. For me, now's the time to prepare and change my computer lifestyle.
One impression I keep getting from 10 is that they don't want to give up the mobile vision, and that in some ways, they're trying to turn our desktops and laptops into a cell phone type mentality. The Metro apps interspersed all throughout the OS now and tightly integrated into it. Let's face it, a desktop or laptop user (non-touch) has absolutely no use for the apps and Metro, and for the dumbed down settings interface, and so on. It's as if they're declaring the home desktop or laptop user irrelevant or dead. Which of course is a big mistake. The home user does altogether different things on his personal computer than they do on a cell phone or tablet. Who really thinks all our data should be open for MS and third parties to rummage thru at will? So yeah, I see your point above, and I get a distinct feeling that MS refuses to drop their mobile/cloud vision.... even when it's obviously inappropriate. I've been using Linux for years also, and could easily switch to Linux and get along fine. I choose to still use Windows because on my machine it gives me slightly better full screen hd video which I use a lot, and because Win is still a bit more interesting at times...
That was my thought the other day also, but then I got to thinking, with all these little W10 related updates (a half dozen or more now) that keep reinstalling and changing, who's to say your data is safe on 7, or that they're not doing some sort of telemetry there also? That's a bit of a paranoid view, but then again, seeing what they're doing with Win 10, one could easily imagine that just about anything is theoretically possible...
Some while back, I did a review of a bugfix speadsheet over several years (for VMWare). While there were host escalation attacks, and guest escalation attacks, there were very few that threatened the host from the guest - one was associated with the virtual floppy disk, so it wasn't only about with the tools/extensions part. I think the take-home for me was that host-threatening attacks are very rare and will be high value - after all, much of the world's hosting is dependent on hypervisors of various kinds, it's a huge deal if guest isolation is broken. Most commercial malware bombs out if it detects it's running in a VM anyway. Other threats include that, from the host, the disk image of the guest is open for inspection, unless you encrypt it. Similarly, even with snapshotting, disk fragments still remain on the host. And of course, you're completely owned if your host gets subverted (but that's the point of running all internet facing apps in the VMs in the first place). Don't really want to get into a debate between proprietary but better-written VMWare and open Virtual Box. But I do hope that some better lightweight virtualisation becomes more mainstream in the Linux Kernel for example Firejail is a rather nice example of the kinds of isolation that can already be done, and that's not really using virtualisation. There is of course Qubes on Xen (and maybe other hypervisors in future). Qubes already supports W7. The other problem with Windows is the licencing conditions, you need a full licence per VM (unlike Linux where you can crank out as many as you wish). Plus it's a pain to get Windows booting off a pendrive as Linux can. I don't know if W10 makes it significantly easier to run on USB, there was some progress with that in W8.
Yes, I agree. But has there been any proof with W7, like W10 for privacy invasion? I'm not saying there isn't. Anything is possible with M$.
No, so far nothing substantiated that I have seen. I'm sure 7 is fine. Just saying... things are changing.
No proof as of yet with Win 7. I'm getting to a point where I don't trust M$ anymore, the more I read about Win 10.
all we know is that NSA "helped" with windows 7 development, is that a proof for a backdoor exploit? of course not.
I'm not so concerned about any backdoor exploit, but more with what they might be doing with the current W10 related updates, in the name of preparing for W10. Is there any telemetry being sent from W7 systems back to MS? That I don't know.... but it would not surprise me at all. But of course, no proof and nothing discovered as of yet.
It has been proven that Microsoft has a backdoor built into Windows Vista, 7, XP, and probably any release since 95. There was that case where, even if your Windows Update settings were set to automatically, Microsoft silently updated your system. www.informationweek.com/microsoft-updates-windows-without-user-permission-apologizes/d/d-id/1059183? http://slated.org/windows_by_stealth_the_updates_you_dont_want There was also that case where Microsoft removed Tor from 2 million users. http://blog.insecure.in/?p=1373 http://www.dailydot.com/technology/tor-botnet-microsoft-malware-remove/
Wow... I had not heard of any of those... According to some reports, Win 10 will also remove or disable pirated games and certain pirated items I guess... Taking some liberties, eh?
I really don't know what Microsoft will pull with Windows 10, but I wouldn't complain if it started removing pirated stuff from Windows users. Music, programs, games, TV series, movies, anything and everything It would be awesome!
