3185

So I won a Microsoft Store Win 10 version of Rise of the Tomb Raider, and being smart, I redeemed the code on a laptop which lacks the oomph to run it. Anyone know if there’s a way to unattach it from that pc and run it on my mighty desktop? This has defeated me. And Lara needs me :(

3186

Sure, if your desktop is on the same microsoft account you should be able to just install it.

3187

I found the relevant button. That MS store is challenging :/ Thanks.

3188

Stay away from it. Every user on that store means a higher chance of ‘exclusives’ for it and locked down "U"WP titles.

3189

i’ve bought many exclusives from it and the store is shit.

PS Games For Windows Live fucking sucks.

3190

Mostly I grabbed the Netflix app and the like, but I have a few other items as well. I appreciate how UWP apps are sandboxed, so unlikely to get into any of mischief. Program such as games really don’t need deep access from my system, and on the PC, it is hard to tell what sort of access an application will have or need.

3191

That restriction goes both ways though.

And a lot of what games or applications request from the OS can be restricted/blocked with a good AV/FW solution, or even sandboxed like how Comodo does it.

3192

But they don’t. Sorry, developers won’t police themselves, they don’t see why they restrict themselves.

3193

More improvements to High-DPI scaling across multiple displays in the Creators Update (releasing next week)

You can get the Creators Update today, of course, but there are still more bug fixes in the works which will be ready next week once ordinary people start getting it.

3194

Specifically: [quote]“For the first time, we have published a complete list of the diagnostic data collected at the Basic level,” explains Windows chief Terry Myerson in a company blog post. “We are also providing a detailed summary of the data we collect from users at both Basic and Full levels of diagnostics.”[/quote]

3195

I was just writing it up.

So Microsoft finally offers some real documentation what the Basic telemetry level sends in the 1703 Creator’s Update coming this month. Note that you are not permitted to set your telemetry lower than Basic in a supported manner on Windows Home or Pro. This is the minimum telemetry they allow.

It’s great to get some documentation, but much of it is so general that you really can’t tell what they’re sending back to the mothership. We get some sort of inkling, but it is not sufficiently specific to nail it all down.

https://technet.microsoft.com/itpro/windows/configure/basic-level-windows-diagnostic-events-and-fields

This only covers the items I found interesting-- the whole list goes on for many many many pages. They collect a metric shitton of stuff on basic.

Common Data Extensions & stuff like Microsoft.Windows.Appraiser.General.DecisionMatchingInfoPassiveAdd

  • These are so generic that they could really cover any behavior. Many of these could log every key you press, every running process, etc. No way to tell from the information provided. They refer to events, scenarios, or flights triggering telemetry but don’t tell you what the triggering things actually are.

Common Data Fields.MS.Device.DeviceInventory.Change

  • Every time you add or remove a device, you tell MS about it. When you plug in a mouse, a webcam, a flash drive, whatever.

Pre/Post upgrade settings

  • Tells MS what a bunch of settings looked like before and after the 1703 upgrade.

Microsoft.Windows.Appraiser.General.DatasourceApplicationFileAdd & Microsoft.Windows.Appraiser.General.DatasourceApplicationFileRemove

  • Sends “compatibility info about files”. It’s unclear how often the “appraiser” runs. This could tell microsoft literally every time you run any executable, or it might only apply to a whitelist of anti-virus exe files. We have no way to tell.

Microsoft.Windows.Appraiser.General.DatasourceDevicePnpAdd & Microsoft.Windows.Appraiser.General.DatasourceDevicePnpRemove &
Microsoft.Windows.Appraiser.General.DatasourceDriverPackageAdd & Microsoft.Windows.Appraiser.General.DatasourceDriverPackageRemove &
Microsoft.Windows.Appraiser.General.DecisionDevicePnpAdd & Microsoft.Windows.Appraiser.General.DecisionDevicePnpRemove & Microsoft.Windows.Inventory.Core.InventoryDriverBinaryAdd (and many more)

  • Tells microsoft every time you plug-in/remove a device. Every USB flash drive, every mouse, every wifi adapter, etc, they want to know about it. Also whenever you upgrade any driver.

Microsoft.Windows.Appraiser.General.DatasourceSystemBiosAdd & Microsoft.Windows.Appraiser.General.DatasourceSystemBiosRemove

  • They want to know when you upgrade your BIOS too.

Microsoft.Windows.Appraiser.General.InventoryApplicationFileAdd & Microsoft.Windows.Appraiser.General.InventoryApplicationFileRemove

  • Sends metadata of ANY file on the system. Filename, date, path, product name, size, etc.
  • They say is must be “part of a compatibility database”, so it is a whitelist, but we have no idea how large the whitelist is or whether it contains wildcards like “*.jpg”. They don’t tell us.

Census.App

  • Sends info about all apps running. Possibly only UWP apps covered-- we have no way to know.

Census.Hardware, Memory, Network, Processor, UserDisplay, etc.

  • Sends all info about the device’s hardware. Name, chassis, serial, SKU, etc. Pretty much everything.

Microsoft.Windows.FaultReporting.AppCrashEvent & Microsoft.Windows.HangReporting.AppHangEvent

  • Sends comprehensive info any time a program crashes or hangs, both win32/64 executables and UWP apps. Does not send a memory dump on Basic.
3196

So its somewhere between a simple ping to let Microsoft know that you are alive and everything you have ever done on Windows 10.

Nice.

3197

No, the minimum is far more than a ping. At minimum, you tell MS every time you plug in a device, upgrade a driver, and any app crashes.

At maximum for basic, they know every process you run and every file you access.

And of course at Full telemetry level you’ll actually upload file and memory contents to them when anything crashes. However the default is Basic, Full is opt-in.

Edit: Actually their summary gives it all away. No need to go into the details. I guess that is an improvement in transparency.

On basic, they collect:
“App usage data. Includes how an app is used, including how long an app is used, when the app has focus, and when the app is started”

https://technet.microsoft.com/itpro/windows/configure/configure-windows-telemetry-in-your-organization#telemetry-levels

So they do literally spy on every process you run at the MINIMUM telemetry level.

3198

Good on them for actually telling people. My guess is that the millions of (l)users who already use Windows RIP probably cba, unfortunately.

Most people only (have time to) worry about privacy when it is the (evil) government, corporations get a free pass (which they can then share with the government).

It is sort of a yin/yang thing.

Good on Microsoft for being honest for once.
Bad on Microsoft for doing this.

I’d be on Win10 if it weren’t for this and the Windows Update malfeasance.

3199

Just curious but how do OSX and Linux compare? I think I might actually trust Apple more here just because I suspect Linux OS’s been thoroughly compromised by state backdoors.

3200

MacOS has a limited telemetry active by default, but it allows you to turn it off.

Linux doesn’t have any telemetry at all, unless you’re running an older version of Ubuntu that did some weird stuff with the Unity scope and Amazon links.

Linux is completely open-source so it should be fairly difficult to hide straight-up backdoors. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily more secure, though, as we learned to our chagrin with OpenSSL and heartbleed a couple years ago.

Again while there is no supported way to disable telemetry on Windows 10, you can turn it off with Shutup10. And you should. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to run it again after each major Windows update, like the 1703 one coming this month.

3201

Just installed the 1703 update. No issues installing as I remembered to unplug all my USB stuff.

New features of note? Errr…

You can get rid of the apps list in the start menu, that’s an improvement, I guess. And it supports a low blue-light mode too. You can put tiles in folders, although I have no particular use for that. That’s about it.

You do of course need to re-run shutup10 and winaero to get rid of telemetry and such again.

3202

just a heads up, i’m getting Mass Effect Andromeda freezing after 1703/CU.

3204

New Nvidia drivers 381.65 today (if you’re running Nvidia):

  1. Includes support for Windows 10 Creators Update

Also an Andromeda patch. Let us know if it works!

3205

Any pressing reason to do a clean install of Creators Update, or is just whatever upgrade it sends sufficient? Once upon a time I loved doing a clean install and getting everything shiny and new, but now the annoyance of re-installing crap (and mostly praying I didn’t lose any important save games… this is my biggest annoyance - put the saves WITH THE DAMN GAME) makes me shy away from bothering.

The only ‘advantage’ I’ve come across is cleaning out cruft from the WinSXS “folder”.