Windows 10 Worst Feature Installed On Windows 7 And Windows 8

Laughing at Microsoft MSFT +4.65%’s controversial data mining and privacy invasions within Windows 10? Well Windows 7 and Windows 8 users should laugh no longer as this most hated spying is now headed your way…

Software specialist site gHacks has discovered that Microsoft has pushed four new updates to both Windows 7 and Windows 8 which introduce new data collecting and user behavior tracking features.
The four updates in question and the official Microsoft descriptions are:

• KB3068708 Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry – This update introduces the Diagnostics and Telemetry tracking service to existing devices. By applying this service, you can add benefits from the latest version of Windows to systems that have not yet upgraded. The update also supports applications that are subscribed to Visual Studio Application Insights. (Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1), and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1)

• KB3022345 (replaced by KB3068708) Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry – This update introduces the Diagnostics and Telemetry tracking service to in-market devices. By applying this service, you can add benefits from the latest version of Windows to systems that have not yet been upgraded. The update also supports applications that are subscribed to Visual Studio Application Insights. (Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1), and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1)

• KB3075249 Update that adds telemetry points to consent.exe in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 – This update adds telemetry points to the User Account Control (UAC) feature to collect information on elevations that come from low integrity levels. (Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1), and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1)

• KB3080149 Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry – This package updates the Diagnostics and Telemetry tracking service to existing devices. This service provides benefits from the latest version of Windows to systems that have not yet upgraded. The update also supports applications that are subscribed to Visual Studio Application Insights. (Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1), and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1)

Furthermore gHacks notes that ” these four updates ignore existing user preferences stored in Windows 7 and Windows 8 (including any edits made to the Hosts file) and immediately starts exchanging user data with vortex-win.data.microsoft.com and settings-win.data.microsoft.com.

“These, and maybe others, appear to be hardcoded which means that the Hosts file is bypassed automatically”, gHacks explains.

I have reached out to Microsoft about the new patches and will update when the company’s response if/when it is received.

But until then the bigger question for those uncomfortable with these changes is: How do you stop them?

The Windows 7 and Windows 8 Advantage

While this development will inevitably amuse Windows 10 users (unless they are considering a downgrade), the clear benefit of Windows 7 and Windows 8 at this point is updates are not mandatory.

This means Windows 7 and Windows 8 users can choose not to download the updates or, if they have already been installed, they can be uninstalled and neither operating system will automatically reinstall them without user permission.

Taking this a step further, Windows 7 and Windows 8 users can right click on any updates shown by Windows Update and choose ‘Hide Update’. This will stop them being searched for and accidentally installed again.