Good stuff Doc.

-That's a piece of REALLY useful software !! 

I like ashampoo as a company and have bought some decent software from them before. I just upgraded to Win10 yesterday and manually shut off everything I saw during the installation process. I ran this program and still found somethings on that I thought would have been off based on a previous selection. Levels within levels... lol Thanks for the heads up Doc.

Good to know should I ever get to 10. Thanks Doc.

Seems like it "says something" that somebody saw enough of a need to sit and write a utility to put a leash on Win10.  I'm wondering if they'll be able to keep up with the patches.  Thanks for the post.

DaveRI

reply 4

Seems like it "says something" that somebody saw enough of a need to sit and write a utility to put a leash on Win10.  I'm wondering if they'll be able to keep up with the patches.  Thanks for the post.

Shouldn't really be that big of a deal. Those settings are all in the Windows10 settings menus, this tool is just aggregating them all in one spot for ease of use.

 A good tool to have. I've used  DoNotSpy   as well. They both are a must for Windows 10  http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/donotspy10.html

I have a number of Ashampoo software titles and can thoroughly recommend their utilities as being 1st class.  Thing is I don't know if/when I'll ever need this particular onel, being I'm still on Win 8.1 and thus far have no intention of upgrading.  I do have an older machine prepared for Win 10 to be installed, but I keep ho-humming and dragging my feet as to whether or not I do it.  Thus far the 'NOT' keeps coming up trumps.

While thankfully much of of the intrusive stuff in Win 10 can be turned off, I still have an issue with the butt ugly UI and icons, so until those are fully customisable I'll not be going to Win 10.

Its all good if you get a free program that does helps you secure your privacy, but what about Antivirus Software like AVG?
AVG is  starting to sell customer information to 3rd partys, so using the Antivirus is almost impossible if you do not want to get SPAM or become transparent.

I know this goes into another direction, i mainly say this since it does seem that AVG isnt the only one making these changes, it looks like all of them are attached to one fishing line.

SO my question is should you be more worried about windows10 or...
 

Yeah, the sale of customer information to 3rd parties is ever growing... sadly.  Even MS does it now, with customer data going  to MS partners such as HP and others.  For mine, it should be totally 100% illegal and punishable by very hefty fines.  For example, just because I purchase Microsoft Office, it doesn't necessarily mean that I want to purchase a HP printer, scanner and/or inks.  Similarly, if I purchase Adobe Photoshop it doesn't mean that I'm in the market for a camera, printer or inks, etc.

Now I'm very careful about unticking those 3rd party offers, etc, because I simply do not want advertising or offers on items I have no intention of ever purchasing, yet I was inundated with 3rd party spam when I purchased a copy of Paintshop Pro a few years ago.  If I want/need something, I will research it for myself and will purchase that which I see as good value and preforming the task[s] at hand, so I have no need of a trillion spam emails directing me to buy this, that or whatever.  If/when I need a printer, I'll go to a store and purchase the one most suited to my needs and budget, it's as simple as that.

The other thing that pisses me off about this spam that arrives after a seller has on-sold your information, it is very hard to opt out of.  Despite trying several times to opt out of the junk that arrived after I purchased Paintshop Pro, it kept coming in waves and even increased in number, with companies I'd never even heard of sending crap for software, hardware and other electronics.... and yes, it was all connected to my PSP purchase: "Due to your recent purchase of Paintshop Pro, we thought you might be interested in......"

It turned out that I did not in fact make my purchase through Corel, but a licensed reseller with fingers in a lot of pies.  Yeah, I made a complaint to Corel about the spam and I received an apologetic email stating that it had been investigated and the that reseller had been ordered to cease and desist.  Obviously it was enough and the spam stopped, though I rather it hadn't begun at all.

Companies will sell data. W10 is a smart OS...to do some of those 'smart' things, it needs your data. Let's say you're NOT interested in those 'smart' things. Ashampoo's AntiSpy can help control access to that vast amount of data.

benmanns...if you think Ashampoo's collecting data and calling home, it should say something about that in its EULA. Since I did not install it (not on W10), perhaps someone might help and report back regarding the privacy aspects and it collecting data?

I was not speaking about Ashampoo AntiSpy it does the job it claims to do.
However even if you stop MS snuffing - It (Ashampoo AntiSpy) does not target your AV from doing so.
Would be great if it would though.

If i install an Antivirus program i do so to have a certain protection/privacy - but this does no longer apply with some AV´s.
That is all im saying, since im more worried that there might be personal/information traded from them instead of MS itself. 
I hope this makes more sense now. 

Since im not trying to criticize your post DOC - Havent read anything negative about Ashampoo AntiSpy to make this clear just thought i point out the other issue that is now real with certain AV manufacturers and their new policies.

benmanns...that's just how I read what you wrote...so I suggested a remedy.

No big deal...wasn't taking it as a criticism. I thought it was a valid question.

I'm certainly not interested in those 'smart' things, and I'm not the only ones, yet companies persist in forcing 'smart' things [read advertising] down our throats like there's no tomorrow.... so when Microsoft jumps on the 'smart; bandwagon there's the major problem for me.  I hate advertising 'full stop', so when my OS generates it by default there is a breach of trust as far as I'm concerned.  I want my OS to run my PC and be non-intrusive.... PERIOD!!!!

While I'm thankful for the efforts of Ashampoo and others to nullify the intrusions, one of the major writers, Martin Brinkmann, I think, discovered that some of the 'spying' elements of Win 10 are in fact hard coded into the shell and cannot be turned off.  So much for being transparent!!!   

For me, there's too muck to dislike and distrust about Win 10.... the UI and icons being two major yuk factors I cannot get past unless Stardock updates WB and IP for Win 10.... and last I heard, IP isn't in the mix of things to get updated.

Oh well, I'm more than happy to stay with Win 8.1.

I was somewhat skeptical when Microsoft announced that the Windows 10 upgrade for those folks on Windows 7 and 8.1 was going to be free.  I wondered just how are they going to work the Financial Balance Sheet with the lose of those revenues.  From all the news about data gathering/collection that appears to be inbeded in Windows 10 it is starting to become somewhat clear, atleast to this old fart, that they just might have swithced to a new business plan.

I guess it is true, in life there are no free lunches.  

Now this is just my opinion and not based on any facts or proof, but it does make you wonder.  

When I first read about some of the improvements in Win 10 I was excited and couldn't wait to have it on my PCs, but my joy was soon dashed to bits when I found out about the in-built snooping abilities.... meaning both the obvious and not so obvious [read hidden] ones.  To call Win 10 a major disappointment is an enormous understatement in my book, and none of the so-called improvements make up for all that is wrong with it.