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?