Shady Microsoft Unbelievable

sKiTzo · May 12, 2020

I just booted my machine (Win10) and could not believe it was "updating" after I disabled just about EVERYthing. Microsoft absolutely does not respect the wishes of its users. If I prefer to not get updates, they have no business changing my privacy settings without my knowledge. I have been battling this for about 2 months now. It all started when I was using my phone for internet access with the hotspot. I kept having to buy more internet because my data would just disappear. I installed a program that shows what is using up the data and it was windows updating and transferring data in the background (aka without my knowledge or consent). I thought there is no way it needs to update that much, so upon further scrutiny I found that Microsoft is using my bandwidth and resources to upload update-related data to computers all over the world!

At first, I tried to be rational thinking there are settings for preventing these behaviors, etc.....and there are, but after a couple of days windows has reversed the settings behind my back and resumed with the secret background activities. Then I said okay, I'll just use the registry to disable BITS, Update Orchestrator Service, Windows Update, and Update Medic Service. A week later, I see Microsoft has again violated my privacy and changed my settings and was "updating again". Microsoft has essentially hijacked my system and continually changes back settings that should have been permanent and uses my bandwidth as it sees fit. The 4 services that I disabled were not the only ones I had disabled. They were just the ones that later re-enable themselves against the wishes of the user. I had also disabled Windefend, Security Center, Windows Security Service, Windefender Advanced Threat Protection, and Windows Biometric Service. These are still listed as disabled. The Background Tasks Infrastructure Service cannot be disabled. I disabled it and as a result I had to re-install Windows even though it says the only dependencies were BITS (which was already disabled) and windows search.

These intrusive actions programmed into win10 are all in the name of "security" and are made with the assumption that all users share this fear that if our system gets a virus or trojan, it is the end of the world. I don't share that fear. I have always run my system unprotected by anything more than a firewall and in 2 decades I've only ran into problems maybe twice where I had to re-install windows due to an attack. I don't trust Microsoft now as far as I could throw them. I also think it's possible that MS is cooperating with NSA in their massive spy operations where they are trying to collect as much info as they can about each and every one of us. The prioritization of these forced updates over the owner of the system seems to show the lengths to which they are going in order to maintain that link. It suggests we are all under surveillance. I'm switching to Linux but first I'm going to try one last ditch effort. This time I won't just disable updates, but delete every file that has anything to do with updates. I'm wondering has anybody else experienced this?

Drawdown · May 12, 2020

sKiTzo said:
I just booted my machine (Win10) and could not believe it was "updating" after I disabled just about EVERYthing. Microsoft absolutely does not respect the wishes of its users. If I prefer to not get updates, they have no business changing my privacy settings without my knowledge. I have been battling this for about 2 months now. It all started when I was using my phone for internet access with the hotspot. I kept having to buy more internet because my data would just disappear. I installed a program that shows what is using up the data and it was windows updating and transferring data in the background (aka without my knowledge or consent). I thought there is no way it needs to update that much, so upon further scrutiny I found that Microsoft is using my bandwidth and resources to upload update-related data to computers all over the world!

At first, I tried to be rational thinking there are settings for preventing these behaviors, etc.....and there are, but after a couple of days windows has reversed the settings behind my back and resumed with the secret background activities. Then I said okay, I'll just use the registry to disable BITS, Update Orchestrator Service, Windows Update, and Update Medic Service. A week later, I see Microsoft has again violated my privacy and changed my settings and was "updating again". Microsoft has essentially hijacked my system and continually changes back settings that should have been permanent and uses my bandwidth as it sees fit. The 4 services that I disabled were not the only ones I had disabled. They were just the ones that later re-enable themselves against the wishes of the user. I had also disabled Windefend, Security Center, Windows Security Service, Windefender Advanced Threat Protection, and Windows Biometric Service. These are still listed as disabled. The Background Tasks Infrastructure Service cannot be disabled. I disabled it and as a result I had to re-install Windows even though it says the only dependencies were BITS (which was already disabled) and windows search.

These intrusive actions programmed into win10 are all in the name of "security" and are made with the assumption that all users share this fear that if our system gets a virus or trojan, it is the end of the world. I don't share that fear. I have always run my system unprotected by anything more than a firewall and in 2 decades I've only ran into problems maybe twice where I had to re-install windows due to an attack. I don't trust Microsoft now as far as I could throw them. I also think it's possible that MS is cooperating with NSA in their massive spy operations where they are trying to collect as much info as they can about each and every one of us. The prioritization of these forced updates over the owner of the system seems to show the lengths to which they are going in order to maintain that link. It suggests we are all under surveillance. I'm switching to Linux but first I'm going to try one last ditch effort. This time I won't just disable updates, but delete every file that has anything to do with updates. I'm wondering has anybody else experienced this?

My phone runs on a google platform but their crap is so integrated it is virtually impossible to get it the way you want it because one app that shares with another app doesn't tell you that say the search bar history might be in a bunch of different apps so deleting it one place may not (likely does not) delete it other places.

As for 10, I really don't care if it updates or not. I have unlimited internet on my home computers.

Mycroft · May 12, 2020

sKiTzo said:
I just booted my machine (Win10) and could not believe it was "updating" after I disabled just about EVERYthing. Microsoft absolutely does not respect the wishes of its users. If I prefer to not get updates, they have no business changing my privacy settings without my knowledge. I have been battling this for about 2 months now. It all started when I was using my phone for internet access with the hotspot. I kept having to buy more internet because my data would just disappear. I installed a program that shows what is using up the data and it was windows updating and transferring data in the background (aka without my knowledge or consent). I thought there is no way it needs to update that much, so upon further scrutiny I found that Microsoft is using my bandwidth and resources to upload update-related data to computers all over the world!

At first, I tried to be rational thinking there are settings for preventing these behaviors, etc.....and there are, but after a couple of days windows has reversed the settings behind my back and resumed with the secret background activities. Then I said okay, I'll just use the registry to disable BITS, Update Orchestrator Service, Windows Update, and Update Medic Service. A week later, I see Microsoft has again violated my privacy and changed my settings and was "updating again". Microsoft has essentially hijacked my system and continually changes back settings that should have been permanent and uses my bandwidth as it sees fit. The 4 services that I disabled were not the only ones I had disabled. They were just the ones that later re-enable themselves against the wishes of the user. I had also disabled Windefend, Security Center, Windows Security Service, Windefender Advanced Threat Protection, and Windows Biometric Service. These are still listed as disabled. The Background Tasks Infrastructure Service cannot be disabled. I disabled it and as a result I had to re-install Windows even though it says the only dependencies were BITS (which was already disabled) and windows search.

These intrusive actions programmed into win10 are all in the name of "security" and are made with the assumption that all users share this fear that if our system gets a virus or trojan, it is the end of the world. I don't share that fear. I have always run my system unprotected by anything more than a firewall and in 2 decades I've only ran into problems maybe twice where I had to re-install windows due to an attack. I don't trust Microsoft now as far as I could throw them. I also think it's possible that MS is cooperating with NSA in their massive spy operations where they are trying to collect as much info as they can about each and every one of us. The prioritization of these forced updates over the owner of the system seems to show the lengths to which they are going in order to maintain that link. It suggests we are all under surveillance. I'm switching to Linux but first I'm going to try one last ditch effort. This time I won't just disable updates, but delete every file that has anything to do with updates. I'm wondering has anybody else experienced this?

First of all, I would NEVER use a cell phone hot spot as my primary connection to the internet. But since you did, you should have NEVER left your Win10 machine connected to your hot spot when you weren't actually using it.

Second of all, I've been using Win10 since it was released and I used Win8 before that...on back to Win95...and I've never seen Win10 change my settings. Never. Not even after any updates...major or minor. I have no idea why you have these problems. They simply don't exist for me.

Regarding "forced updates"...you have NEVER been able to do more than delay Win10 updates and there's a very good reason for that: Security patches. Without them, your computer would be extremely vulnerable to all manner of nastiness. Believe me...updates are your friend.

In any case, my only suggestion to you is to move on to Linux. You shouldn't need to go through with all that nonsense you are doing with Win10...registry, disabling features, deleting files and processes...but since you seem to like that kind of hands on stuff, Linux is more suited to your style.

swing_voter · May 12, 2020

Mycroft said:
First of all, I would NEVER use a cell phone hot spot as my primary connection to the internet. But since you did, you should have NEVER left your Win10 machine connected to your hot spot when you weren't actually using it.

Second of all, I've been using Win10 since it was released and I used Win8 before that...on back to Win95...and I've never seen Win10 change my settings. Never. Not even after any updates...major or minor. I have no idea why you have these problems. They simply don't exist for me.

Regarding "forced updates"...you have NEVER been able to do more than delay Win10 updates and there's a very good reason for that: Security patches. Without them, your computer would be extremely vulnerable to all manner of nastiness. Believe me...updates are your friend.

In any case, my only suggestion to you is to move on to Linux. You shouldn't need to go through with all that nonsense you are doing with Win10...registry, disabling features, deleting files and processes...but since you seem to like that kind of hands on stuff, Linux is more suited to your style.

Could be a virus.

Linux is more hackable than windows these days.

Mycroft · May 12, 2020

swing_voter said:
Could be a virus.

Linux is more hackable than windows these days.

Yes. It could be a virus.

Fledermaus · May 12, 2020

sKiTzo said:
I just booted my machine (Win10) and could not believe it was "updating" after I disabled just about EVERYthing. Microsoft absolutely does not respect the wishes of its users. If I prefer to not get updates, they have no business changing my privacy settings without my knowledge. I have been battling this for about 2 months now. It all started when I was using my phone for internet access with the hotspot. I kept having to buy more internet because my data would just disappear. I installed a program that shows what is using up the data and it was windows updating and transferring data in the background (aka without my knowledge or consent). I thought there is no way it needs to update that much, so upon further scrutiny I found that Microsoft is using my bandwidth and resources to upload update-related data to computers all over the world!

At first, I tried to be rational thinking there are settings for preventing these behaviors, etc.....and there are, but after a couple of days windows has reversed the settings behind my back and resumed with the secret background activities. Then I said okay, I'll just use the registry to disable BITS, Update Orchestrator Service, Windows Update, and Update Medic Service. A week later, I see Microsoft has again violated my privacy and changed my settings and was "updating again". Microsoft has essentially hijacked my system and continually changes back settings that should have been permanent and uses my bandwidth as it sees fit. The 4 services that I disabled were not the only ones I had disabled. They were just the ones that later re-enable themselves against the wishes of the user. I had also disabled Windefend, Security Center, Windows Security Service, Windefender Advanced Threat Protection, and Windows Biometric Service. These are still listed as disabled. The Background Tasks Infrastructure Service cannot be disabled. I disabled it and as a result I had to re-install Windows even though it says the only dependencies were BITS (which was already disabled) and windows search.

These intrusive actions programmed into win10 are all in the name of "security" and are made with the assumption that all users share this fear that if our system gets a virus or trojan, it is the end of the world. I don't share that fear. I have always run my system unprotected by anything more than a firewall and in 2 decades I've only ran into problems maybe twice where I had to re-install windows due to an attack. I don't trust Microsoft now as far as I could throw them. I also think it's possible that MS is cooperating with NSA in their massive spy operations where they are trying to collect as much info as they can about each and every one of us. The prioritization of these forced updates over the owner of the system seems to show the lengths to which they are going in order to maintain that link. It suggests we are all under surveillance. I'm switching to Linux but first I'm going to try one last ditch effort. This time I won't just disable updates, but delete every file that has anything to do with updates. I'm wondering has anybody else experienced this?

Your computer is like a body.

If you get coronavirus you can spread it.

If your computer gets a virus it can spread the virus to other computers or it can become a zombie ready to DOS attack others.

By being stupid about security you can infect others.

PeteEU · May 15, 2020

sKiTzo said:
I just booted my machine (Win10) and could not believe it was "updating" after I disabled just about EVERYthing. Microsoft absolutely does not respect the wishes of its users. If I prefer to not get updates, they have no business changing my privacy settings without my knowledge. I have been battling this for about 2 months now. It all started when I was using my phone for internet access with the hotspot. I kept having to buy more internet because my data would just disappear. I installed a program that shows what is using up the data and it was windows updating and transferring data in the background (aka without my knowledge or consent). I thought there is no way it needs to update that much, so upon further scrutiny I found that Microsoft is using my bandwidth and resources to upload update-related data to computers all over the world!

At first, I tried to be rational thinking there are settings for preventing these behaviors, etc.....and there are, but after a couple of days windows has reversed the settings behind my back and resumed with the secret background activities. Then I said okay, I'll just use the registry to disable BITS, Update Orchestrator Service, Windows Update, and Update Medic Service. A week later, I see Microsoft has again violated my privacy and changed my settings and was "updating again". Microsoft has essentially hijacked my system and continually changes back settings that should have been permanent and uses my bandwidth as it sees fit. The 4 services that I disabled were not the only ones I had disabled. They were just the ones that later re-enable themselves against the wishes of the user. I had also disabled Windefend, Security Center, Windows Security Service, Windefender Advanced Threat Protection, and Windows Biometric Service. These are still listed as disabled. The Background Tasks Infrastructure Service cannot be disabled. I disabled it and as a result I had to re-install Windows even though it says the only dependencies were BITS (which was already disabled) and windows search.

These intrusive actions programmed into win10 are all in the name of "security" and are made with the assumption that all users share this fear that if our system gets a virus or trojan, it is the end of the world. I don't share that fear. I have always run my system unprotected by anything more than a firewall and in 2 decades I've only ran into problems maybe twice where I had to re-install windows due to an attack. I don't trust Microsoft now as far as I could throw them. I also think it's possible that MS is cooperating with NSA in their massive spy operations where they are trying to collect as much info as they can about each and every one of us. The prioritization of these forced updates over the owner of the system seems to show the lengths to which they are going in order to maintain that link. It suggests we are all under surveillance. I'm switching to Linux but first I'm going to try one last ditch effort. This time I won't just disable updates, but delete every file that has anything to do with updates. I'm wondering has anybody else experienced this?

Know your windows 10. Privacy has nothing to do with updates... but other than that.

Settings > Network & Internet > Data Usage .. here you can set a limit on how much you can use per month.

Settings > Network & Internet > Wifi .. press on the connected wifi network > at the bottom "Metered connection", click on.

Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced Options > Download updates over metered connections must be off.... it is as standard.

Solves your problems basically, and it aint the fault of Microsoft. The tools are there and relatively easy to find.

OldFatGuy · May 17, 2020

Mycroft said:
In any case, my only suggestion to you is to move on to Linux. You shouldn't need to go through with all that nonsense you are doing with Win10...registry, disabling features, deleting files and processes...but since you seem to like that kind of hands on stuff, Linux is more suited to your style.

Linux is not Unix. Similar, but not the same. Linux ignores multiple Unix requirements.

RedAkston · May 18, 2020

OldFatGuy said:
Linux is not Unix. Similar, but not the same. Linux ignores multiple Unix requirements.

True. Back in my system administration days, I worked with AIX, which was IBM's proprietary version of Unix.

OldFatGuy · May 18, 2020

RedAkston said:
True. Back in my system administration days, I worked with AIX, which was IBM's proprietary version of Unix.

I still run the family intranet server with a variant of AIX, picked up from IBM under a license to Foetnight which updates every three months or so for security protocols. Steady as a rock, with immense libraries of tools if needed or desired. A bit expensive, but worth it in my eyes. When I transferred the server from an IBM mini-frame, long in the tooth, to a top of the line Mac, took me two hours and it has run steady without a problem since. Never ran the MacOs software package on the machine. Expensive as the Mac was, the nearest equal white box configuration would have been 1.6 times the money. The built in RAID practically manages itself, with auto incremental backup every ten minutes to an external RAID. The Apple AIX variant plays well with all others, and I do use some of the tools from Apple's immense library. It serves about 5k users with no internet portals. Now that Mac is long in the tooth and I'm considering one of new high end Macs as a replacement. Nothing too fancy, just one of their basic setups. I'm also considering replacing the external RAID with a flash RAID, but that may be problematic for a long run solution. I need to learn more. And put two of the older grandkids to task.

HennyBogan · May 18, 2020

sKiTzo said:
I just booted my machine (Win10) and could not believe it was "updating" after I disabled just about EVERYthing. Microsoft absolutely does not respect the wishes of its users. If I prefer to not get updates, they have no business changing my privacy settings without my knowledge. I have been battling this for about 2 months now. It all started when I was using my phone for internet access with the hotspot. I kept having to buy more internet because my data would just disappear. I installed a program that shows what is using up the data and it was windows updating and transferring data in the background (aka without my knowledge or consent). I thought there is no way it needs to update that much, so upon further scrutiny I found that Microsoft is using my bandwidth and resources to upload update-related data to computers all over the world!

At first, I tried to be rational thinking there are settings for preventing these behaviors, etc.....and there are, but after a couple of days windows has reversed the settings behind my back and resumed with the secret background activities. Then I said okay, I'll just use the registry to disable BITS, Update Orchestrator Service, Windows Update, and Update Medic Service. A week later, I see Microsoft has again violated my privacy and changed my settings and was "updating again". Microsoft has essentially hijacked my system and continually changes back settings that should have been permanent and uses my bandwidth as it sees fit. The 4 services that I disabled were not the only ones I had disabled. They were just the ones that later re-enable themselves against the wishes of the user. I had also disabled Windefend, Security Center, Windows Security Service, Windefender Advanced Threat Protection, and Windows Biometric Service. These are still listed as disabled. The Background Tasks Infrastructure Service cannot be disabled. I disabled it and as a result I had to re-install Windows even though it says the only dependencies were BITS (which was already disabled) and windows search.

These intrusive actions programmed into win10 are all in the name of "security" and are made with the assumption that all users share this fear that if our system gets a virus or trojan, it is the end of the world. I don't share that fear. I have always run my system unprotected by anything more than a firewall and in 2 decades I've only ran into problems maybe twice where I had to re-install windows due to an attack. I don't trust Microsoft now as far as I could throw them. I also think it's possible that MS is cooperating with NSA in their massive spy operations where they are trying to collect as much info as they can about each and every one of us. The prioritization of these forced updates over the owner of the system seems to show the lengths to which they are going in order to maintain that link. It suggests we are all under surveillance. I'm switching to Linux but first I'm going to try one last ditch effort. This time I won't just disable updates, but delete every file that has anything to do with updates. I'm wondering has anybody else experienced this?

Only Hillary as far as I am aware, but she used bleachbit and lost 33,000 emails.. perhaps you have them.

Glitch · May 18, 2020

sKiTzo said:
I just booted my machine (Win10) and could not believe it was "updating" after I disabled just about EVERYthing. Microsoft absolutely does not respect the wishes of its users. If I prefer to not get updates, they have no business changing my privacy settings without my knowledge. I have been battling this for about 2 months now. It all started when I was using my phone for internet access with the hotspot. I kept having to buy more internet because my data would just disappear. I installed a program that shows what is using up the data and it was windows updating and transferring data in the background (aka without my knowledge or consent). I thought there is no way it needs to update that much, so upon further scrutiny I found that Microsoft is using my bandwidth and resources to upload update-related data to computers all over the world!

At first, I tried to be rational thinking there are settings for preventing these behaviors, etc.....and there are, but after a couple of days windows has reversed the settings behind my back and resumed with the secret background activities. Then I said okay, I'll just use the registry to disable BITS, Update Orchestrator Service, Windows Update, and Update Medic Service. A week later, I see Microsoft has again violated my privacy and changed my settings and was "updating again". Microsoft has essentially hijacked my system and continually changes back settings that should have been permanent and uses my bandwidth as it sees fit. The 4 services that I disabled were not the only ones I had disabled. They were just the ones that later re-enable themselves against the wishes of the user. I had also disabled Windefend, Security Center, Windows Security Service, Windefender Advanced Threat Protection, and Windows Biometric Service. These are still listed as disabled. The Background Tasks Infrastructure Service cannot be disabled. I disabled it and as a result I had to re-install Windows even though it says the only dependencies were BITS (which was already disabled) and windows search.

These intrusive actions programmed into win10 are all in the name of "security" and are made with the assumption that all users share this fear that if our system gets a virus or trojan, it is the end of the world. I don't share that fear. I have always run my system unprotected by anything more than a firewall and in 2 decades I've only ran into problems maybe twice where I had to re-install windows due to an attack. I don't trust Microsoft now as far as I could throw them. I also think it's possible that MS is cooperating with NSA in their massive spy operations where they are trying to collect as much info as they can about each and every one of us. The prioritization of these forced updates over the owner of the system seems to show the lengths to which they are going in order to maintain that link. It suggests we are all under surveillance. I'm switching to Linux but first I'm going to try one last ditch effort. This time I won't just disable updates, but delete every file that has anything to do with updates. I'm wondering has anybody else experienced this?

Win10 has not been updated since the day I installed it. My trick? A direct LAN connection from my modem. For some bizarre reason Win10 does not recognize that I am connected to the internet if I connect via a LAN cable. When I tell Win10 to check for updates it returns the following:

We couldn't check for updates, because you aren't connected to the Internet. Make sure you have a cellular data or Wi-Fi connection and try again.

I do not own a cell phone, a smart phone, or any other mobile devices (except for a Garmin GPS). So Win10 is only on my PC workstation. My servers run Linux.

jcgriff2 · May 20, 2020

Another way to try and disable Windows Updates - click on the WIN key and type services.msc

Scroll down to "Windows Update" (wuauserv); double-click on the line item entry and change "Start" from MANUAL TO DISABLED.

I would think that would keep Windows Updates from running, but I'm not sure if it would prevent them from downloading.

Shady Microsoft Unbelievable

sKiTzo

Drawdown

Mycroft

Genius is where you find it.

swing_voter

Mycroft

Genius is where you find it.

Fledermaus

PeteEU

OldFatGuy

RedAkston

Master of Shenanigans

OldFatGuy

HennyBogan

Glitch

jcgriff2