Windows 8.1 Telemetry/Spy/Win 10 preparation updates removal

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I haven't done a re-install for a while and am about to do it for Win 8.1 x64. I want to remove all Telemetry/Spy/Win 10 praparation updates that get installed during windows update. I plan on just installing as normal, then doing Windows Update and installing all updates. After that I was going to run the following script (which seems up-to-date) to remove any unwanted updates. I also plan on running the SimpleWall firewall (https://www.henrypp.org/product/simplewall) which includes an internal Windows spy / telemetry blocklist (NOTE: this firewall is based on WFP, which is what Windows Firewall uses, but it is separate from Windows Firewall).

https://gist.github.com/AACJ/48a019ba0708a92d4ba60cc202d55e47

Any other tips before I start ?

I had planned on doing a Win 10 x64 LTSC install, but it won't get updated until the next released in spring, so I'll do another install then.
 
I suppose it comes down to a matter of trust. So far I trust the WSUS guys - first, there's a big community there, watching over the KBs. Second, the main guys are German. And Germans tend to obsess about such things. Third, they publish quite a list of KB's they include - and remove. If I cared enough, I could check their list.

So I'm trusting that they include hotfixes for bugs - at least bugs related to security. So far, my Win7/8 efforts have worked fine. So I'm content.

(And too, I run Comodo Proactive Firewall. It lets me know if Windows stuff tries to phone home.)
 
Comodo is what nuhi is using. (Last time we talked about it.) Also, our wonderful USA NSA complained (in a WikiLeaks release) that Comodo was thwarting some of its hacks.

Sounds like a good endorsement.

Oh - and back to my previous comments about WSUS Offline Downloader: Not to take anything away from nuhi, but he's only one guy (and a busy one at that) looking at a list of KB's. Whereas there are lots of eyes looking at the list that WSUS Offline curates.
 
pmikep said:
Comodo is what nuhi is using. (Last time we talked about it.) Also, our wonderful USA NSA complained (in a WikiLeaks release) that Comodo was thwarting some of its hacks.
Click to expand...

And GCHQ too then, great! Anytime big brother gets a knee in the nadgers im happy. They actually called our state snooping laws the most draconian in existence, in britain for crying out loud.

There are too many tools to get updates, best is whatever works for you.
 
pmikep said:
Oh - and back to my previous comments about WSUS Offline Downloader: Not to take anything away from nuhi, but he's only one guy (and a busy one at that) looking at a list of KB's. Whereas there are lots of eyes looking at the list that WSUS Offline curates.
Click to expand...
There are many blind eyes at wsus, i used for some time until i found out that they have also about 10%-20% superseeded updates in their Win 7 lists.
 
pmikep said:
So Kasual, whose list of KB's do you think is best? IIRC, you were keeping a list yourself. (I bet that's a lot of work.)
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I stopped updating my list because i ran out of time and also nuhi's list is tested and very complete.
There are many computers that needs extra updates before installing drivers and others need to integrate before installing the OS.

These days i have been busy updating component names in the thread 'What and why not to remove (one component has been split and need to verify too)' and 'bughunting' and hope to have some time soon to check my list but there is a detected issue already when removing Windows Search but skipped that update.

Would you like to test this for me (because i want to make sure is not just me):
Open NTLite, click the header Preset for sorting once or twice
Now try to load an image edition

If you have an image loaded, click the header Preset for sorting once or twice and now try to load a preset or select a preset and look at the toolbar.
 
pmikep said:
Yeah, Orwell had it right about Britain and Ingsoc. It's just that he was 40 years too early.
Click to expand...

Wasnt he just. Seems you can only get Comodo Free Firewall offline installer as part of the Suite which is fine, ZoneAlarm stopped doing offline installers and that killed it for them(the bootstrappers often failed on me), users were very vocal and very unhappy.
 
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I like the offline installer better than the online installer. (I never know what an online installer is up to.)

If you install Comdo, be on guard for a few things: On the first window, it offers to change your DNS settings, browser, etc. Deselect everything there.

Then, at a tab on the top of the window, it asks what you want to install. I install the firewall only. (Not the antivirus.)

After the firewall is installed - and before a reboot - I spend about 5 minutes disabling a bunch of things and customizing it.

I should probably make a video of the process. But here's my config file that will give you an idea of how I set it up. (My internet settings probably won't work with yours. But this will show you all the things I disable.)

As usual, remove the .txt extension from the file to get the base cfgx.
 
Kasual said:
Would you like to test this for me (because i want to make sure is not just me):
Open NTLite, click the header Preset for sorting once or twice
Now try to load an image edition

If you have an image loaded, click the header Preset for sorting once or twice and now try to load a preset or select a preset and look at the toolbar.
Click to expand...

I made it past the first test okay. That is, I clicked a few times to sort the Presents in ascending, then descending, order.
At first I couldn't "forget" my previous image folder. But that worked after a while and I was able to load a new image.

But I failed the second test. After an image is loaded, I tried loading a Present. I can't do it by double clicking on a Preset. Also, the "Load" button in the Toolbar is also grayed out.

However, when I clicked on "Last change," then I could load a Preset and the "Load" button came alive.

(But, as I reported elsewhere in the forum, sorting by "Last change" still does not sort the list.)

It seems like pointers go bad when the Preset list is sorted.

Tested with v1.7.1.6630.
 
pmikep said:
At first I couldn't "forget" my previous image folder. But that worked after a while and I was able to load a new image.

But I failed the second test. After an image is loaded, I tried loading a Present. I can't do it by double clicking on a Preset. Also, the "Load" button in the Toolbar is also grayed out.

However, when I clicked on "Last change," then I could load a Preset and the "Load" button came alive.
Click to expand...
* It didn't "worked after a while", you have "fixed" that by click on 'Last change'.
* Last change sort it by date, as it is by default.

Almost a month ago i found the issue (on nov. 15 load button was disabled) but i didn't know how to reproduce it until yesterday.
Thanks pmikep
 
Thanks for the cfg file pmikep. The problem with the ZoneAlarm bootstrapper is it doesnt download a single executable, it downloads them unpacked and the last time i tried i couldnt install from those files i had copied to another location. I use Task Manager(old version, not the new bloody awful one) or Process Explorer to see what the bootstrappers download and where that executable is running from. If i cant then i dont use that program. Good thing about ZA is its quick to setup and i can understand its easy gui, Comodo is complicated :confused:
 
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Yeah, Comodo is complicated and it took me a while to get my head around it, especially if you set it to be paranoid and always alert.

I run the Firewall in Custom mode, and HIPS in Safe. The rest of the features are turned off. That minimizes most of the Alerts.

I use their Sandbox for browsing the web and for running Slack Portable. A little easier than doing it from a VirtualBox VM, where I have to install an OS, etc.
 
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