Windows 10: HOSTS file blocking telemetry is now flagged as a risk

[Porthos]

Starting at the end of July, Microsoft has begun detecting HOSTS files that block Windows 10 telemetry servers as a 'Severe' security risk.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...-blocking-telemetry-is-now-flagged-as-a-risk/

 

[britechguy]

And I'd have to agree with Microsoft.

OS system telemetry, particularly if just system health is sent, has been a godsend to users of Windows (and other OSes, and there are many that use telemetry). It provides an important service to the Windows user community as a whole, including the user trying to block it.

I will not go into my now ancient rant (as I had to do it repeatedly in 2015) about the need to understand that telemetry is NOT spying in any meaningful sense of that word.

Lawrence Abrams is a good writer, and his proviso near the end of that article is critically important.

 

[trevm999]

Update Compliance/Desktop Analytics uses the telemetry feature to report on Windows Update and Defender status, so in that case it definitely would be a security issue.

 

[GTP]

I'll continue to block MS's telemetry as long as I'm able.
I use NTLite to build my own OS, ripping out the stuff i dont need/want.
Its amazing how fast, reliable and stable Windblows is afterward.
I also block nVidia's telemetry garbage with hosts entries and a small tool by Nate Schoffner, available on GitHub.

 

[sapphirescales]

I use NTLite to build my own OS, ripping out the stuff i dont need/want.
Its amazing how fast, reliable and stable Windblows is afterward.

Really? I did a test once and removed a ton of crap from Windows 10 using NTLite. Saw ZERO difference on a standard 5400rpm laptop hard drive. The thing was still so slow, you might as well be using an eMachines 233Mhz Celeron with Windows XP installed. Everything is pretty much instant on an unaltered Windows 10 install if you're using an SSD. I found NTLite to be useless when it comes to performance improvements. The test unit was an E6420 with a (2nd gen?) i5 processor and 4GB RAM. Maybe it would make an improvement with one of those potato processors like the AMD E1, but I didn't test that. I get those types of machines in so rarely that it wasn't worth me testing.

I actually did two tests, one with removing just the stuff I wanted to remove and one with removing basically everything they allowed you to remove. Still no difference on a 5400rpm hard drive. Windows 10 just doesn't work on a hard drive unless you have fast startup turned off, and leaving fast startup turned on presents its own set of problems...

 

[britechguy]

Windows 10 just doesn't work on a hard drive unless you have fast startup turned off, and leaving fast startup turned on presents its own set of problems...

And there's absolutely no need for Fast Startup with an SSD, anyway.

It's a feature I turn off, regardless of drive type, as part of my standard setup. The problems from it, when they occur (and eventually they will), are, to me, simply not worth any time saved in booting up. And those never seemed all that substantial to me to begin with. And if your practice is like mine, leaving your machine on, then it's really nothing but a potential problem waiting to happen.

 

[Phillip Manning]

Had this problem on a computer running Sybot-anti Becon, spybot was editing the host file to block microsoft addresses and MSE was flagging the host file as having been messed with.