Microsoft adds two new privacy options to Windows 10 setup
When you set up Windows 10 on a computer or in a virtual machine, a privacy settings screen is displayed during setup which lets you change some privacy-related settings before the first start of the operating system.
The page lists options to turn privacy-related settings off, as all are enabled by default. You may use it to switch from the collection of data from full to basic, disable tailored experiences (Edge uses less battery than your browser), and turn off location-based experiences or speech recognition.
The listed privacy preferences are just a few that Windows users can control in the Settings application, Group Policy, Windows Registry, or elsewhere.
Windows 10 users and admins may modify these privacy settings manually, for instance by following the advice of my privacy book, or by running one of the many privacy-related programs for Windows 10.
Microsoft announced recently that it plans to extend the privacy page in the next feature release version of Windows 10. While we still don't know whether the company will indeed call it the Windows 10 Spring Creators Update or something else, it seems clear that Microsoft is hard at work to improve the public's perception (and even more so the perception of regulatory authorities, companies and governments) of the operating system in regards to privacy.
We reviewed the option to browse and delete the collected Telemetry data already but it is not the only change in the upcoming version of Windows.
Microsoft will change the setup experience by adding two more privacy related options to setup, and by, what appears to be, A-B testing the privacy setup experience.
Some users will get a single screen listing all privacy related options. This is how things were handled in previous versions of Windows, and the only change in this version is that two new privacy options are available.
Part of the userbase will get individual screens on the other hand; each privacy option, seven of them in total, is shown on its own screen.Yes and no options are provided, each with a description of how the choice impacts functionality.
Privacy-conscious users may notice that the "no" option is worded in a negative way. If you take the "improve inking & typing recognition" option as an example.
- Yes states: "Send inking and typing data to Microsoft to improve the language recognition and suggestion capabilities of apps and services running on Windows".
- No states: "Don't use my data to help improve the language recognition and suggestion capabilities of apps and services running on Windows".
Additionally, it is unclear what data is sent to Microsoft if the option is not turned off as it is not explained on the screen.
The setup of the upcoming version of Windows 10 includes "Find my device" and "Inking & Typing" as two new options.
Find my device may help users locate the device if it is misplaced, lost or stolen. Inking & typing may improve language recognition and suggestion capabilities of apps and services.
Closing Words
Microsoft reveals the data that Windows Telemetry collects, and it adds two new privacy options to the setup experience. The changes won't convince privacy-conscious users to give the operating system a try if they have not already, but it may very well please regulatory authorities who have been breathing down Microsoft's neck ever since the company released the first version of Windows 10.
Now You: How do you feel about the announced changes?
Related articles
- Allow only manual updates on Windows 10
- Windows 10 version 1803: privacy improvements
- Windows 10 Pro: Windows Defender Application Guard support coming
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