Stop Windows 10 from spying on you

And a few tips...


I found this program and figured I'd post it. There are many paranoid ATS members who might like the added security. I took the plunge and quickly reversed back to Windows 8 before getting a chance to try the program, so I apologize if it doesn't work for you.

A brief description,

DoNotSpy10 is the world’s first anti-spy tool for Windows 10. Its straight-forward user interface allows you to manage how Windows 10 respects their privacy. Microsoft introduces many new “diagnostic” features with Windows 10. These services help Microsoft collect usage data and thus to provide a better service.

However, collecting and sharing your data with one of the world’s leading technology companies puts your privacy at risk. There are services which are able to record your keyboard input, your speech and any other actions of the user. Others share your WiFi credentials with your contact or connect you to networks shared by your contacts.

DoNotSpy10 provides you with the opportunity to easily manage what you want to share and what not. While many of the settings represent what you can configure using the Settings and various other apps, there are also tweaks that are not easily accessible through the apps Windows provides. DoNotSpy10 combines them all in one application.

DoNotSpy10 from pXc-coding

Below is a video I found while writing this thread. Apparently there are more programs available, but I can't guarantee their effectiveness.

WARNING: These programs have not been tested by me and have not been scanned for spyware. Use at your own risk!

1. Destroy Windows 10 Spying Link

2. Disable Windows Tracking Link

3. DoNotSpy10 Link

4. Windows 10 Privacy Fixer Link

5. W10Privacy Link (German)

6. O&O ShutUp10 Link

I'm always skeptical when it comes to Microsoft, but have remained loyal to their product. I have used only Windows and do not install any monitoring software. I rely on a couple of on-demand, portable programs to detect and remove things things that were uninvited.

If you haven't already, get yourself a solid state hard drive and as much memory as you can afford. After a new OS install, I immediately create an image with a paid version of Acronis. Here's a link to Macrium's free imaging software. Remove Internet Explorer and most other Windows features. Palemoon becomes the browser of choice accompanied by AdBlock Latitude.

Remove all unnecessary start up programs and tasks from the scheduler. I use Norton Uninstall Tool and a paid copy of Revo, here's a link to the free portable version, to remove all unwanted programs. I suggest you download the appropriate removal tool to help thoroughly remove preinstalled software. Here is a link to the most popular.

After tweaking my security and usage settings, I use CCleaner portable to sweep up the mess. Go to this link, save the page as a .txt file and add .ini to the end of the file name. Place this file into CCleaner's main directory and the cleaning capability will increase tremendously. Just make sure to check the newly added programs under the applications list.

You can get Windows down to three partitions if you install your recovery partition onto a thumb drive. Its easy, takes about thirty minutes or less, prompts you to delete the partition afterwards and automatically extends your primary partition into the unallocated space. Run CCleaner after, defrag and restart.

If you have two conventional disk drives, put your page file onto the second drive. If you have a SSD as your primary and a conventional disk drive as your second, you can still move your page file, especially if you're running windows on a small 128GB SSD and want to reclaim some space, but would be better off leaving it on the primary SSD to take advantage of its lack of moving parts and speed.

I use Acronis to take multiple images during the process in case of a bad uninstallation. You should invest in good imaging software and realize how easy it becomes to avoid and repair any and all software failures.

If you decide to boot to CD or thumb drive, reformat your drive and perform a fresh, three partition install with no recovery, make sure you have one if not multiple images stored of Windows while it still had it's fourth recovery partition.

If your hard drive fails or you can't boot to the desktop, you will never be able to reinstall windows without the thumb drive you copied the recovery partition onto and will have to resort to third party software.

Luckily, reinstalling Windows from the recovery thumb drive will reformat all existing partitions and reinstall the fourth recovery partition back onto your hard drive. Don't lose that thumb drive if you don't have a saved image!

I hope this helps some of you and without running Windows 10, I can't validate that these programs do what they say. If someone is willing to test them out and report back, it would be appreciated.

Quite a while ago I got some hacking software to make it so others couldn't hack into the computer. It worked but it messed up the ability of the operating system to update itself and led to some strange deficiencies as time went on. I formatted the harddrive and redid it.

Does anyone know of any equivalent programs for OSX and iphones? I know windows 10 is bad but Apple software just as bad but Im unaware of how to stop OSX and iphones from spying. As we know, any kind of personal assistant requires keylogging and data recording to work. But as with iphones for example, most spying features have no options to turn off unlike windows 10 (for some features). How can users stop their iphones from spying without totally destroying them?

I used 'donotspy10' and it seems to have done most of what I want apart from removing system apps. This can be done manually through powershell though so not all bad. I never use mail, internet personal assistants etc on windows or OSX anymore. That is reserved for linux.
In fact I have realised that I have no use at all anymore for OSX, and only use windows now for games. EVerything else is linux.

a reply to: eisegesis

A lot of the information you provided here, although very helpful, is far outside the average users skill-set. Not many users are going to have the will to do all those extra steps simply for installing an OS. As far as software faults, I've never had an OS every become entirely unusable. If I did, it was a simple re-format away. I think the best advice for anyone getting a new system or installing a fresh OS, is to make sure they put all their sensitive information on a non-system hard drive, whether it's external or not. If anything goes wrong, you don't have to worry about the re-format wiping your sensitive data, it'll already be somewhere else.

I much prefer my method over creating an image and recovery partitions which I'll likely lose the key for anyway. That's my two cents.