I’m now the proud owner of a Microsoft Surface Go with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. It’s by no means a power house (I’ll have a review for you sometime next week that addresses my user experience,) but it’s more than capable of allowing me to get work done in coffee shops, on an airplane tray table or in the bathroom.
You’ll never know if I wrote this in the middle of a poop. You must live with this.
I have a list of software that I install before on a Windows 10 machine before I dare to put it to work: Firefox, ProtonMail Bridge and ProtonVPN, TripMode and, so I can easily move my work from one device to another, SpiderOak and Dropbox. But none of these is as important to my peace of mind than a piece of software called ShutUp10, from O&O Software.
The annoying shit that Windows 10 does that makes using it a security nightmare and a bloatware ridden pain in the ass to use? ShutUp10 kills it all. It’s an application that collects all of Windows 10’s security, privacy and update options in one easy to manage UI. If you’re new to securing your information and tweaking out a Microsoft-powered rig, O&O has your back: ShutUp10’s comes with a list of recommendations for the ‘features’ that most people will want to and, in many cases, should turn off. For more experienced users, it’s also possible to address each of the options in ShutUp10 on a granular level. So, if you want to leave location services on, but keep the Windows Store from downloading Solitaire every time you turn away from your computer for more than a moment, it can do that too.
If you’re not into my explanation of why this bit of software is awesome, try this on for size:
From O&O Software:
Windows 10 wants to give users the easiest possible daily experience and in doing so very rarely forces you to actually read and confirm a security notice. Unfortunately, this simplified approach from Microsoft means much more data is passed onto them than many users would like.
Microsoft uses most data to display personalized information to you that is aimed at making your computer life easier. As an example, Windows 10 can remind you to set off to the airport 30 minutes earlier due to traffic en route. In order to deliver this information to you, however, Windows 10 has to access your calendar entries, your mails (i.e. the airline confirmation email), your location and it has to have access to the internet to get traffic news.
Some services protocol your entire keyboard entries, share your WLAN access data with your Facebook contacts or connect your computer without asking permission to a public – and potentially unprotected – network. While this means that you and your contacts do not have to grapple with complicated WLAN passwords, it also poses a significant security risk.
Decide for yourself how important your “comfort” is when weighed up with your privacy and how to protect it. O&O ShutUp10 presents you with all important settings in one location – you need no previous IT knowledge and there is no need to manually change the Windows 10 system settings.
Did I mention that it’s available for the low, low price of absolutely free? Because, well it is. This if nothing else, makes it worth checking out, in my opinion.