User Controls
Windows is a shit OS but i got something for you that'll make it better.
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2018-05-27 at 1:28 PM UTCAll the T&T regulars know i don't like Windows for multiple reasons. One of the biggest being that you basically have no privacy with the OS. Like, at all. They collect data about you and there is constant telemetry going from your Windows Box to Microsoft servers and back. It's basically malware.
That said, i was with a friend of mine over the weekend and he has Windows on his PCs, needless to say i almost literally got cancer. However it did inspire me to make somewhat of a cure.
I combined some stuff, and scripted some stuff. In Batch even, i'm pretty bad with Batch i ain't gonna lie. But anyway, see the code block below for details. Now one last thing, i didn't do any thorough testing on it or anything, i just felt like making it. As far as the code goes, i am pretty sure it works though and i figured i'd share.
@ECHO off
color a
echo "Welcome, we're going to try to get Windows to stop spying"
echo "on you and try to make it generally less annoying."
echo "We'll first borrow some PowerShell functionality in order"
echo "to elevate the script's privs to Admin. With those privs"
echo "we will download PsExec and our other resources to the"
echo "System32 directoy."
echo "There they will be unzipped so that we can invoke our tools
echo "from the command line, or in this case a batch script, easily."
echo
echo "After each PowerShell operation i have a 'pause' statement"
echo "It's so you have a second to read if all went well thus far."
echo
echo "Anyway, after all of that the script will write out a second"
echo "Batch file, this Batch file contains the commands that will"
echo "make positive adjustments to your OS, like getting rid of needless"
echo "updates. And some things like Telemetry services that send your"
echo "data to Microsoft servers. Here is where PsExec comes in."
echo "Since it allows us to get NT Authority\System privs not even
echo "Windows itself can get rid of the changes we applied. And well"
echo "Just to be sure, we'll also add a Scheduled Task, that will"
echo "basically do everything i mentioned automatically, every week.
echo
echo "Well then... Whenever you're ready.
echo
pause
REM Get admin privs
powershell -Command "Start-Process powershell.exe -Credential 'USERDOMAIN\User' -NoNewWindow -ArgumentList 'Start-Process powershell.exe -Verb runAs Administrator'"
echo
pause
REM Off to the system32 directory we go
cd %SYSTEMROOT%\system32
REM Download the collection of 'BlockWindows' scripts we need
powershell -Command "(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('https://github.com/WindowsLies/BlockWindows/archive/master.zip', 'master.zip')"
echo
pause
REM Lastly we download PSTools, among which PsExec will be the most interesting to us
powershell -Command "(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('https://download.sysinternals.com/files/PSTools.zip', 'PSTools.zip')"
echo
pause
unzip master.zip
unzip PSTools.zip
REM Here we write our secondary Batch script out
echo "@ECHO off" >> autoblock.bat
echo "echo 'Invoking all auto-blocker scripts.'" >> autoblock.bat
echo "pause" >> autoblock.bat
echo "call BlockWindows.bat" >> autoblock.bat
echo "call hosts.bat" >> autoblock.bat
echo "call hosts2.bat" >> autoblock.bat
echo "cmd /C 'DisableGWX.reg'" >> autoblock.bat
echo "cmd /C 'DisableWiFiSense.reg'" >> autoblock.bat
echo "cmd /C 'HideWindowsUpdates.vbs'" >> autoblock.bat
REM This operation creates an automated, scheduled task, to run the script we wrote out above once a week
SchTasks /Create /SC WEEKLY /D MON /TN “Run MS Blocker Weekly” /TR “%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\autoblock.bat” /ST 09:00
REM To conclude, we have PsExec here
REM Starting an instance of the Windows
REM Shell with System privs, and
REM executing the command that will
REM fuck Microsoft's shit up fam
psexec -s -i cmd.exe /C "start autoblock.bat"
echo "If everything went right, we should be done."
echo "Whenever you're ready, friend."
pause
exit -
2018-05-27 at 1:38 PM UTCNo.
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2018-05-27 at 1:42 PM UTC
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2018-05-27 at 1:44 PM UTCAll of it.
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2018-05-27 at 1:49 PM UTC
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2018-05-27 at 1:59 PM UTCLooked over the batch, mane. Looks good to me, as far as your syntax goes. Hell yeah, dude.
I haven't used those tools you have your batch download personally (I am checking them out now), but still, +1 for Sophie.
EDIT: Or rather, I haven't used "BlockWindows" - used PSTools for some specialized things once or twice when I need to. -
2018-05-27 at 2:17 PM UTCQuestion: Do you know how BlockWindows holds up to some of Microsoft's latest Windows 10 builds? The project seems a bit dead on GitHub. Looks like it hasn't been updated since the release of Windows 10. So pretty much any major update to Windows 10 like the Anniversary Update, Fall Creators Update, or Spring Creators Update probably negates what this script is intended to do, yeah? I can see someone asking to add choice.microsoft.com.nstac.net to the hosts file, as it's another telemetry server in late 2017 (around the Fall Creator's Update release). There are probably more with the Spring Creator's Update.
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2018-05-27 at 2:21 PM UTC
Originally posted by Grimace Looked over the batch, mane. Looks good to me, as far as your syntax goes. Hell yeah, dude.
I haven't used those tools you have your batch download personally (I am checking them out now), but still, +1 for Sophie.
EDIT: Or rather, I haven't used "BlockWindows" - used PSTools for some specialized things once or twice when I need to.
Thanks mayne. That's good to know. I am pretty damn good when it comes to shell scripting i Bash but i don't have a lot of experience with Batch. In that sense it was actually pretty fun figuring the stuff from the script out, something different. And i have been meaning to get good at PowerShell as well. -
2018-05-27 at 2:24 PM UTC
Originally posted by Grimace Question: Do you know how BlockWindows holds up to some of Microsoft's latest Windows 10 builds? The project seems a bit dead on GitHub. Looks like it hasn't been updated since the release of Windows 10. So pretty much any major update to Windows 10 like the Anniversary Update, Fall Creators Update, or Spring Creators Update probably negates what this script is intended to do, yeah? I can see someone asking to add choice.microsoft.com.nstac.net to the hosts file, as it's another telemetry server in late 2017 (around the Fall Creator's Update release). There are probably more with the Spring Creator's Update.
It worked kind of meh against Win10 when the project was still fresh. Win10 is pretty much actual fucking malware. Whenever i do have to work with Windows, in VM or otherwise i am usually working with Win7.The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire! -
2018-05-27 at 2:28 PM UTC
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2018-05-27 at 2:39 PM UTC
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2018-05-27 at 3:11 PM UTCwin-10 is one of the reasons i still have an old computer with win-7
i heard they stopped that instant update thing where the computer locks up until its done updating.
i dont see how the 'telemetry' is legal. theyre using resources not their own...theft...to benefit themselves. -
2018-05-27 at 3:17 PM UTC
Originally posted by infinityshock win-10 is one of the reasons i still have an old computer with win-7
i heard they stopped that instant update thing where the computer locks up until its done updating.
i dont see how the 'telemetry' is legal. theyre using resources not their own…theft…to benefit themselves.
Yeah it's pretty bad. Personally i've been on Linux exclusively for quite some time now and i like it a lot. -
2018-05-27 at 3:42 PM UTC
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2018-05-27 at 5:55 PM UTC
Originally posted by infinityshock i dont see how the 'telemetry' is legal. theyre using resources not their own…theft…to benefit themselves.
it's not even just windows though
when you build an application using MS Visual Studio (I'd guess the majority of professional Windows programmers use it), their telemetry suites are, by default and silently, compiled into your program as well so your application has the completely unexpected 'feature' of collecting user and usage data for MS.
script makes sense, you should write the whole thing in powershell instead of batch though at least as a challenge, you're halfway there already.
for the most part, a stateful firewall with packet inspection is the best way to tell MS to get bent, but that sort of thing can be expensive and difficult to set up. -
2018-05-27 at 5:57 PM UTCSort of related - I've considered in the past building an ATM monitor on an old laptop or something so I can clamp it directly to my ADSL line to monitor traffic outside of the OS and network hardware because I absolutely don't trust that some items aren't being suppressed when you monitor traffic with a packet sniffer or on routers. Difficult project from what I can tell though.
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2018-05-27 at 6:01 PM UTC
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2018-05-27 at 6:05 PM UTCWindows is awesone why would I want to break it like this? I have nothing to hide and I can spare resources for Microsoft in return for access to their wonderful OS. 🙃
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2018-05-27 at 6:05 PM UTCThis is an interesting read but I have NO FUCKING clue what is going on.
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2018-05-27 at 6:19 PM UTC
Originally posted by aldra it's not even just windows though
when you build an application using MS Visual Studio (I'd guess the majority of professional Windows programmers use it), their telemetry suites are, by default and silently, compiled into your program as well so your application has the completely unexpected 'feature' of collecting user and usage data for MS.
script makes sense, you should write the whole thing in powershell instead of batch though at least as a challenge, you're halfway there already.
for the most part, a stateful firewall with packet inspection is the best way to tell MS to get bent, but that sort of thing can be expensive and difficult to set up.
thats why i said i hope there is a revolt against MS. thats bullshit what they do, and how they do it.
