Brought back so many memories with that notepad intro. You should do a video entirely like that for April Fools, it would be quite funny.

@THW69

8 ай бұрын

But in 360p, 4/3 and windows xp

@timetraveler0002

8 ай бұрын

notepad tutorials are among the top quality content tutorials

@elias9725

8 ай бұрын

You gotta also have Unregistered HyperCam 2

@SMGJohn

8 ай бұрын

Do not forget classic Windows Movie Maker blue background with comic sans font.

@ZergRadio

8 ай бұрын

How to I get rid of that damn Telemetry crap.

Thank You so much for being out there and teaching the average PC users to protect themselves! You are amazing!!

@macethorns1168

6 ай бұрын

This channel is clown world and they're giving you snake oil.

@embreis2257

4 ай бұрын

does it only apply to people who use _Edge_ as a browser? I haven't done this host.file thingy and my browsers don't annoy with with these 'notifications' or clutter

Just a quick reminder for anybody who notices addresses other than the default in hosts file, you might find some addresses of Adobe or some other companies, where most cracked software rely on the same way to block companies from blocking you from accessing their software.

@OnlyKaerius

7 ай бұрын

My host file is fairly gigantic, but it's not cracked software adding to it, it's spybot search&destroy, immunizing me from a bunch of known malicious addresses.

@Krazy0

7 ай бұрын

@@OnlyKaerius That's actually a nice way to prevent some malicious addresses, but how would it prevent new or other malicious addresses that can simply change its address, got any ideas?

@OnlyKaerius

7 ай бұрын

@@Krazy0Not really, you can't pre-emptively exclude bad sites before they exist, you'd basically have to disable the internet, or go to a whitelist-only solution, which would be very restrictive. So just complement with antivirus.

@Krazy0

7 ай бұрын

@@OnlyKaerius I remember there was a site that discloses the latest reported harmful sites, we might be able to have a simple script that scraps all the reported sites and then put it into that file, which in theory could make it work better, but I actually think having a local VPN-like program that blocks access to sites included in that list would be much better in terms of usability, I wouldn't want to have to scrap that site when I can simply have a script that prevents access to them in the first place rather than some file that I've to follow its protocol to setup the sites.

@Eloii_Xia

7 ай бұрын

So, according to your comment, if I block a specific host for Adobe (for example), should I be able to block license verifications and use any software without paying them? That sounds too easy XD. However, in 2017 and before, we only needed to change a few characters of the trial license key in a local file to use their programs for free. So, I don't know; this looks like a big mistake from Adobe ^^'

This is good but manually keeping the hosts file up to date is tricky. If you really want to block efficiently get a Raspberry Pie and install pie-hole. You can download lists of millions of domains that track or for some reason you might want to block. Out of the box, this blocked about 25% of my network traffic. The really annoying thing for me is that if that 25% is typical then roughly 25% of the worlds cost for internet traffic is being wasted on marketing and tracking that most of us don't need or want. That's our money they're spending and there's no law to regulate it...

@missivyplatinum

7 ай бұрын

I hadn't looked at it that way but I couldn't agree more.

@RezaQin

6 ай бұрын

Ah yes, get th government involved. Nothing bad will happen after that!

@missivyplatinum

6 ай бұрын

@@RezaQin lmaooo you heard about the FCC supposedly getting involved in regulating ISPs right 😭

@solitarelee6200

5 ай бұрын

Sometimes I go down a doom hole about how much completely needless trash like that is contributing to global warming and the depletion of finite materials and I have to go stare at a wall for a few hours. 8|

@m12652

5 ай бұрын

@@RezaQin lol when I talk about law I don't mean government. In the UK at least, law is a victim of government.

THAT was the most amazing instruction ever. I'm telling EVERYBODY how to do that and where I learned it. Thank you a million plus one Leo.

@macethorns1168

6 ай бұрын

Leo is exactly as tech knowledgeable as the "tracer T" kid.

Brilliant. I've just upgraded from Windows7 to 11 on a new laptop, using a local account. I'll add to the hosts file today. And thank you for including the text with the description!

Thank you very much for this!! I literally just finished a DNS section of a Udemy lecture that focused on the hosts file. The KZread algorithm blessed me with this video. Subbed, much appreciated!

I'm alright with that hosts thing, but at least you're making us aware so we're appreciative. Keep up the good uploads! :)

Except windows can and will ignore the hosts file when MS feels like it would negatively impact """security"""....... /EDIT And just as an FYI to anyone, "cloud" and "lifetime plan" in the same offer always going to end badly...... (we seen several examples of this already, cloud isnt free and you cant cover recurring expenses with a one time purchase)

@DFX2KX

8 ай бұрын

you can also block those sites in your router, too.

@jagdtigger

8 ай бұрын

@@DFX2KX Only if you have something that preferably can load lists from url, besides this is just a wack-a-mole game which simply doesnt worth it. If you can just ditch windows and avoid apple at all costs (they do the same thing)....

@SpaceCadet4Jesus

7 ай бұрын

​@@DFX2KXYou're router block list would run out of entries and your router would eventually slow up your network and increase it's workload.

@macethorns1168

6 ай бұрын

@@DFX2KX If blocking that list of a dozen sites was all it took to block "call home" then IT pros wouldn't have been fighting this shit for 7 years now.

@TheKetsa

5 ай бұрын

​@@SpaceCadet4Jesusso wrong

Imagine one of Microsoft Employee (those who closely work with Windows) watches this video, and on next morning with a update whitelist these tracking sites (even if listed in hosts) file...

@pcsecuritychannel

8 ай бұрын

Nah, they are more likely to use this tweak and thumbs up the video. That edge tab is everyone's dream.

@lkzMini

8 ай бұрын

@@pcsecuritychannelAgree.

@somerandomguy001

8 ай бұрын

@@pcsecuritychannel facts

@rizkyadiyanto7922

8 ай бұрын

not even microsoft employees want to be spyed on...

@luigideff

8 ай бұрын

​@@pcsecuritychannel😂😂

Cool Thanks for the addresses! You even had them in text in your description, making it easier to cut and paste! I actually did this for ads too. So most ads just come broken when I go to the web if not I try look at the source code and find their site and add it.

I highly appreciate that the list is right at the beginning of the video AND in the description, instead of scrubbing around to find such list.

@macethorns1168

6 ай бұрын

That was nice, yes, but it doesn't change that this "list" is useless as tits on a nun.

Great addition for more privacy. I also use Spybot Anti-Beacon that has some different features.

This is very well done, especially for people who aren't terribly computer savvy. Great job, thank you for making this, it's the kind of tutorial I will be sharing a lot in the future.

@macethorns1168

6 ай бұрын

Very well done for a "fix" that doesn't do jack shit.

@Stryker-K

10 күн бұрын

@@macethorns1168 It doesn't work for you?

absolutely rare rewind on the advertisement. well done internxt and TPCSC

The timing of this is amazing, I was just playing around and looking at the host file lol

Powertoys has a Host file editor in it. If you want things to be blocked, make sure the switch for each line you want to be enabled is switched to on.

Found your channel and really like your content. With this slight tweaks in the hosts file would this affect also the "news and interest" widget integrated in the windows taskbar?

Great! Keep them coming Leo. Much appreciated.

Already knew right where this file was but did not think of this. Brilliant

single handily one of the best video you probably ever posted on this channel, hopefully microsoft wont hide that folder or block access to it in a future update

@schnuus2006

6 ай бұрын

They haven't the last 25 years. If they might bypass hosts of their choice in future, they will completely give up trust of their Enterprise customers.

@macethorns1168

6 ай бұрын

Single handedly one of the most useless and worthless videos on KZread you mean.

I recently stumbled upon the Windows "news feed" when I accidentally hit Win + W. The amount and type of preloaded content in there is horrendous! But this trick took care of that too. No more BS content that I didn't ask for. Thanks!

Hey, thank you very much... And I am going to spread this with all of my friends and PC users. ❤❤❤❤

FINALLY!! Something on YT worth watching! Follow up. I just tried this and Notepad (as admin) will not save this file as a 'file', it will only save it as a .txt

@teutonicc

8 ай бұрын

after saving with the .txt go to rename and just remove .txt. will give warning but click ok

@brianburke3665

3 ай бұрын

Great! Thanks.

This is a great tip. Another great tip is Edge's most useful feature. The ability to download a different browser. 🤷‍♂

@Tnargav

6 ай бұрын

You can download a different browser without a browser too ;)

This is great. Many thanks for this !

An oldie but a goodie. Can be used to block ads an much more. Thanks for reviving this old true and tested method.

Nicely done! Thanks. I also use Pi Hole to block a huge number of add sites for my entire house (running on Raspberry Pi).

Thank you! This is a great hack to get rid of much of the garbage and tracking that have gotten me to mostly replace Windows with Linux for good after being the Kernel Dev lead on Windows 95 and leading other work at Microsoft so many years ago. I still have a couple Windows machines running, and this has worked great! Liked AND subscribed.

@lazygardens

6 ай бұрын

You can use /etc/hosts for much the same purpose.

@lazygardens

6 ай бұрын

@@lindenreaper8683 That might be better ... I remembered that /etc/hosts can't take wildcards.

@lazygardens

6 ай бұрын

@@lindenreaper8683 I bailed from Windows for personal use after Win95, although I have a virtual machine for the tiny bit of software that I couldn't get Linux to run.

@atlantic_love

5 ай бұрын

I call BS.

@lazygardens

5 ай бұрын

@@atlantic_love What is "BS"? Using the hosts file? Switching to Linux?

Done it on Windows 10 and it works... Thanks for the info👍

Dude hell yes I’ve been watching weird network activity from these domains and then I see this video. Thanks a lot !

I really likes Edge (as web browser), but i really hates all this telemetry from Microsoft. So... Im glad u sharing all this. Thanks!

@Kaliyaz_GT

8 ай бұрын

Yeah bunch of bullsh ads

@meninoesperto2773

7 ай бұрын

Why you like that shit?

Yeah, looks pretty good. Although a little bit of adblocking and tracker stopping is of course to do in every browser. And installing Pi Hole, but that's a different story.

Thank you for this one! much appreciated

Very well done, thank you. You now have another subscriber.

This is just bandaid advice. Yes it covers top level stuff like your browser, which is a good thing. Claiming it stops windows telemetry is overstating its use. You can block the IPs at the router level, just blocking the domain resolution on the computer is not enough. Also since windows 10, Defender has some addresses that it will block being saved into the hosts file, and some Defender updates that will just revert the file.

@pdmerritt

8 ай бұрын

this is very true but sometimes there are whole blocks of ip's that those names resolve to so i guess this is better than nothing.

@macethorns1168

6 ай бұрын

There exists no way to stop Windows telemetry unless you have W10 Enterprise, and even that's doubtful.

@mystixa

5 ай бұрын

Well thats just incorrect. Most of it can be stopped within windows itself. Then with a combination of internal and external firewalls all the rest can be taken care of as well. @@macethorns1168

I've been using a custom hosts file since I first learned of it, way back in like 1997. I found quite a few custom hosts files that people compiled to block porn, spam, tracking, etc, then customized those for my own purposes. Very handy information to have.

@DR_1_1

6 ай бұрын

This was the way to go before AdBlock and browser's integrated blockers... The issue is that they change their IP addresses on a regular basis, and you have new companies adding to the list all the time! I also have a 20 years old hosts file, I keep adding lines from time to time (even have google there, but it's almost impossible to block them, that way, too many variable IPs !)

@deebee201

6 ай бұрын

Really, do you know where I could find the host file made for anti-tracking

@macethorns1168

6 ай бұрын

Idiocy. These entries aren't going to block Windows from calling home.

@deebee201

5 ай бұрын

@@DR_1_1 but won't blocking the known numbers mitigate some of the traffic? And why hasn't automated a program that will look at current Google IPs and auto add them to fire wall block list

@PeterMoore350

5 ай бұрын

same. Since late 90s also.

Super, super advices. Thank you x1000 times!

We need more vids like this please!

I'd be keen to see something similar for a Google Chrome browser on Windows...what can be 'blocked' without impacting functionality too much etc.

Best part is that if your hosts file gets too good then windows defender thinks it's a virus and then you need to add exception. Also don't remember to make a backup because it has happened to me that windows update thought it knew better than me what should be in hosts file.

the intro had me hyped because the notepad videos were always the best and in detail

Thank you for your research. I am now incorporating this into a standard business Win image to deploy.

You can probably make a script to run a hash of the hosts file upon reboot to alert you the moment it's been modified by some Windows update.

@Chuck8541

8 ай бұрын

I wish I could sync my pihole adblocker list to this host file. It would relieve some of the burden of the tiny pihole. I could then toggle domains on and off for troubleshooting and testing.

@SpaceCadet4Jesus

7 ай бұрын

Waste of time. The host file hasn't changed since Windows 95, decades ago.

If it wasn't for Windows being the best os for gaming, I would switch to Linux in a heartbeat.

@casualgambit674

8 ай бұрын

they keep linux gaming in the dark on purpose lol capitalism ruins everything

@xXVibrantSnowXx

7 ай бұрын

I wouldn't

@abidkhairy..3863

7 ай бұрын

I'm dual booting windows rn, with mac tho...

@gawlhysm

7 ай бұрын

Same here

@shroomer3867

6 ай бұрын

It remains the best because certain companies are just plain lazy or specifically unsupportive of Linux. I’ve made the jump back when there wasn’t even BattleEye support for Linux and everything on my steam library was playable and at same or better performance than Windows. The only game not being able to run on it is currently Valorant because of its kernel level anti-cheat. But otherwise, almost all high-fidelity games are able to be played right and at even a better performance than on Windows due to less bloat on the CPU during gaming.

I used this tactic to keep my children away from certain sites back in the day. It can work really well.

@YoloTub3

7 ай бұрын

Meanwhile I used proxy sites to bypass this tactic when I was a child. It works really well.

@redi6460

7 ай бұрын

As a child I never had access to computers, didn't go very well.

@rct999

7 ай бұрын

Really? Do browsers even use the host file?

@kirilbarbov6949

7 ай бұрын

@@rct999 Yes, they do. I use it on a daily basis for testing client websites at my work. Everything on your entire system that connects to the internet will use the settings you have configured in your hosts file.

@rusername

7 ай бұрын

@@rct999 yes? a lot of viruses use host file to block some websites

Thank you! I anticipated this video! I actually also use the hosts file to block ads!

@SpaceCadet4Jesus

7 ай бұрын

Unless you use other ad blockers, this is highly ineffective.

daamn. this showed up on homepage and started playing, i saw the notepad intro and got in for nostalgia, stayed for information

The host file is a legacy feature of TCP IP that was used to translate host name to IP address before the existence of DNS. I use the loop back address in a host file as an add blocker.

Added these to my Pi-hole thanks!

This is gold! Why did I not think of that?

Thats a very interesting sponsor. I rarely see a non subscription service for cloud services nowadays.

Great video. Do you have any advice on removing Cortana and disabling the creepy Viva Insights emails?

i think they know about this. I did it and for about 10 seconds it worked, then the background image loaded, then one by one the settings menu on the top right populated, then the stories and advertisements filled in. It was kind of cool to watch.

Thanks! I put these entries on my Mac too since I use Edge for MacOS once in a while.

Thanks for this info! I found a thousand or so dead DNS entries put in my hosts file by a freeware spy blocking program too. I hope this won't impact the performance of my local web server running on port 80!

Thanks, this encouraged me to use linux even more

The only point i miss on these tutorials is that the machine still using compute resources to try this requests even if its going to timeout on loopback. Its really anoying especially if you have a computer with limited resources.

@thedavistheory7674

8 ай бұрын

Agreed

@marpintado

8 ай бұрын

This could be better: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole_(networking)

@cldream

7 ай бұрын

That unfortunately is going to happen. If it's program to upload data to third-parties, it will, unless you have the source code to remove the functionality.

@DontUseALLCAPSInTheD.mnTitle

6 ай бұрын

Maybe use something like Windows 10 LTSC 2019 on a computer with "limited resources".

@macethorns1168

6 ай бұрын

It's fascinating to me that you know words like 'timeout" and "loopback" and believe that it's possible to work around M$ calling home with a dozen hosts file entries.

I sometimes use edge in windows 10 "Sandbox". After changing file as suggested, I found it stills works after creating a sandbox and using edge. Thank You...

This can be taken to the next level by checking your "netstat" in CMD and blocking all those pesky outgoing connections you don't recognize and don't want.

@macethorns1168

6 ай бұрын

And at that point you will find out just how fucking useless this videos recommendations were.

Muito bom, obrigado por compartilhar.

This info is gold. Thanks for share 🤜🤛

10/10 Tutorial. Thank you for this!

You can turn off new tab 'content' in Edge settings. It's under settings 'Start, home, and new tabs' and 'New tab page' then customize your new tab page layout and content. Content > off.

@jairo8746

8 ай бұрын

That doesn't prevent M$ from sending your data to third parties.

@309electronics5

8 ай бұрын

​​@@jairo8746but is there really a browser that does not do that these days? Many chromium browsers send data to third parties and advertisers

For Zone Alarm users: the hosts file is locked by the Firewall. Navigate to the Firewall's advance settings and uncheck a lock checkbox. After saving the hosts file check the lock back

@AnIdiotOnline

7 ай бұрын

lol zone alarm, haven't heard of that software for about 20 years!

@Skank_and_Gutterboy

7 ай бұрын

I was wondering why I couldn't get it to save. Thanks for the post!

@barryallen1100

7 ай бұрын

It's a virus itself. Everything is under the zone alarm network. Secure browser, can't delete that. Everything is managed by itself forcefully... Tried uninstalling it but not able to delete everything.

@Anthony_Zakgaim

7 ай бұрын

@@barryallen1100 The hosts file is protected by OS. A Browser cannot access it (and a computer's file system in this respect) by definition. But if a hacker can get administrative/elevated privileges on a machine than he can modify the hosts file. That is why Zone Alarm (the best Firewall and Antivirus on the market) locks it.

Amazing, thank you so much!

Thank for the information and bring old memories.

Very helpful, quick and easy pro-tip for blocking some MS data scrapping network bandwidth. Lovely presentation, too bro

@G6JPG

7 ай бұрын

Not just MS.

@macethorns1168

6 ай бұрын

You misspelled unhelpful.

@mukkah

5 ай бұрын

No I did not, because I didn't use said word. Clearly.@@macethorns1168

What always bugged me about some notepad tutorials is when it was a dude who had a mic and you can hear him typing xD like bro you are making this so much harder on yourself xD

@janbielecki9245

8 ай бұрын

Probably bad pronunciation

@kumariashamaki4151

8 ай бұрын

@@janbielecki9245 yeah thats my best guess.

That worked perfectly. Thank you.

Thank you, just worked :) [Even though I never use the Edge Browser, I wanted to put this little patch onto my computer]

Better than blocking using firewall rules... keeps unnecessary traffic off the network

I wpuld suggest to use a firewall solution or give pihole/adguard home a try. Windows bypasses this and modifies the host back

Great video as always

somehow it put a lump in my throat to see you record this on what looks like your actual work/home machine 😨 granted you are only editing the hosts file for this video, it feels strange to see a personal environment used for demonstration purposes. loving your video content and excited for both more of them and the malx project!

They must have updated things. It no longer works.

It's a good idea but it won't block everything. The security hole(s) are in the network stack portion of the Kernel. Microsoft provides certain state actors access via private encryption keys. They've already admitted to such things back in the Windows 7 days. There's no way to have a completely private Windows operating system.

@ripleyhrgiger4669

7 ай бұрын

They did not admit to anything like that and it's hogwash.

@tonyd4151

7 ай бұрын

ok bro, enjoy. :)@@ripleyhrgiger4669

@user-sw8vb2qo8y

6 ай бұрын

@@ripleyhrgiger4669 So, when 3-letter agencies came to Microsoft, they were told to pound sand, right? I also have a very nice bridge to sell you.

@cmerton

6 ай бұрын

This chucklehead's windows box is going to be owned less than 5 minutes after reaching the network!@@user-sw8vb2qo8y

@mesterjess

6 ай бұрын

@@user-sw8vb2qo8y I sincerely doubt the alphabets ever had to ask anyone at MS for that access - it's native. Their OS is called Windows for multiple reasons ;)

Thank you, very useful. Please keep making such helpful videos,

The notepad tutorial part was really funny but honestly, with nostalgia of notepad tutorials and my most favourite cybersecurity channel, I won't complain if you shift to making notepad tutorials.

Thank you

You could make a batch file to make rules to block those in windows firewall too.

@OvisTech

8 ай бұрын

Actually it's only possible to exclude IP addresses not domain names. Therefore the hosts tweak is the best free option.

@uemoi

8 ай бұрын

I wonder what you mean by "free option" Also also a domain is basically an IP adress with a name so what's the issue ?@@OvisTech

@OvisTech

8 ай бұрын

@@uemoi these days a domain can be many IP addresses that can change over time. That's the issue.

Good stuff! This worked!

Thank you, very helpful.

What would be interesting to try is setting up a local server and tracking all of the requests which would have gone to those sites

@emberframe6994

7 ай бұрын

That would be very interesting.

@Sypaka

6 ай бұрын

XAMPP does the trick and if you enabled error logging... yeah its gets crowded there.

@macethorns1168

6 ай бұрын

Simple: get Wireshark and monitor network traffic. You'll *very* quickly realize just how fucking useless and stupid the "advice" in this video really is.

In my experience Windows 10/11 really doesn’t like you playing with the hosts file. I had a pretty extensive hosts file and I ended up having to recreate the default by booting into a live linux USB because Windows 10/11 couldn’t resolve any domain name. Also Both Apple and Microsoft has been known to ignore their own IPs when it comes to reading their hosts files. I’ll have to give it another shot though because it’s been a while.

@raylopez99

8 ай бұрын

Let us know what you find. I'm also hesitant to play with the hosts file. Back in the 1990s there was a joke email / early internet thread that got passed around saying "delete this file in Systems it's a virus" and even though I knew it was a joke I deleted the file, after making a backup, but Windows would not boot up and I ended up having to do a clean reinstall (I had saved my data on floppy disks but it was still a several hours endeavor).

@kyanoang3l0_old

8 ай бұрын

No problems on my end so far. I also suspected it could cause probs so I backed up the default.

@Bacender

8 ай бұрын

I’ve been editing hosts files and adding redirects for literally the last 17 years in the IT field and have done so across massive 1000+ computer deployments and have never seen that happen.

@Chibibowa

8 ай бұрын

Or you can manipulate the install image and remove all telemetry modules and useless shit that comes bundled with microsoft :p. My windows image on my computer is as pure as it can get.

@yassinehani

8 ай бұрын

@@Chibibowa what you use to make it "pure" ? :3

I actually just added these hosts to my pfsense perimeter firewall. Now ALL my computers inside my network won't be accessing those 'spysites' and I won't have to edit any hosts files. Thanks for the tip- that's a good little list.

@delxiv

17 күн бұрын

Thank you for this. Just created the alias list and a new rule to block them. Worked - for 5 mins, then Edge somehow repopulated the main page later. Still keeping the pfsense entry though.

Brought back memories from the 90's when I was in college learning about DNS and name resolution. There is a setting that will determine the lookup sequence. Just can't remember it.

The hosts file should also be added to the exceptions in Windows Defender, otherwise it could happen that Windows Defender resets the file after the next scan. I myself use Pi-Hole for my local network to filter domains.

Does it still allow my system to show me the current weather in the task bar, and to automatically adjust the time? Edit: No, this fix also disables your weather information. If you want that feature to stay enabled, remove the "assets msn" line.

Dang, simple yet effective. Thx.

@SpaceCadet4Jesus

7 ай бұрын

Ineffective. The IP addresses for advertisement and for Microsoft telemetry changes way too much for a simple host file block. This video assumes all IP communication obeys or even uses that old host file which hasn't changed since Windows 95. That used to be the case eons ago.

Ohh I remember using hosts for cracking all kind of software back in the day, good memories!

You should know some Microsofts own dlls has the ability to ignore the hosts file. You could also try peerblock to block.

@HackerBusting

7 ай бұрын

can also upper decker your PC case

In Edge's new tab page, you can also switch the start page settings "Content" to "Content Off" and achieve most of this as well.

Thank you this video is really helpfull!

great video appreciate the effort, another nice thing you can do in edge is install a custom URL addon that lets you change New Tab to anything you want, although as soon as you install it, Edge will Lie to you and disable it for SAFETY reasons, you just have to go into your manage extensions and turn it back on, then click new tab and set it to what you want. Hope this helps someone.

Are there some other urls which we can add to stop google or any other telemetry??

What we all want to know is, WHAT system files are calling out to these sites? Blocking stuff with hosts file is just preventing a problem that already exists... I want to know what executables are making these calls. What dll files?

@Sypaka

6 ай бұрын

THIS. Is a good question. the next would be to patch those.

@thewelder3538

6 ай бұрын

@@Sypaka Precisely. It's likely to be some of the insane number of started services. The amount of services they've added since Windows 7 is just bonkers. Most of them no-body uses or will ever use. Just blatant spyware and data harvesting.

@macethorns1168

6 ай бұрын

That won't do any good, those system DLLs provide many other functions and there exists no way to stop them from spying while continuing to do their other jobs.

@thewelder3538

6 ай бұрын

@@macethorns1168 That's complete and utter nonsense. I patch stuff all the time to remove functionality that's not needed. That would be the same argument as patching a game protection and it not being playable afterwards. I've been coding a LONG time and if I knew what dlls to patch, I'd just debug and patch them. It's not even a big thing to do. It would have ZERO affect on their functionality unless their functionally was ONLY to do data harvesting and in that case, I'd patch the service that was using the dll to not use it at all. Patching a http/https call is no different than if you just blocked it with an entry in the hosts file.

@fuarkstyle

4 ай бұрын

@@thewelder3538 yup that's reverse engineering at its best.

thanks for the reminder, did it as i watched

It should be mandatory for all OS and softtware to keep an updated list of ALL the servers they connect to, with a destcription of which exact data is collected and transfered, its exact use and the people who have access to it. This the same way we are forced to present an ID to have a personal data/internet connection, to give an email address and even name, telephone number for many registrations online! And also options to disable the transfer of data when not necessary! *All that in a user friendly option menu, not like these cookies popup windows that block the access to most websites today* !!!

@krzychaczu

5 ай бұрын

For sure it's all covered somewhere in hundreds of pages of Terms of Service which nobody reads and just hits "accept".

@acehandler1530

4 ай бұрын

Compiling a mass of data like you suggest would cost some bucks - and you can be sure that the money-grubbers won't pay it. Do you want to pay to use the Internets (more than you do already)? Because that's what would happen - and once you subscribe...you're tracked! Lololol! Pay to have your personal info used, what a brilliant plan 😞

@douggale5962

4 ай бұрын

That would work in the days when there was competition. Price fixing is rampant, and big software companies are destroying all of the small software companies, so they can gain a monopoly.

Lifetime plans are great until they change their TOS or go out of business. Also paying upfront is usually a big no-no. Worth a look at the least, though.

@pcsecuritychannel

8 ай бұрын

They have monthly and annual plans too. I just mentioned the lifetime plan cause its the first time I've seen that as an option.