[greenhouse_gas]

>Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB

So tell me, where can I buy that for my personal computer?

>because they're for serious people

No, because those who can get Windows 10 LTSB actually have the power to push back. Imagine telling Dell or HP that everything they type may be sent to MS at any time.

>You can still take control

So how can I permanently end all telemetry, now and forever on my box. I'm even willing to sign a letter that I won't hold them responsible for any viruses that I get because I didn't update in time.

[tomc1985]

You used to be able to download a trial off the open web on MS' download portal.

I ran LTSB for a year and it was brilliant. But on day 366 (or whever my slmgr -rearm trick ran out) you get locked out with no real way to change to a different SKU or reset without a clean install :(

There's a program called BlackBird (http://getblackbird.net/) that claims to strip out all that telemetry. I have been running it for a while and while I haven't closely inspected traffic to validate the author's claims my bandwidth monitor widget doesn't have a lot to report, rarely rising above 1kb/sec unless I'm doing something.

[phs318u]

Hadn’t heard of Blackbird. Sounded awesome. But...

1. “Note: Some anti-virus products may detect Blackbird as malware.”

2. “Last updated: Nov. 10, 2016”

...now, not so much. sigh And I really wanted to believe.

[nitrogen]

I've had software of mine flagged by overeager antivirus just for being new and uncommon. It labels it as "WS.Reputation.1". If that's the only detection it's most likely nothing to worry about.

[phs318u]

Thanks for the info. I’ll run clamscan over it and if it’s what you suggest I’ll snapshot my Windows VM and give it a whirl.

[aepiepaey]

https://www.virustotal.com/#/file/b14abe7b4af30cbc5eddfc72e8...

So, probably safe.

[tomc1985]

No issues with my AV (or at all) and I've been running it for a few years now.

[magduf]

>So how can I permanently end all telemetry, now and forever on my box.

Simple: you use a different OS that doesn't spy on you. Microsoft is under no obligation to provide a product or service to you the way you want. They've decided they only want to offer products that spy on you, and that's their right. If you don't like that, you're free to not buy or use their products, and use something else instead. There are alternatives out there that don't spy on you.

[NiveaGeForce]

Telemetry is not spying.

[lbotos]

I just built a gaming rig, and I tried really hard to get LTSB, because I don't want to use this computer for anything beyond CS:GO. Was impossible.

[ben-schaaf]

Good news then, because CS:GO runs beautifully on linux and OSX (not that I'd recommend the latter).

[stallmanite]

It is on bittorrent of course. Different spyware than the standard edition though probably.

[Fill1200]

Enterprise edition is almost the same as Pro. I use it as a labo PC for free. After expire, I reinstall.

[Incambino]

Enterprise LTSB is not however, it doesn't have the Store, Windows Apps or Cortana and doesn't receive feature updates only security ones.

I use a license key from work for my home PCs and it's lovely.

[EvanAnderson]

That's not a tenable option for "regular people".

[code_duck]

Security and antivirus protection exist as much to protect others as oneself, much like vaccines. I wonder whether Microsoft considers updates to be protecting the users of a specific machine from a virus, or the community at large from many machines having that virus?

[TeMPOraL]

The problem is, security updates should stick to security, and should be clearly separated from feature updates - especially from the ones that remove features.

[code_duck]

OK. I don’t disagree with that but I also am not sure how it is related to my comment.

I’m not defending Microsoft, and I’m not a fan. I am merely speculating on their perspective.