Reducing the level of Windows 7 snooping

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I’ve been avoiding this topic studiously. Recent reports have shown that there isn’t a whole lot of “phone home” activity between fully-updated Window
[See the full post at: Reducing the level of Windows 7 snooping]

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I always disable the triggers first, I can’t sleep at night just disabling the tasks knowing that the triggers are still activated =)

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Screenshot not working – rendering?

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Bobo,

While I didn’t see evidence of these tasks running nearly two days after disabling, I went ahead and disabled the triggers yesterday.

Don’t know if that makes any difference, but it does no harm and can easily be reversed. Thanks!

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Ouch. It’s working on my system. I’ll try to post it separately.

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Does that work better?

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Yes, the pic works better.

I also opted out long ago on this desktop (Win 7 Pro) but have the same tasks running. Recently I observed the Consolidator task return the same error code as in your screen shot. Guessing it might mean “failed cause this user opted out,” but I could not any doc to that effect.

I monitored network activity with WireShark for a few minutes around the time the task ran. Just looking for errant packets sent up to the home ship. Didn’t see anything suspicious, fortunately.

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Just had a look at this and disabled the tasks.

I also noticed one called Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser in the Application Experience folder which I didn’t see mentioned in step 6 but I’ve disabled it as well as it’s description is the same as for ProgramDataUpdater

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I made a comment on the same thing (CEIP) a couple of days ago: https://www.askwoody.com/2016/microsoft-snooping-through-office/#comment-76867

Need to go down through the nitty-gritty to disable those, not just rely on the top-level yes/no choice area.

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And this was my follow-on comment: https://www.askwoody.com/2016/microsoft-snooping-through-office/#comment-76868

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I wondered about this a while back, so I made sure I was opted out.

But when I disabled the tasks, it broke my application events logs.

Background: At the time I was having some issues with an antivirus prog that auto updates. The app logs are useful to determine when any app updates itself, if you are trying to rule out when some incompatibility crept in.

By some coincidence, while I was trying to troubleshoot this, I got the bright idea to kill these tasks. Once I did, no more application logs were produced in event viewer.

So I re-enabled them. I guess if I want the logs, I need to trust M$ to not upload this stuff if I am opted out of CEIP.

I don’t have the reference material right in front of me, but I do recall reading on Technet or somewhere that the consolidator task rounds up this event info when it runs.

So, your choice

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Found one more! (W7 Pro, domain connected)

Library > Microsoft > Windows > Autochk : “Proxy”

“This task collects and uploads autochk SQM data if opted-in to the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program.”

For me this was still enabled, and triggering at system startup.

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Hi Woody and others,

I’m a bit confused about the language in the Task Scheduler disabling section. Being quite the neophyte, or art of the general public many describe as worried or scared, I want to do this correctly without causing issue with my computer that I cannot fix, or figure out what caused issues. so for clarification, number 8 says:

“Disable the Consolidator, KernelCEIPTask, and Use CEIP tasks.” [last one should be “UsbCEIP”]

Should all three be disabled, or should the last one be left enabled–the last one being UsbCEIP? Is the statement [last one should be “UsbCEIP”} just stating the correction in the directions, rather than adding confusion to my interpretation.

I guess because I did not install 3035583 and the other evil updates, I do not have the Diagnostic Tracking Service. As a result, I think I just have these snooping tools left to disable.

One more question, as a Win 7 Home Premium user, am I correct in saying I cannot download and use the KB that allows one to do the group edit to prevent windows 10?

Thank you!

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For now this seems too nitty-gritty to me, and I’ve just done the simple disabling of CEIP and left the tasks as-is. Please check back in with us, Woody, if you really think we should get into the task editing.

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There are some people who are willing to go to great lengths to reduce the amount of snooping going on. I wish them well, but I’ve come to terms with the situation, and don’t intend to go to great lengths to hide what I’m doing.

Perhaps it’s just the new way of doing business. Perhaps we never had any privacy any way and should get over it. But I do know that anybody who uses Google search, Chrome, a Microsoft or Google or Apple account, or any of a thousand other products or services has already left a lot of personal data in their wake.

I’m with you. Turning off CEIP (which I’ve recommended for a decade now) and only installing security patches strikes the right balance for me.

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