• nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de
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    22 hours ago

    I looks promising, but I would not recommend it to anyone.

    The problem with windows is that moat privacy options would get reverted with every new update, and these scripts would need constant updates.

    It is not doing much for Linux, as most telemetry is opt-in, rarher than being opt-out. And instead of configuring programs people can just use alternates like VScodium instead of VScode, etc. Plus, for other things Linux users already know how to do those things.

    For macOS, it looks fine, as there isn’t much already that you can do. Most of the things these scripts provide can be done with a GUI, and I would rather trust my own eyes with GUI options rather than some outdated online script from GitHub.

    When I looked at their GitHub, it is almost a year old. Updates on any OS would have broken most of these.

    For windows a good option is Chtis Titus’s winutil.

    There’s a program called Open Snitch, which acts like a firewall, and you can manage each and every connection made to an IP or domain by every app on the OS. This can help block telemetry, which windows and macos would not let you disable. But I would recommend this to power users only.

  • PiraHxCx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    I wrote about it some time ago:

    “This might be my favorite debloat tool since you can create a quick script online and it has tons of options, however, if you don’t know what you are doing, don’t go messing around, because they go overboard with options and let you uninstall tons of packages that break Windows functionality and I have no idea why the option is even there. It’s like, “For a lighter experience, how about deactivating upper limbic appendages?” and just like that you agreed to removing your arms.
    Privacy Cleanup - all options pretty cool. Disable OS Data Collection - all pretty cool, but I’d be careful with Application Compatibility Framework, and only select Application Impact Telemetry there. Configure Programs - all pretty cool, but I’d skip browsers unless you are planning to use any of them. Secure Improvements - now, it’s all very well documented there what each option does, but do you really understand what they do? Do you trust their info is updated to any other change Windows might have made? If you don’t know what those options are about, I don’t recommend touching them - some even disable convenient stuff, like AutoPlay and AutoRun for when you connect something to your USB port. Block Tracking Hosts - all cool too. Privacy Over Security, UI For Privacy, Advanced Settings - don’t touch it if you don’t know what you are doing. Remove Bloatware - mostly very cool, but a lot of stuff on the Windows App list you should be very careful about removing. Rule of thumb: If you don’t know what it is, don’t touch it.
    After having your script ready and downloading, you run as administrator, and it will take a long time to complete. After manually clearing what you could and running a debloat script, it’s also always good to run Get-AppxPackage on PowerShell to see what was left behind and then use Get-AppxPackage -Name “PackageName” | Remove-AppxPackage to get rid of it. There is always some Bing, Yahoo, Zune, Skype, Edge, Xbox, Teams, Weather, Maps, crap still lurking…
    I always used to remove Windows Store, but Microsoft has removed your access to its utilities directly through browsers. Even trying to install through PowerShell will fail without it. So, yeah, it’s bloatware, but be careful about removing it now.” https://fuckbigtech.neocities.org/#06-01

    Last privacy.sexy update is March 2025, and Microsoft has been rolling out a lot of updates that have been changing a lot of stuff, so probably there will be broken scripts.
    Just keep in mind that, despite the script’s name, there is no privacy on Windows ever. It’s just a debloat tool that will help your performance and battery runtime.

  • DahGangalang@infosec.pub
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    1 day ago

    Well github repo hasn’t been updated in 9 mo (yellow flag in my mind - I tend to find projects are either maintained w/i 3 month intervals or on their way to being abandoned).

    Paged through the repo briefly and didnt see the scripts it purports to run (I’m not sure if I just wasn’t looking in the right places - didn’t do a total search).

    Website takes forever to load, but does provide decent explanations with good sources on what it aims to do.

    My very unprofessional assessment: it doesn’t look like malware, but I wouldn’t trust it to be your full privacy guarantor.