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| Thread ID: 34450 | 2003-06-13 08:50:00 | Do Not Phone Home XP | Winston001 (3612) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 152313 | 2003-06-13 08:50:00 | Assuming I get a laptop one of these days, it will have XP installed on it-of some flavour. I am not entirely happy at the thought of the machine reporting to an overseas corporation what hardware,DVDs etc I have. Can this function be disabled? Is there a downside? Will the computer have already phoned Redmond before I even pay for it ie from my supplier? |
Winston001 (3612) | ||
| 152314 | 2003-06-13 09:03:00 | Stick Linux on it. | rmcb (164) | ||
| 152315 | 2003-06-13 09:04:00 | There's a program available (quite small) called "XP-Antispy". It disables anything in XP that tries to phone home. Or rather it disables the phoning home part and lets the rest of it work just normally. You can get it from here. Click on the English flag on the screen to get the English version of the page, then find the download and download then run it - should only need to be run once. HTH Mike. PS There's no need to be so paranoid - if it does ever "phone home" (doesn't happen often, if ever) there is very very little data it can actually give out. |
Mike (15) | ||
| 152316 | 2003-06-13 09:05:00 | I assume you are referring to the activation hash code, which is generated from a number of hardware attributes. If you do not want to activate it over the web, you could do it by phone but you will still need to give out the hash code, for MS to manually enter. Paranoid ? I really can't see whay I would try and stop someone decrypting the code to try and determine what hardware exists, after all you don't have to assign your real name to the system. Or any form of address. The other "feature" is that everytime an application crashes it will ask if it can phone home with a memory dump. You have complete control over that as well, including disabling it. As far as I am concerned, Redmond are welcome to my machine details. I don't feel in the least threatened. |
godfather (25) | ||
| 152317 | 2003-06-13 09:09:00 | I think you can activate over the phone, but it will still require a search of hardware etc. to come up with the necessary code for activation. Do it straight after the install this will lessen the chance of anything apart from the hardware & OS version being included. Than install this wee utility to stop any "phone home features" It' free & hasn't caused my machine any problems at all http://www.xp-antispy.de/ A good firewall will also help you retain your privacy |
Stumped Badly (348) | ||
| 152318 | 2003-06-13 09:37:00 | Thanks for the advice Godfather and Mike: I hope I am not paranoid (but sometimes they really are out to get you) My concern arises simply from my discovery of and subscription to PC World in the past four months. Most writers and commentators are concerned about this issue. From what you say there is little to worry about. Cheers Winston001 |
Winston001 (3612) | ||
| 152319 | 2003-06-13 12:23:00 | Actually with the activation there is more that gets transmitted than should and a crash transmitting a dump could actually transmit some vital information that is sitting in memory. | mikebartnz (21) | ||
| 152320 | 2003-06-13 12:33:00 | Yes, but you have the option to view what it's going to send before it does.. or better yet, turn off MS QoS Packet Scheduler, and disable Error Reporting Right-Click on My computer and choose Properties (Now, going from memory from here on in, Im in Linux so Im sorry if the names are a little hazy) There should be a tab called Advanced I think, somewhere over the right.. And there's two buttons then down the bottom AFAIK, one's called Error Reporting or something similar. Click that. Fromt here you can Disable error reporting altogether, but still have it notify you when critical errors occur etc. Play around with it.. turn it off.. do whatever :-) Hope that helps Cheers Chill. |
Chilling_Silently (228) | ||
| 152321 | 2003-06-13 12:38:00 | > As far as I am concerned, Redmond are welcome to my > machine details. I don't feel in the least > threatened. Too true Godfather! IMHO - Microsoft couldnt really care less if you use an nVidia Ti 4200, or a Raedon 9700 Pro? Why would they care.. they gonna go running to nvidia and say "This guys not using your hardware.. lets bug his PC.. then totally destroy his data"? I dont think so.. They want my computer details, along with all the software on it, all they gotta do is ask! Are Microsoft gonna kill me for Dual-Booting Linux and WinXP... They cant stop me from taking off XP as soon as I get TV-Out going perfectly now can they? What... they gonna send me a Linux Virus? I don think Microsoft deal too much with OS's other than their own, although last I heard they were running Hotmail servers on FreeBSD (About two years back.. I can remember a WebSite which told you info about certain Website's Server Systems, like spec's, OS etc.). Anyways, if you're that paranoid about Microsoft, go with Linux.. you will be pleasantly suprised... ;-) Just remember: Big Brother is watching ;\ ]:) ;-) |
Chilling_Silently (228) | ||
| 152322 | 2003-06-13 13:12:00 | Nope hotmail isn't on FreeBSD any more. But yes it did used to be. That site would have been http://uptime.netcraft.com ;) | -=JM=- (16) | ||
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