List of "Things to Do" Immediately After a Windows 10 Installation

On my Win 10 x64 ent 10.10240 SCHEDULED TASK "BackgroundUploadTask" located at :

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tasks\{18E3AD12-4E0A-4293-AE32-2B1F14BF8C9C}

I think it must substitute the address registry manually.

What kind of work is done BackgroundUploadTask?
Correctly off this problem in such a way?

 

Is there a way for someone to "preconfigure" Win10 using something like nLite/vLite to have all this stuff done in advance of installation.

1) Take untouched ISO of Win10
2) Modify the ISO in order to render it safe and functional
3) Distribute ISO

?

 

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Thank you for the explanation.
Probably it depends on the edition of Windows. I have 2 computers on Win 10.240 x64 Ent (not LTSB)
And in both the address {18E3AD12-4E0A-4293-AE32-2B1F14BF8C9C}

 

Noticed a program that supposedly helps with privacy.
http:// pxc-coding .com/portfolio/donotspy10/
I haven't tried it myself.

 

donotspy10 is a trap...
It comes with OpenCandy!

 

When installing, I noticed mention of OpenCandy. Thought that was weird.
Here is a copy of the notes I made while installing and briefly afterwards. I installed in VirtualBox and made a snapshot of the VM before installing, so if something is fishy, hopefully I can cleanly undo it.
=====1:59 PM 8/6/2015

DoNotSpy10-1.0.0.1-Setup.exe
Win 10, 64bit
VirtualBox
Internet connection disabled

There was some mention of Open Candy. Sounds like bulls**t ware, but there was no options

for toolbars or other bulls**t ware.
Install finished OK.
First run.
Do you want to create a Restore Point?
I thought System Restore was disabled in Win 10.
Chose Yes.
Got box service can't be started...
also box showing a system restore point being created. with progress bar.
I clicked OK on the first box.
Main program windows appeared.
Some items were already checked by default:
Disable Access to Language List, Disable App access to Account Info, Disable Windows

Feedback Requests
Why were these checked?
Help button did not work. Nothing happened.
Not sure about the purpose of the Discard button.
Chose Check All. Apply.
Nothing much happened that I could see.

[Edit -- Before installing, I scanned the file with Avira and AVG. Neither reported any problem.]

[Edit 2]
Checked the privacy settings and noticed a few odd things:
Settings > Privacy > Contacts
Choose apps that can access contacts
App connector--On
Mail and Calendar--On
Windows Shell Experience--On
Why were these on? I thought the privacy app turned off everything.
I manually turned these off.

Feedback and Diagnostics >
Send your device date to MS--Basic
Noticed this setting was grayed out. Could not be changed.

Background Apps
Let apps run in the background
Noticed all these were turned on. Seems odd. Not sure, but seems like when I originally went through these settings, I would have turned them off.
I manually turned everything off except Settings.

[Edit 3]
Did a search for "DoNotSpy10" on MDL forums. Got 2 hits. But got error message when I tried to access the links. "Invalid Thread specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator"

Noticed the following note:
"The installer uses the OpenCandy monitzation platform which will donwload and install offers in the setup for potentially unwanted software including ad/search-supported toolbars."
http:// www. herdprotect. com/donotspy10-1.0.0.0-setup.exe-721f5b8c9986ba8e034e739e02920b1609016d6e.aspx

Perhaps the reason I did not get any offers to install other OpenCandy-related bulls**tware is that I was offline, disconnected from the Internet when I installed the program. I almost always go offline when I install software.

 

Can the task be deleted outright? Or must we settle for disabling it?

 

I am embarrassed. I should have done more research before installing that program. I hope my mention of the program did not cause anybody else to install it. I did some brief reading about OpenCandy. From what I've read so far, it is not strictly speaking a type of malware. From what I've read, it seems to be a somewhat underhanded and sneaky way of monetizing software. It seems harmless as long as one does not download and install any crapware that it suggests. Seems to be more bothersome than harmful. That's my take on it so far.

Maybe the program could be of some use to coders here who could get some ideas from it on how to hobble Win 10. It's not open source, so its code can't be directly examined. But maybe it could be reverse engineered?

The author should have known that geeky people get the heebie-jeebies when they encounter OpenCandy. He should have at least been up front and mentioned beforehand that offers would be made.

 

Yes, it can be deleted completely, but I don't think you should do that.
A Windows Update could bring it back (which will be enabled by default).
If the task is still present, there is a smaller chance that it will altered by Windows Update.

 

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@ericgl, you seem very knowledgeable. Would you be able to figure out the registry path for "Show most used apps" and "Show recently added apps" options from Settings>Start please? My most used apps and recently used apps do not appear in the start menu. Many people on reddit reported having same issue as me, that if u turn it off once, it's turned off for good for some reason. I figured maybe the switch doesn't work to turn it back on, but if it's done in registry maybe it would work.

Thanks

 

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This RegShot is a really useful tool thanks.

So I did some tests and I have some weird results...First of all, turning "Show Recently added apps" on and off does absolutely zero changes in my registry, so this one must be broken for some reason. Turning "Show most used apps" changes a registry key called "Start_TrackProgs". Now here is the weird part, this key should enable and disable "Most used apps" in the start menu, but it doesn't for me, what it does, is it changes whether the things you type in the "Run" are saved or not, it doesn't do anything to start menu at all. Hmmm no idea how to fix the start menu. I tried changing a lot of the registry keys in the folder where "Start_TrackProgs" is but nothing changes. Theres even a value called "EnableXamlStartMenu" (default 0) which is supposed to be some old version of the start menu, but changing that key to 1 does nothing (even when I restart explorer.exe or my computer)

 

Found a nice setting, in gpedit under user configuration theres a key called "Remove all programs list from start menu", this actually works once and the "All apps" is gone from start menu.

 

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I have a problem, I can't seem to rename or move folders(just folders, files work fine). Im not sure when the problem first started but I just noticed it now. I get an error saying " the file or folder does not exist". I tried Google, some registry fixes were posted but none worked. Would you happen to know a solution?

Edit:

After doing a long trial and error, I managed to fix my issue by deleting these four keys:

Code:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{2B20DF75-1EDA-4039-8097-38798227D5B7}]


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{2B20DF75-1EDA-4039-8097-38798227D5B7}\PropertyBag]


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{2B20DF75-1EDA-4039-8097-38798227D5B7}]


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{2B20DF75-1EDA-4039-8097-38798227D5B7}\PropertyBag]

Now I can rename and move folders again

 

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Nice, thanks (So you also had the issue with renaming folders?)