Compilation of items to disable

I haven't really found a solid thread or website that has a wip detailed list of things that should be disabled that's new to windows 10 or anything related to privacy concerns and thought this would be a great place to start.

Such a list should be informative of what each thing does, what it breaks and how to make the necessary change.

Here's some of the methods I've found floating around on the internet. These are currently organized in the order that I had performed them to eliminate any inconsistency with success.


"[GUIDE] How to disable data logging in W10" (Thanks C-Ron!)

reddit[dot]com/r/Windows10/comments/3f38ed/guide_how_to_disable_data_logging_in_w10/

^ with the link above, the list of ip addresses, I feel that this is something that is always going to be needed to be expanded upon.

---

Killing Cortana completely (my find):

Navigate to: C:\Windows\SystemApps\ - When Windows does not have real time protection on the files of the OS (I used linux)

rename the folder to something like "[backup]Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy" Incase a Windows update breaks this awesomeness later on.

Boot back into Windows and you'll see that Cortana is not running, you can simply right click and hide the remaining icons away. This is simple, clean and seems to have no effect on other functionality of the system.

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One Drive Remove Batch File (Thanks Lurking_Grue!) originally posted here:

reddit[dot]com/r/Windows10/comments/3f38ed/guide_how_to_disable_data_logging_in_w10/ctlndeh

Code:

@echo off
cls

set x86="%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\OneDriveSetup.exe"
set x64="%SYSTEMROOT%\SysWOW64\OneDriveSetup.exe"

echo Closing OneDrive process.
echo.
taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe > NUL 2>&1
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 5 > NUL 2>&1

echo Uninstalling OneDrive.
echo.
if exist %x64% (
%x64% /uninstall
) else (
%x86% /uninstall
)
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 5 > NUL 2>&1

echo Removing OneDrive leftovers.
echo.
rd "%USERPROFILE%\OneDrive" /Q /S > NUL 2>&1
rd "C:\OneDriveTemp" /Q /S > NUL 2>&1
rd "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\OneDrive" /Q /S > NUL 2>&1
rd "%PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft OneDrive" /Q /S > NUL 2>&1 

echo Removeing OneDrive from the Explorer Side Panel.
echo.
REG DELETE "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}" /f > NUL 2>&1
REG DELETE "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}" /f > NUL 2>&1

pause

^ This is simple, clean and seems to have no effect on other functionality of the system.


I have a couple of other ideas I came up with that should be worth a look into that require a lengthier write up which I will be doing in the next coming days. I wanted to get this thread started now so we can keep on-top of the privacy concerns as new Windows Updates are being forced down.

Looking forward to seeing all of your finds!

 

Does TNBT kill cortana completely to where its no longer able to run or does it still run in the background as a process but disabled? The method I listed actually stops it from running altogether and I haven't seen it break anything yet.

 

Killing Microsoft Edge:


Microsoft Edge does not appear to be a normal application. It's a Metro app (if I am not mistaken) and as far as I can tell, there's no perfectly clean way to totally strip it out at this time.

But with my method, this will keep it from executing in any way shape or form, even if a program were to point towards its new directory, it cannot run, period.

The path of Microsoft Edge is C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe

Your first step is to have the Take Ownership permission patch installed and take ownership of the SystemApps folder.

From there rename the folder [backup]Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe
Simply by renaming the folder this will prevent Microsoft Edge from running.

If you want to get more to the root of metro and halt all of its garbage from having even an opportunity of running, they all pretty much rely on Runtimebroker.

"The Runtime Broker is responsible for checking if a Metro app is declaring all of its permissions (like accessing your Photos) and informing the user whether or not its being allowed. In particular it is interesting to see how it functions when paired with access to hardware, such as an app’s ability to take webcam snapshots. It's serves as a middleman between your apps and your privacy/security."

(I bet there's a reason why Edge, the new photoviewer are laid on by default running through Metro and they cannot run without broker, probably some privacy invasive interception capability nonsense behind it.)

anyways, what i'm rambling on about is, if you wanna get to the chokehold of killing metro and broker, you need to have a replacement shell installed and being used, because broker controls your start menu too! (creepy, i know)

I recommend classic shell 4, do a customized install and uncheck the classic internet explorer. It's a very clean and resource friendly alternative with tons of customizable options.

Once you have this installed, you can navigate to C:\Windows\System32\, take ownership of the file and rename runtimebroker.exe to runtimebroker.bak and kill the process from task manager.

From this point forward, Metro apps will not able to run. By doing this change, you are also going to be receiving a delayed start up time performance hit because windows is going to be searching for this at start up and it has a timeout till it reverts to a previous means of displaying information. (I feel the added delay and some minor loss of functionality is worth the extra added security).

The only thing I see that broke after classic shell being installed is left clicking on the time in the task bar, you can no longer use the calendar.

If you use shift+windows key to see the metro start menu, it will not launch. However whats funny, is if you were to right click on the time in the task bar and choose adjust date / time, you can still access the metro like settings menu to where windows update is and all.

To me, my wonky stripped concoction is just what I wanted. <3