Arlen Holder wrote:
On Sun, 3 Jun 2018 03:35:04 -0000 (UTC), Roger Blake wrote:

On every Windows 10 system I touch, I install Spybot Anti-Beacon
and disable Cortana's web search with that. Then instead of full-blown
Cortana you get a local search.

Thank you for suggesting that interesting alternative solution to turning
off the Bing search of Cortana.

Spybot Anti-Beacon seems to be located here.
https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/
"Simply clicking "Immunize" on the main screen of Anti-Beacon will
immediately disable any known tracking features included by Microsoft in
the operating system."

Supported OS: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10.
When you install, it has checked
[x] Refresh immunization after each system restart

When you launch Spybot Anti-Beacon, it defaults to 3 of 61 anti-telemetry
protections for
[x] Telemetry Hosts
[x] Telemetry Group Policy
[x] Consumer Experience Improvement Program Group Policy
[x] Consumer Experience Improvement Program Scheduled Tasks
[x] Application Impact Telemetry Group Policy
[x] Steps Recorder Group Policy
[x] Wifi Sense Hotspot Sharing Group Policy
[x] Apps use advertising ID
[x] P2P Windows Updates outside local network
[x] Sensors
[x] Handwriting Data Sharing

When you hit the "immunize" button, all of those (all 61) are enabled.
http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=17_spybot.jpg

And then there were optional settings:
[ ] Web Search Group Policy
[ ] Cortana Gropu Policy
[ ] OneDrive Service
[ ] OneDrivce Group Policy
[ ] Remote Registry Service
[ ] Bing IPs
[ ] Telemetry Hosts (extensive list)
[ ] Office 15 (2013) Telemetry Group Policy
[ ] Office 15 (2013) Telemetry Scheduled Tasks
[ ] Office 16 (2016) Telemetry Group Policy
[ ] Office 16 (2016) Telemetry Scheduled Tasks

I set them all (even the optional stuff), but, when I typed something
nonsensical into the Cortana search box, that search *still* brought up
Bing on Windows 1709 (16299.248).

I realize Wolf K is the only one here who knows the answer to everything,
but for the rest of you, since Wolf K is suspiciously silent when the
answer isn't "google"...

Any idea why Spybot Anti-Beacon didn't work as expected on Win10 1709?

What hope do you think they have, against a determined adversary ?
Microsoft is a determined adversary, with the resources to counter
anything they throw at Windows.

https://forums.spybot.info/showthrea...dows-10/page28

I get the impression, that the staff don't want to waste too much
time answering questions on a freebie. I think they are likely
reviewing the posts with diagnostic info presented ("stuff that
isn't working"), but they aren't making the thread exactly
interactive. You can't tell if anyone is really reading this
stuff. But they do seem to release new versions occasionally,
which implies they're still interested.

Microsoft could also be "data mining" social media, including
USENET. So if you "discovered a way to block X", keep it to yourself
until you can hand it off to someone who can apply the info. I'm not
convinced that the Feedback Hub is the only source of feedback
Microsoft is using for Windows 10 work.

This is one of the reasons MDL went "half-dark". (Some of the postings
at MDL can only be read by members. That doesn't prevent someone from
getting an account, but it prevents casual data mining.)

Paul