How to identify and prevent programs from phoning home
Networking monitoring can be an eye opener in regards to network connections of programs that run on a computer system.
I started to monitor network connections closely recently and decided to take a closer look at some popular programs installed on a Windows test machine to check if they'd phone home automatically.
The program I'm using for the monitoring is Fiddler, but programs like Wireshark should work as well.
I set up Fiddler and started to monitor the program's output while launching and using programs such as Bandizip, Steam or Firefox.
Some network connections are required obviously. When I enter an address in the Firefox address bar for instance, I want that connection to be made.
But there are connections that are not initiated by the user. Some may still be necessary or wanted by the user, a check for updates for instance. If you monitor the connections closely however, you may notice some that you don't consider essential or required at all.
If you take the popular archive program Bandizip for instance. It checks for updates by default but also connects to analytics.bandisoft.com on first start as well.
While you can disable the update check in the program options, you cannot disable the ping to Analytics and the setting of a cookie on the system.
Dealing with unwanted connections
Once you have identified an unwanted connection on your system, you need to find a way to deal with it. You may have several options at your disposal, for instance by creating a new rule in a software or hardware firewall to block the domain.
One of the easier options is to use the Hosts file that every version of Windows ships with. Let me walk you through the steps of blocking the Bandizip Analytics domain from connecting to your system.
- Open File Explorer on your system. You may do so with the shortcut Windows-E, or by clicking on its icon in the taskbar.
- Navigate to c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc.
- Copy the hosts file to your desktop. This needs to be done as you cannot edit it directly in the directory.
- Right-click on the hosts file on the desktop and select edit. Use Notepad or another plain text editor to do so.
- Add the line 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 at the top.
- Add the link 0.0.0.0 analytics.bandisoft.com
- Save the document afterwards.
- Copy it back to the c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc and confirm the replacing of it.
This blocks connections to analytics.bandisoft.com by mapping it to the address 0.0.0.0 instead of its original IP address.
Why 0.0.0.0 and not 127.0.0.1? Because it is faster.
Closing Words
It takes time to monitor and identify unwanted connections on a system. A firewall may help with that if it is configured to prompt whenever a new connection is established for the first time.
What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277
I try to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service (Connected Devices Platform User Services) but it wont let me disable it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Tank you for your help