Not sure, i just know if the service is disabled i get constant nagging from basic apps (like picture preview, notepad and MS paint) that my copy of windows isn't genuine, big fat popups...

That is true. However, I appreciate that I'm able to access the system without a product key (especially in 10's case), albeit with nagging, and when I do throw in the product key, it works offline, no questions asked. So while DRM in some way, it's not the kind I hate.

Unless i'm mistaken, the EULA that you have to agree to, says they will make backups of your encryption passwords/keys, emails, files, etc. There's also mentioned a key logger that's built into the OS.

If they are actively spying or not, it's something important to consider: Decades ago they had to break into your house to plant a bug to spy on you. With Windows 10 they just need to click a button (assuming it isn't already active all the time, the default settings certainly allow it; Also after updates windows conveniently forgets your privacy options).

This isn't science fiction. Consider when they pushed XBone, one of the features was voice commands. So to get your console to turn on you had to say 'Xbox ON!' meaning the system is always listening, not to mention it had a big camera pointing into your living room; And don't forget XBone was intended to be Always-Online or it wouldn't work. For Cirri to work, the microphone has to always be on. What's to prevent the microphone from always transmitting data? Recently with VOIP tests i could get really good quality audio in about 4k a second, good enough to listen in on conversations or do voice chat while playing games. Not that long ago people started glancing at some of the traffic that Windows 10 was doing, and tracked it to some weird microsoft servers that had nothing to do with updates.

This is also based around 'trusted computing' which doesn't trust the owners of the computer, rather whoever wrote the software/hardware. Unless there's open source code we can compile and compare against the output, we don't really know WHAT the software is doing.

There's also a known fact that the NSA is heavily plugged into MS especially skype. I recall reading an article where when using skype a user noticed he had a lot of odd traffic on certain sites, so he pushed an http address, then shortly after got a time-out message saying the attempts on his page forced a password reset, proving that it was hit something like 200 times within a minute, when NO ONE should have been able to access that address since he messaged himself (or something similar).

Unless you encrypt everything, and DON'T type the password or store the passwords/keys on Windows (so just use Win10 as a router), then they are as good as handed to MS and the NSA, and they have every right according to the EULA to pass that information straight off to law enforcement if they feel they need to, without needing permission from you.

Much smarter people talking about Windows 10 and the implications involved...

I decided to update windows 7 last month [first time in a long time] I only selected two updates, and after a while I thought, this is taking a while. I checked the update download folder and it was about 1.5 gigs. trying to force windows 10 on me. I killed the update process, and deleted the contents of that folder.

sneaky fookers

Pre-loading the update 'just in case you decide to upgrade'; However something to keep in mind is a number of people have data caps. I have a friend if they go over the 3Gb cap they have, they are charged like $15 for each Gig extra or something, quite annoying. Also since the 10 & updates is almost torrent based (peer-to-peer) you'll be using your bandwidth to update other people's computers too.

I'd love to access links on the all things you are accusing Windows 10 of, complete with literal quotes straight from Microsoft sources and testing and whatnot. But hey, that keylogger you're talking about? It's only in the technical preview...the full system doesn't have it.

But hey, I'm taking a quick skim through the EULA and the privacy agreement. Note that the Windows 10 EULA (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Useterms/Retail/Windows/10/UseTerms_Retail_Windows_10_English.htm) applies to just Windows 10, while the privacy statement (aka.ms/privacy) covers Microsoft's services, e.g. Cortana, OneDrive, or Mail. First of all, accessing your emails and passwords as you mentioned? The Mail app definitely needs to obtain whatever emails and passwords you're going to input in order to fetch and retrieve your emails, Outlook, Gmail or Yahoo. So that's one.

As for permission to access files, it is likely either the attachments in your emails, or your OneDrive files. They simply stated that if you're going to use any of these features, naturally they need to have these permissions or else they'll be providing limited functionality. That's what I learned from the quick skim of the introduction in the privacy statement and the privacy section of the Windows 10 EULA.

In other words, all this 'spying', 'big-brothering', 'snooping', 'sniffing', 'listening on you' and 'phoning home'? Just the regular permissions any service needs to have in order to work.


Now as for your other thing about Windows 10 accessing non-update related links, I'd link you up here to see how the telemetry works.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-telemetry-secrets/
Also from the same author, is a check on a report which claimed they were thousands of connection attempts by an offline system, which shows how flawed the check is.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/when-it-comes-to-windows-10-privacy-dont-trust-amateur-analysts/



All in all, I see this becoming an interesting subject especially that I'm bored. I need to read the EULA and the privacy statement fully, rather than play games.

Because, whether you believe it or not, those concerns ARE NOT legitimate.

When qualified institutions have collected results and data from hard researches about Windows 10 and debunked those myths, you stand no ground to complaint.

Only dumbest individuals keep persisting, just like few trying to push the fact that Denuvo breaks SSD.

Idiocy knows no bound, don't you know?

The really bad thing about it, is because the EULA and agreements are so dry and annoying and long, sometimes 60 pages or whatever, people tend to just click 'i agree' without even reading it. I remember reading all the agreements in the past, what they implied and what they meant, but that was when i was a teenager. Unfortunately i don't do that nearly as much anymore.

Hmmm glancing at the agreement posted seems WAY too short, i wonder where the part 2 is at...

So Mac OS X has 'microtransactions', Linux with store addons, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, X1, PS4, WiiU, 3DS... Now tell me, where are you going to? All these systems have 'microtransactions', and your only remaining bit of hope are whatever Linux distros that don't come with a store for paid apps... Windows store purchases are Windows 10 microtransactions, I can't even put it well together.

Now that you mention it, no, these concerns are far from legitimate. You complain when it's added and forced on you, and wish to turn it off. So later it's added as a toggle that is by default on, and you still complain about what might as well be a 'your mileage may vary' situation, meaning there are people other than you who'd like these features, such as the suggestions. You're with the crowd? Welcome. You're not with the crowd? Toggle off in less than ten seconds. This is meant to satisfy both haters of the feature and lovers of the feature.

I'm not even sure what's going on anymore, which is right, which is wrong, what is evil or good, etc...
I don't read agreements unless they are extremely short, in general. Of course that's a bad habit, but reading agreements to each piece of software you're going to install is quite the time-tasker. But I guess I should read the Windows 10 agreements anyways, because if anything, it seems that this is where things really get muddy and unclear as people post their impression of it, mine included. I need to reach a definitive answer.

After perusing the rest of the thread, and having in mind the workaround JMich brought to my attention in order to disable updates, I ended up to the conclusion that the only way to find out whether Windows 10 is for me or not would be to actually try it hands on for more than just 5 minutes. Being a risk-averse person, only way I'd want to do that would be in a virtual machine, which would mean I'd need an iso file. I found a way to legally acquire one via this link, and so, until I get around to doing so I have a couple of questions:
-After installation, how much disk space does Windows 10 use for the OS itself only? I recall that Win7 seemed to take up 10-15 Gbs for the OS only, and Linux Mint 7-10 Gbs. I'm asking because I want to know how much space I should allot to the Win10 virtual machine in order for both the freshly installed Win10 to fit in there and for me to have an extra space of 10-15 gbs to install other software and add other files/documents if needed.
-Does Win10 play nicely in a virtual machine? That is, does it restrain itself to the limits of that machine, or is there any possibility the iso will threaten to "break out" of the virtual machine (so to speak) and overwrite the data of the host system? My fear might be irrational here, especially as nothing of the sort has happened with the linux distros I've tested, but as I already said, I'm kind of a risk-averse person...
Thanks in advance for any help.

I've been using Win7 for many many years, refusing to update to Win8 (just couldn't get used to it). When Win10 came along, I had high hopes, but all the stories about it made me realise that I'll never want to update to Win10, or any other further version either. So I decided to take a different upgrade path and switched to Linux.

And oh boy, am I glad I did. It ain't perfect and the switch ain't for everyone, but it worked out awesome for me!

I never intended.

But it happened anyway.

Yeah, I did. One of the features that I had never expected to get on Windows 10 before I upgraded my laptop, was the personal assistant, Cortana, which I loved and will always love forever. Although Windows 10 brings many great futuristic features to my laptop, my Star Wars: Battlefront 2 now faces bugs/problems that have forced me to uninstall it recently.

I wish Microsoft were to release a patch/update that would fix my Star Wars game, or at least an update that would make old games more compatible on Windows 10. It's a really huge drawback to me since many new custom maps and mods (only one mod actually) for Star Wars: Battlefront 2 are currently worth checking out. Like the Tatooine at War custom map and The Force Awakens mod.

Thank you for so beautifully illustrating the sort of behaviour I was describing.

You don't seem to understand what my concerns are, which you have still labeled as illegitimate, even when I didn't even fully outline them in my previous post.

I'll help you out.

MS is collecting information from Win10 machines. I don't think that can possibly be disputed. Are you still with me? Good. The information they attempt to collect will be used for amongst other things profiling people in order to try to advertise to them. I don't think that could possibly be disputed. Right? Still with me? Ok. I object to this. Even if it can be turned off, I object to the attempt in principle, and won't touch an OS which tries this with a 10 foot pole. The fact that MS is doing this makes them objectively untrustworthy in my opinion. I won't trust my most sensitive data to an OS created by a company I consider to be untrustworthy.

There, done. I don't see how you can call that illegitimate. I am not basing any of this on conspiracy theories, I am basing it on known facts. Regardless, I don't give a flying **** whether you approve of my opinion or not, it's not going to change.

I have three devices on the Windows 10 ecosystem. I now run Windows 10 on my Xbox One, my PC, and my phone. I'm not as satisfied with W10 on PC as I was with W7, as it has some issues with older games. I have not had an issue with any games from GOG yet, but games from CD-ROMs can be tricky or not work at all. W10 on the Xbone is pretty nice though, it greatly improved performance in the menus, and the new UI looks a lot better. The same can be said about W10 Mobile. Performance is excellent, even on my budget phone, and the menus and UI are very user-friendly. Also, customizing tiles on the start screen is a nice way to kill time :D