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Windows Snooping Patches KB 2952664, KB 2976978 Are Back (Again)

posted by on Friday March 10 2017, @03:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the malware-or-spyware,-you-decide dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Windows Update came roaring back today [Mar 7] after more than a month in a semi-comatose state, and the chute filled up quickly this morning. Windows Update seems to be working well -- even more reason to check your Win7 and 8.1 systems and make sure it's turned off

[...] More disconcerting are the re-re-releases of KB 2952664 (Win7) and KB 2976978 (Win8.1). As I explained last month, those two patches have, in the past, triggered a new Windows task called DoScheduledTelemetryRun.

Even proponents of installing all Win7 and 8.1 patches balk at those patches, which were born in the crucible of the Get Windows 10 (GWX) marched upgrade madness. The series was renumbered, with no explanation: KB 2852664 was renumbered from revision 25 on Oct. 4, 2016, to revision 12 today. Microsoft states:

This update performs diagnostics on the Windows systems that participate in the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program. The diagnostics evaluate the compatibility status of the Windows ecosystem, and help Microsoft to ensure application and device compatibility for all updates to Windows. There is no GWX or upgrade functionality contained in this update.

Yet it appears as if the scheduled task runs whether CEIP is enabled or not. If there's a reason for installing the patches, other than increased telemetry, I haven't heard about it.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/3177812/microsoft-windows/windows-snooping-patches-kb-2952664-kb-2976978-are-back-again.html

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  • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Friday March 10 2017, @06:06PM (2 children)

    by Nerdfest (80) on Friday March 10 2017, @06:06PM (#477441)

    The Mint recommentation above is good. I don't use MATE, but loved Gnome 2. Might be light enough on that older machine too. If not, try Xubuntu. Ubuntu variants are great for supporting hardware. I've actually had better support than Windows in most cases (but with a small sample size). I don'tlike the full-scree apps thing either, and use Kubuntu, but your machine may be a touch old to get great performance. It's both functional an pretty, but definitely a heavier desktop than Xfce.

    You can always just install Ubuntu or Mint and install all of the desktops to try them out. They're not that big and you just pick one to use at login time.

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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday March 10 2017, @06:27PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Friday March 10 2017, @06:27PM (#477452) Journal

    Gonna pop in here with Manjaro, and xfce.
    Gonna pop out with..... oh, you don't want to see that.
    :)

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---

  • (Score: 2) by julian on Friday March 10 2017, @07:27PM

    by julian (6003) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 10 2017, @07:27PM (#477481)

    Ubuntu variants are great for supporting hardware.

    They use newer kernels compared to more conservative distros like Debian and aren't so ideological as to not include "non-free" firmware. It does help a lot to get things up and running at first boot.