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Comment by tetraodonpuffer | Hacker News Reader

Why couldn't microsoft offer a Windows 10 "developer edition" allowing telemetry to be set to "security"? Make it cost $200 more, so typical users won't buy it, but why not make it available at all?

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The best way is just to block all their shit in the firewall and avoid using windows as much as possible.

https://github.com/crazy-max/WindowsSpyBlocker

It is horrible when people must defend themselves from their own computer...

if by firewall you mean an EXTERNAL firewall (pfSense box or something), sure, but how do you trust the windows firewall? And anyways what if you do want software updates and the telemetry is sent as part of your update request? Unless you have deep packet inspection and drop the telemetry packets how are you going to make sure the data does not go out?

Yes by firewall I mean an external one :) Personally I have a dedicated old computer that is running linux for this purpose.

And no this won't fix the core problem so the best solution is to avoid windows completely.

I boot mine up sometimes when I want to play a game not on linux or playstation, however that is becoming increasingly rare.

This is pretty much exactly the sort of thing "Pro" is meant for. Of course, for some mystifying reason Windows Pro, sold on business PCs, insists on preinstalling Candy Crush Soda Saga.

I don't understand what the Pro license even is at this point, since they refuse to treat it like one.

that's because the "pro" suffix is completely devalued nowadays, just look at the app store, "pro" usually just means "without ads" and/or "not stripped down in functionality"

We need a less trendy suffix to signify what "pro" used to, something like "modular" or "developer edition" or something, and have that also applicable to laptop/computers with no soldered RAM or SSDs etc. etc.

Make it cost more, fine, but make it available. Because in the long run every developer saying "the touch bar and low travel keyboard are not for me" or "I am not touching something with telemetry with a 10 foot pole" means less software for your platform later on.

It's called Enterprise.

That's what MS lip-service said two years ago. The inclusion, difficulty to arrest said services and reactivations in express violation of the users' intent through "security updates" tells a different story. What you may have meant to refer to was Enterprise LTSB; good luck getting a copy outside of a corporate licensing environment.

Good luck getting a legal copy. They can be had by the sufficiently motivated.

Are mere mortals even allowed to buy the Enterprise edition, quantity 1? Somehow, I doubt it.

If you have a MSDN subscription, you have access to various versions of Windows 10, including the Enterprise version.

As far as I'm aware it's only available via a volume licensing agreement.

Enterprise still doesn't let you disable telemetry though - just lets you set it to basic.

If you want to disable it fully you need the LTSB version.

>Enterprise still doesn't let you disable telemetry though - just lets you set it to basic.

you can set it to security through gpedit

Correct, Enterprise and Education versions will work on Security, which is essentially disabled.

Or you could get a chinese version that supposed to be spyware-free

Not anymore. You can disable most of it but not all of it, and only via Group Policy, which any Windows admin here will know only works maybe 70% of the time at best.

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