Windows7/8 - Updates to hide to prevent Windows 10 Upgrade / Disable Telemetry

Posted a few days ago:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...isable-telemetry.780476/page-78#post-10228106

 

sorry, must of missed that post.

 

not a problem at all bro

 

Kb2976978 preparation for Windows 10 upgrade popping up in Windows update again . I lost count how many times this makes now.
I'm on 8.1 .

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

Perhaps this tool will interest some of you. I use it on a Win10 machine I'm forced to run for work -but I just noticed the Spybot Anti-Beacon is now compatible with Windows 7, 8, 8.1 so I installed it on my Win7 machine as well. Peace.

https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/

 

Just as a heads up, it's often frowned on to run such software on work computers, the IT staff gets upset - you aren't trusting their configuration options - security is their thing.

It can get you in a lot of trouble, or at least get you unwanted attention.

If you have a good relationship with a tech service person, discuss it with them - adding security software to the system - and what you like to use and why.

It's really up to the IT staff to do their job to protect the company. Not saying they won't appreciate the help - but mostly they won't

If they are running things right, they will get a report on each computer every night as to what is installed that isn't part of the standard image, and they will get alerted - whether they pay attention to it is one thing, whether it gets you in trouble is another.

Read the IT PC software rules well, it can get messy if you don't pay attention to them.

Thanks for the heads up about Windows 7

 

Is Personal PC use telemetry, while connected to the internet participating in social media, considered fair game for monitoring and collection by the CIA?

CIA Tech Firm Seeks More Social Media Spying
By Tom Risen April 15, 2016, at 6:05 p.m.
Venture firm In-Q-Tel has reportedly invested in startups to advance the CIA's online monitoring.
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles...irm-seeks-more-social-media-spying?int=998208

"In-Q-Tel's new startup investments would make it easier for the CIA to collect and analyze data to give people "so-called threat scores" based on their online speech, personal contacts and other activities, says Lee Rowland, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. Large-scale social media surveillance by law enforcement occurs whether or not people have committed a crime, she says.
...
The Intercept report noted that In-Q-Tel has also developed a site called Lab41 in Silicon Valley to help intelligence agencies process large amounts of data. Lab41 in February published an article on its site explaining how big data can be used to track a person's location through their contacts on Twitter.
...
Silicon Valley remains concerned that government efforts in the name of public safety could undermine cybersecurity or consumer privacy following leaks to the press in 2013 about broad electronic surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency.
...
"Mass surveillance of American's social media speech is both constitutionally problematic and a poor law enforcement policy," she says. "The courts have rightly recognized that when millions of bits of data are aggregated into a dossier about your behavior, that is no longer properly public and violates privacy rights.""

Typically data needs to be collected from both ends of a communication to confirm source and verify continuity of identity.

Which means corresponding telemetry collected from the communications device(s) would need to be time collated with the data collected from the social media sites being monitored.

Microsoft and the NSA
http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Microsoft_and_the_NSA

"Microsoft is actively colluding with the NSA. No software company has been quite as collaborative with the NSA as Microsoft has, e.g. in providing direct Skype access. But this is not the story which the media tends to tell; instead it focuses on companies like Facebook and Google.

Microsoft offers back doors at the operating systems level, not the just Internet/communications level; the NSA as a whole has come to share a bed with Microsoft (even staff intersections exist) and this technology giant, Microsoft, also receives payments for these abuses of privacy. e.g. from the CIA, based on clear disclosures (leaks).

The following articles cover examples of some of the ways in which Microsoft actively spies on people, directly (for its business interests) or as a proxy for governments."

 

Even with all the cooperation from Microsoft with the NSA / CIA / government agencies, apparently "enough is enough" with privacy invasions, Microsoft fights back?

Microsoft Challenges Justice Department Over Secrecy In Data Requests
by Lauren C. Williams Apr 15, 2016 2:41 pm
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/04/15/3769878/microsoft-sues-doj-for-data-gag-orders/

"In a bold move, tech giant Microsoft filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for hiding the government’s email data requests from the public with gag orders.

“This is not a decision we made lightly,” the company wrote in a blog post announcing the suit.

We believe that with rare exceptions consumers and businesses have a right to know when the government accesses their emails or records. Yet it’s becoming routine for the U.S. government to issue orders that require email providers to keep these types of legal demands secret. We believe that this goes too far and we are asking the courts to address the situation.

In the lawsuit filed Thursday with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Microsoft claims the Justice Department inappropriately uses the 30-year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to justify forcing data storage, email, and internet service providers into giving up customer data for criminal investigations.
...
“But based on the many secrecy orders we have received, we question whether these orders are grounded in specific facts that truly demand secrecy,” Microsoft wrote. “To the contrary, it appears that the issuance of secrecy orders has become too routine.”"

 

Quite often we will hear that government agencies have made so many hundreds or thousands of requests per year from places like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft, AOL, etc etc. for user private data.

And we think "that only affects a small % of the users", when in fact these requests aren't a 1:1 request - 1 request per user - quite often blanket requests for "ALL USERS" during a specified time period, often months (or years?) in duration - not just a single day or hour.

Here is an unusual disclosure of that "blanket request" based on time. Hundreds of requests, that disclosed MILLION's of users private activity data. Typically that fact is left out of the news reports. It's nice to see it finally disclosed, so we can all know what is going on.

Uber provided the USA information about 12 MILLION users
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...t-agencies-data-more-12-million-users-n555211

"Uber released its first ever transparency report detailing the information requested by not only U.S. law enforcement agencies, but also by regulators.

The ride-sharing company said that between July and December 2015, it had provided information on more than 12 million riders and drivers to various U.S. regulators"

What is Microsoft sharing of the Telemetry data being gathered?

 

For those of us that use Destroy Windows Spying or "DWS", as you might know the author nummer closed development of the current version in December 2015, and said he would be releasing a new updated version this year.

His last development twitter update:

Nummer ‏@nummerok
Mar 29 - Release DWS delayed until 04.30.2016 Bugs....

April 30th is next week

I likely won't be able to post a review / test results of the new DWS release as I am on other projects, so I encourage others to seek out the new release and test it on Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 to see how it works.

DWS might have a new name as well... I don't have a GIT or support site link for the new development.

It's going to be a first release, so there will likely be bugs, but please be supportive, there aren't many developments going on out there for controlling Windows telemetry and other background processes for all Windows versions, most devs focus on Windows 10.

As soon as I get a chance I will also post a review and info on the new DWS out at that time.

 

Another Victim of a forced Windows 10 upgrade...

Spoiler

 

Hosts file entries updated in OP with new tracking URLs.

Please update your hosts files and preferably add those entries to your router's firewall and watch how your internet becomes snappier

 

DON’T DO IT!” HaHaaaaaaaaa Yeah, true words http://hothardware.com/news/microso...-prompt-interrupts-meteorologists-weathercast

 

@Papusan @Mr. Fox @toughasnails

Pesky Windows 10 upgrade prompt pops up during weather forecast

 

Hello all. I have a question w/ respect to new updates (either important or recommended). How long do you usually wait on them before you install? For eg., the updates from I think 04/12 and 04/19 weren't on the main list, page #1... install, or just quit updates altogether?

Secondly, and just out of curiousity, who does the "figuring out" if any of these newer updates have telemetry or Windows10 hidden? Thanks in advance to whoever does that! Oh, and back to a previous post of mine w/ respect to the Net Framework (I think it is 4.6.1 or something like that). I read the entire MS Update page for that framework... I like how Phoenix stopped Framework at 4.5.2 (that latest framework, from 02/16, from what I read was laden w/ Telemetry and "beneficial" updates for Microsoft, not beneficial to the Civil Liberty & privacy-minded individual).

PS -Does anyone else think IE 9 is safe to use? I logged-in here using IE 9, versus Firefox (my typical browser), and had a pop-up or two. I use Malwarebytes and Kapersky (which I'd think would prevent that Ad garbage). Better scan my system. Sorry to digress. Thanks again, and have a good weekend!

 

AV and anti-malware software does not block popups...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I had no idea... but I never really thought about it until now (which makes sense). Richard Hendricks, I am not. Thanks

 

Only problem with this is that I.E.9 has to be downloaded with all security updates.Try doing that at Microsoft Downloads.

 

Stumbled upon this. KB3150513 http://www.ghacks.net/2016/05/05/kb3150513-is-another-windows-10-update-patch/ Better add it to the batch file with all the others It is going to be interesting what happens with these forced Windows 10 updates when July 29th hits. One can only imagine what M$ have planned for us

 

kb3035583 again today!

see attach., the info text is actually very misleading.

 

It is not. Us not upgrading from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 is an "issue". The update corrects this issue. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

 

Controversial Windows 10 Nag Screens Disappear July 30th. Finally... http://hothardware.com/news/controversial-windows-10-nag-screens-disappear-july-30th

 

^^^ all the "free" garbage and plague soon to fade into oblivion

 

Maybe better? all the "free" VIRUS+MALWARE and plague soon to fade into oblivion

 

Hi guys,

I am not a fan of registering for websites but this place seems worth it, I am a long time lurker, since July 2015, problems with Win10, long may it burn in hell,,,,

I should like to ask is there an updated list of ALL updates or a functioning tool one can aquire to remove and "repatriate" windows 7 and avoid all future updates regarding windows 10.

I ask as I am not a technoweenie, i have to educations first journeyman IT-Supporter and then as Journeyman Data technician- kind of a 5 year sysadmin education i took here in DK, now i teach networking, OS and diverse kourses at the same school, and some of my students look to me for advice. The only recourse I have is an older list of updates to avoid AFTER a clean reinstall of W7, as for me it is the only way to be sure, Nuke the site from orbit.

Sorry for the noob attitude but I don't have much to do with online communities,,, there is a lot of garbage out there, its easier most of the time to figure stuff out for oneself. But, for this I need assistance.

Thanx ppl,

wolfiedk

 

a list of the bad updates? Isn't this what's this thread is all about? did you even read it?

KB3150513 added to the list an batch file update to v2.1

 

Microsoft overhauls Windows 7 and 8.1 updating -- but don't call it a service pack

 

It's not a service pack. Service packs are static collections of updates. The convenience rollups are just that: rollups of the past month's worth of recommended (non-critical) updates. The idea is rolling updates so you only need to install one big update instead of a bazillion little ones.

I find it amusing. After stating that this wasn't going to happen, Microsoft did an about face and delivered it anyway. Probably because all of the GWX-related updates are "recommended" which means they are probably all rolled into the first rollup. Makes me wonder if they will be removed when WX becomes a non-free install.

In other news, any idea what KB3156417 might be? It was pushed out to WUSA today but the KB article for it doesn't exist.

Edit: the KB article went live. KB3156417 is the May rollup for Windows 7. It includes KB3155039 and KB3155218, neither of which have their KB articles up, yet.

 

The first one for Windows 7, that rolls up all changes since SP1 until April 2016 sure sounds like a static Service Pack Rollup, SP2 for Windows 7 as the article calls it. If the same is made available for Windows 8.1 then that would be SP1 for Windows 8.1

"We hope this monthly rollup update simplifies your process of keeping Windows 7, and 8.1 up-to-date."

Do these monthly KB roll-up's include the telemetry and Windows 10 update KB's? I assume so, as that would be another sneaky way of slipping them in when we are blocking and watching for KB's individually.

And, I had just read an article where Microsoft was quoted as saying they were going to stop the pressure on upgrades so close to the end of the free period, to make sure the Windows 10 update KB's weren't going out for install and detonation past July 29th; I guess this is their last ditch effort - if they do indeed include the Telemetry and Windows 10 Update KB's.

Hopefully this will all stop July 29th.

 

Exactly: monthly rollup. They change every month, unlike service packs which never change.

Good question. I've not seen the full list of fixes included in the full May rollup.

 

Lemme see if I can explain it better by example:

Say you install Windows 7 from scratch today. First you install the base OS. Then you install Service Pack 1. Then you install the May 2016 rollup. Finally you install whatever else needs to be installed.

Now, say you install Windows 7 from scratch on 30 July (perhaps to celebrate freedom from GWX). First you install the base OS. Then you install Service Pack 1. Then you install the July 2016 rollup. You don't install the May or June rollups; they will be part of the July rollup. If you install in December then you install the November or December rollup. Then you install whatever else after the most recent rollup is installed.

 

Therein lies the "sneaky", MS folding in all the bad stuff into an opaque package of GWX Windows 10 upgrade + Telemetry, outside our blocking tools view.

Ahhh, hopefully that's what they meant, usually they are rollup's just from the past month, every month, to avoid doing 4 different updates of all the individual patches.

I think you might be giving them too much credit, as a rolling rollup from SP1 days makes too much sense, so I ruled it out right away, after all, it's MS we are talking about.

That would also mean MS needs to provide both a long term SP1 to now monthly rollup, and a month only rollup, otherwise everyone would be downloading the huge rollup every month. There will be those that want to use the monthly package vs updating individual packages every month.

That huge SP1 to Current Month rollup might be a new Service Pack life-form, the dynamic "Service-Pack-Omega"

 

Someone should sticky these direct links towards the update themselves:

KB3125574 32-bits

KB3125574 64-bits

Courtesy of a fine gentleman at Overclockers Uk. Why do I think they need to be sticky somewhere? Because Microsoft did this:

Combine that with this:

And you have a recipe for disaster in which Microsoft will hold these updates "hostage" on their Update Catalog instead of having them available from the Download Center.

After the announcement 2 weeks ago about moving part of their KB updates on the Catalog with no alternative option from the Download Center I was expecting them to put the latest Windows Update Client there, to make it even more difficult for someone who wants to do a fresh install of Windows 7 SP 1 and bring it up do date. They threw "SP 2" however, which I think makes matter worse and I feel the urge to raise my pitchfork even higher.

To me, this looks like July 2016 rollup will contain only July 2016 hotfixes and not April-July combined. Which means the workflow will be more like this:

Install Windows 7 SP 1 -> Install KB3125574 -> Install May 2016 Rollulp -> Install June 2016 Rollup -> Install July 2016 Rollup.

Add Security patches in between since they are not part of the monthly rollups. Some of hotfixes might be superseded from one month to the next, some may not. Or just let Windows Update Client find all the updates from April to July and filter out the ones you don't need, i.e. Telemetry, Nagware.

We also need to wait until Microsoft outputs the entire list of KB's included in this pseudo-SP2. As some have speculated, there is a high chance they want to sneak in some of the updates that are completely unnecessary. They only put a .csv file on the KB article, but that contains all the files names that are being added/updated without sorting them to their respective KB rollout.

 

I compared the updates with the Simplix list of excluded updates and found only four, but the list in this thread is longer. Good luck removing them, I extracted the msu and got over 50000 files..
Here's the x64 list from MS Catalog:

Spoiler

KB2574819
KB2603229
KB2607047
KB2607576
KB2633952
KB2639308
KB2640148
KB2647753
KB2660075
KB2661254
KB2677070
KB2679255
KB2699779
KB2709630
KB2709981
KB2719857
KB2726535
KB2731771
KB2732059
KB2732487
KB2732500
KB2735855
KB2739159
KB2741355
KB2749655
KB2756822
KB2760730
KB2762895
KB2763523
KB2773072
KB2779562
KB2786081
KB2786400
KB2791765
KB2794119
KB2798162
KB2799926
KB2800095
KB2808679
KB2813956
KB2829104
KB2830477
KB2834140
KB2835174
KB2836502
KB2843630
KB2846960
KB2846960
KB2847077
KB2852386
KB2853952
KB2863058
KB2868116
KB2882822
KB2888049
KB2890882
KB2891804
KB2893519
KB2904266
KB2905454
KB2908783
KB2913152
KB2913431
KB2913751
KB2918077
KB2919469
KB2922717
KB2923398
KB2923545
KB2928562
KB2929733
KB2929755
KB2966583
KB2970228
KB2973337
KB2977728
KB2978092
KB2980245
KB2981580
KB2985461
KB2994023
KB2998527
KB2999226
KB3000988
KB3001554
KB3004394
KB3005788
KB3006121
KB3006137
KB3006625
KB3008627
KB3009736
KB3013410
KB3013531
KB3014406
KB3020338
KB3020370
KB3040272
KB3045645
KB3048761
KB3049874
KB3054476
KB3065979
KB3068708
KB3075249
KB3077715
KB3078667
KB3080079
KB3080149
KB3081954
KB3092627
KB3095649
KB3102429
KB3107998
KB3112148
KB3118401
KB3121255
KB3133977
KB3137061
KB3138378
KB3138901
KB3147071
KB3148851

 

Yes, using that huge single rollup will save time, and then run your favorite script(s) for removal and tuning after the fact.

It's untested whether it's better to do the individual blocking before install vs the mass uninstall after updates, some believe there are remnants left behind that are undesirable.

It's the way I already do it these days, no time to pick and choose everytime, so update then uninstall in mass.

Thanks for testing and figuring out it's clear you can't pick apart the rollup and pull the nasties out first.

Update: still not clear on this, as the post I replied to here listed the individual KB's that make up the Rollup, but it looks like they don't actually show up in the installed KB's list - you can't uninstall individual KB's that are part of the rollup KB.

If that's the case, which it looks like it is (see @SL2 post in reply above (below?)), then don't use these rollup's as they will include all the bad stuff and make them non-removable. MS!!!

 

I have only experience with uninstalling updates through the Control Panel, so I'm not quite sure what you're suggesting, but you will not find 113 updates in the Control Panel. This is after installing only KB3020369 and KB3125574 on a fresh install of W7 SP1 X64 Swedish:

After running WU for the first time you still have some updates there that are much older than KB3125574:

 

You should read the #1 post here

We maintain a list of Telemetry / GWX Upgrade KB's to not install / uninstall, and a script to do the uninstalls in bulk is listed for download as well.

Then there are the Aegis tools, DWS - Destroy Windows Spying for Windows 7,8,8.1, and I have seen others. Similar, but more encompassing scripts that uninstall the KB's but also disable scheduled uploads to MS and disable services that run to collect data. They also do more functions.

But, as you say, the KB's aren't visible broken out into the KB #'s rolled up - so they can't be individually installed - Boooo MS!!!

So it sounds like MS has figured out a way to stop us from blocking/uninstalling whatever they want to ram down our Windows Update... especially if they block downloading the individual updates from the past.

Its kind of nice, I can now turn off Windows Update, and forget about it.

 

Yes, my point was that if you can't uninstall individual updates from KB3125574 in Control Panel, can you still do it with scripts?
It doesn't seem like that, I just tried it.

If MS now starts to make one single msu for each month it will be much harder, or impossible, to avoid certain updates.

 

Yeah, no, the current scripts have to have a KB number as a reference for the uninstall command.

Unless MS provides visibility into the rollup for individual components - another reference number within the KB, which sounds like it might be possible, even should be possible, but I haven't seen anything.

It depends on MS's intent as to whether they will supply a way to pull out unwanted KB's from the rollup.

It doesn't seem likely...

If MS includes Telemetry KB's rolled up into these updates, and doesn't provide a way to get individual KB's, this is very bad news.

 

Well, this is still the Convenience rollup update, it's not meant to give you a lot of options.
While KB3125574 consists of updates that can be downloaded separately, that will most likely not be the case of future monthly updates.

Edit: It says the all in one monthly updates are only for non-security updates, so it might not be such an issue after all.

 

It's still not clear how this will fall out, at least for Windows 8.1.

Windows 7 is getting the SP2 that isn't a service Pack, that will rule out all those individual KB's for someone starting from scratch, rolled up all the way through April 2016 - so that will include all the nasties thus far.

Then moving forward, any wet dream they get for invading our privacy will be bundled with *needed* updates, and the only way to block them is to block them all.

Until someone goes in and starts pulling apart the vile matter and uninstalling or nullifying it on a registry and file level, vs the "convenient" method of uninstalling individual KB's.

Nice move MS!!!

 

Have you checked? Can't you download those 113 - x updates individually?

Probably not, the bundles are only for non-security updates. See my edit.

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com...17/simplifying-updates-for-windows-7-and-8-1/

 

Like I said, resolution is unknown to me right now, this is all just now unfurling in front of us, there isn't enough info - and it's a changing picture, and I have no time / access to gather the info.

I'm not set up for getting deep into Windows 7 / 8.1 right now, maybe later, it seems you are on the right path to pursue this to a definite end, so please continue. I will watch for your and others updates

I am on Linux based issues now and for the foreseeable future, at least until the SLI 1080/1080m laptop is delivered

BTW, I am sure this is one of those things that will seem one way now, and then radically change over time. Potential is what I am responding to.

Also, security updates aren't all that add telemetry - many aren't considered security updates.

 

As far as I know, if you want security updates only, and being able to choose them individually, nothing has changed.

If you choose to use the Convenience rollup update, well then you won't have any options, you'll get all of the 113 updates.

 

As I added to the post, probably after you wrote this, the telemetry and GWX Windows 10 upgrade KB's aren't security updates, so they could be included in the roll up.

If they Telemetry / GWX Windows 10 Upgrade KB's are included in the Windows 7 rollup, then you don't want to use that, that's my point. And, if you can still do a fresh install of Windows 7, and if you aren't forced to use that Windows 7 SP1 -> April 2016 rollup I would be surprised.

You might be able to Hide that Windows 7 SP1-April 2016 Rollup KB, and see if the normal individual updates show up in Windows Update, but I doubt it.

All things to check

Have fun

 

I searched for like 10 out of the 113 updates in Catalog, they all gave me results.
MS is just giving us more options with this update, even though it's not the kind of options people in this thread are looking for..

 

And, what I meant about now and over time this position might change, is that for now the individual updates are available, but later maybe they won't be. That's where I was going with the MS!!

If it remains only an option, then we can warn people not to take advantage of those specific Rollup KB's. @Phoenix

 

Are any of the KB's listed in Post #1 here included in any of the rollups?

 

Oh I downloaded and installed it manually. I'd guess that if you hide it you might get soething else, just like when you hide MSRT and get an older version instead. Either way, you can still use Catalog, even though it's not that convenient.

I personally won't bother with that kind of speculation.

Like I said, at least four. Have a look.

 

If you have installed the rollup, and found it has 4 of the known bad KB's rolled up into it, I guess you are going to try to uninstall that rollup KB and try to install them individually, hiding the rollup KB and see if the individual KB's show up again?

You don't want to move forward with those KB's installed, and if there are more than just the 4 you found, you don't want those either.