The things I can't unsee - Microsoft's deception (A LONG but insightful rant)

So for the better half of this past year I've been disassembling and dismantling windows 11 piece by piece, line by line, string by string. I've Been through every area of the registry multiple times. changing the values of any Key that looks interesting, even if I'm not sure what it actually does. one by one disabled every service (not all once mind you) And deactivated so many entries in the task scheduler that I changed its icon to a broken clock. All in the name of learning... and I don't like what I've learned.

I used to think Microsoft was the better of all the tech companies not as Shady as Apple or Google. So what started me down this path was realizing that anytime I've asked Microsoft anything besides a basic question I get one of two responses... The "That's not recommended" Speech or an answer that's so overly complicated and confusing most users would simply give up.
So I needed to gather this knowledge and data first hand for myself and not ask Microsoft or anybody anything because you never know their source.

So begins the complete teardown of the Windows operating system. If I crash my system no big deal. I've relocated all the user files and installed programs including the Windows apps folder to my secondary Drive leaving windows by itself on the main SSD and Using R-Drive (Windows Recovery never works)I create a disk image backup of the main SSD nightly.

This is how I think everyone's system should be configured, because this allows you to recover from any level of failure/crash to full functionality, like it never happened in about 3 minutes flat. Making system failure a non-issue.

So why isn't the system set up like this by default? Especially now with the reduced storage capacity of modern SSD used in all PC's manufactured with Windows 11 as the OEM OS.

Simple answer "FEAR" there is a lot of data and information that Microsoft has buried in your system. processes they'd rather the user not know about and without the fear of system failure or as Microsoft puts it "damaging your system" I believe most people would be more comfortable learning and exploring the deeper system on their own.

one of the first things I realized we're going through deeper system processes is the option to turn off Analytics and telemetry even disabling the service. That's all show simply false Comfort. it's still active! I found so many areas in the registry and Group Policy entries (STIG DOD) to enable or disable Telemetry for specific areas. So it's not one thing to turn off it's multiple. Practically every section of Windows has its own built-in Telemetry sevice part of the many unlisted services found within windows but can be found of course in an area Microsoft likes to scare people out of the registry.

( if you choose to use the CurrentControlSet directory check on the key you changed every once in awhile you might find it's changed back. any change in 001 instantly gets written to CurrentControlSet and never changes back)

(HKLM\System\ControlSet001\Services) every service on your machine is listed here
(you can find the short name of listed services in the main service console under its properties)
not only are there way more services than listed in the snap-in console but here it is possible to disable services disallowed by the snap-in console just change the "start" key to 4

And when it comes to the services Microsoft actually has some of them programed to lie to your face when it comes to the "Dependencies"
This has gotten a bit long so I'll give one example but just know there are others.
The one that always comes to mind is the "Security Accounts Manager" or "SamSS" I don't think this has anything to do with security I think it's one of the main cogs in the Telemetry chain the description makes it sound like it's the service that stores analytic data gathered by the other services.
If you try to stop the service you're told that there are 3 services that are dependent on it " Distributed Transaction Coordinator or MSDTC" "KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator or KtmRm" and "Server or LanmanServer" what got me thinking this is they share no common thread they all operate off of completely different dll's than SamSs so I decided to run a test and removed the dependencies. ( to do this simply go to the service area in the registry find the service that is supposedly dependent on the other service it will have a key called "DependOnService" it's data values is a list of service names that it "depends on" just remove the name of the other service)
After removing SamSs from all 3 services I disabled SamSs and restarted the computer. After the boot, Sam SS was disabled and not running and and I found that Server was already running and the other two started without fail.
So now Microsoft is using highly deceptive actions to the point of lying to the user.

I call that a huge breach of Trust and isn't that Microsoft's big thing nowadays. none of the actual security services have any dependencies attached to them so so what made SamSs so important to Microsoft that they felt the need to lie just to keep it from being disabled. and like I said SamSs is not the only service that has false dependencies. I could keep going with a long list of disappointments I found.
But this thread is becoming a monster, So it's time to close it off.

But despite this growing distrust and rebellious attitude towards Microsoft. Windows is still (and hopefully always will be) way better than iOS and chromOS but it has now become a lesser of three evils scenario and with the dwindling list of built-in user customization features a UI that becomes more boring with every build released and growing number of areas the basic user is locked out of. it makes me worry about the future of the Windows Operating System.
For me the only feature that continues to remind me I'm in control of Windows and not Microsoft is the Registry Editor and they discourages the use of it.
So how long before it's gone too?

Nobody is forcing you to use Windows LOL.

cereberus said:

Nobody is forcing you to use Windows LOL.

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I can't believe you actually read that; I read the first sentence and knew it would be a load of bolloxs and left it there

A Guy

cereberus said:

Nobody is forcing you to use Windows LOL.

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Other OS's are either already fully on lockdown or just lack functionality. Besides I've been a windows users for far to long (win98) to give up on it now. But with new version since 7 I've seen features slowly disappear and the OS become further locked down. So if you follow that pattern it only a matter of time until people start typing "How to Root/jailbreak Windows" in the search bar is a reality. And if that's the case I'd rather not see Microsoft use deceptive tactics an attempt to save face along the way and just pull the trigger already.
But I guess if you get everyone believing theirs nothing going on behind the curtain and that its a bad idea to look. Then no one will care or do anything about it. Ignorance is bliss.
I'm not against Windows I'm worried about its future, I see the path its on and either nobody else dose or they simply don't care.

Hi folks
For "Unsee" --I thought this great BBC series (quite a while ago) was brilliant -- "The City and The City".


Enjoy.

Cheers
jimbo

wrong forum, this is the "chillout" forum. LOL

That must have provided a big interest for quite a while. I understand doing it because I used to be concerned about such matters too, although not quite so much 'in depth' as that. I could be thought complacent now because I don't care and haven't done so for a good number of years. Just one day wondered what would happen if I used the OS for its intended purpose and didn't worry about such things.

Well. nothing detrimental to life has occurred as yet, so I'll probably carry on not caring. Microsoft has had its telemetry feedback and all they seem to have done, to me anyway, is provide operating systems for running my programs on. On balance, I think they have made a pretty good job of doing that.

I did read it all. I do not pretend to understand it all. But if its as ******** as some suggest above, why is this post still here? Changing keys in the software did make sense because I have done it before, on advice from tutorials. If its really as bad as Z3 says - delete it!

elbmek said:

I did read it all. I do not pretend to understand it all. But if its as ******** as some suggest above, why is this post still here? Changing keys in the software did make sense because I have done it before, on advice from tutorials. If its really as bad as Z3 says - delete it!

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Why is it still here? In the interests of free speech perhaps.
After all the OP makes it clear it is his own point of view, and that it is a rant. We are all free to read or ignore, after all.

John

z3r010 said:

I can't believe you actually read that; I read the first sentence and knew it would be a load of bolloxs and left it there

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I started reading it too, got to the 2nd paragraph then got up and went and cleaned my kitchen.

JMedlock83 said:

I started reading it too, got to the 2nd paragraph then got up and went and cleaned my kitchen.

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The laughable part is OP wrote this and calls it insightful.

Insightful is an attribute given by others who review it.

You cannot call your own work insightful - that is just pompous self back slapping.

Zantetsuken said:

one of the first things I realized we're going through deeper system processes is the option to turn off Analytics and telemetry even disabling the service. That's all show simply false Comfort. it's still active! I found so many areas in the registry and Group Policy entries (STIG DOD) to enable or disable Telemetry for specific areas. So it's not one thing to turn off it's multiple. Practically every section of Windows has its own built-in Telemetry sevice part of the many unlisted services found within windows but can be found of course in an area Microsoft likes to scare people out of the registry.

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Please share the rest of what you've discovered, so the rest of us can benefit from your research. What registry keys to modify? What services to disable or delete? What other tweaks do you recommend?

I would especially appreciate a PowerShell or batch file to apply these tweaks, as I have at least 2 dozen computers that I would like to apply them to and doing them all manually is not really a job I want to tackle.