- Jun 4, 2016
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So you received the notifaction that you are eligible for a free Windows 10 upgrade, but you have heard of the privacy nightmares that it contained, and you might be having second thoughts on upgrading, well, not to fear as long as you follow this quick and simple tutorial you will be able to enjoy Windows 10 with your privacy intact.
So here are the simple steps to upgrade, but first some notes:
1- Please read the tutorial thoroughly before upgrading.
2- You must have a copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 on your computer, for users of windows 10 you will have to buy a copy of windows 10 as you are not eligible for the free upgrade.
3- I'm not the all knowing, feel free to add points to this tutorial to better enhance it.
4-This tutorial is based on a video made by an ex Microsoft developer so all thanks to him, here's a link to the original tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1kGMCfb2xw
without any further, here we go:
1) so we start by heading to Control Panel> System and Security> Control Panel Which should look something like this:
Click on Install Update and Windows will automatically download Windows 10 which is about 3GB.
Alternatively, you can click on the windows 10 logo in your task bar and choose Upgrade Now.
2) After the download is finished, your PC will take several hours, yes several hours, to prepare the Installation, don't fear it isn't stuck (I restarted the download 3 times, when I shouldn't have).
3)after that an installation window will open click upgrade you will go through casual installation windows and legal stuff, and then you should be alerted to take a decision regarding your files which looks like this:
you can keep the files or go for a fresh installation
4) Your PC will restart and will pop up the Windows 10 Installation windows which look like this:
5) DO NOT CLICK ON USE EXPRESS SETTINGS, otherwise you are risking your privacy, instead click on the small and almost dimmed Customize Settings button, which will take you to the following screen:
6) you can review what each option says but you must eventually turn them all off and click next, which should take you to a similar screen so just keep clicking next and switching off all options.
7) After that you will be taken to a screen to login and tells you to choose your local account to log on at some point here you will be alerted to login or create a Microsoft account, DO NOT DO THAT, MICROSOFT WILL USE THIS TO COLLECT DATA FROM YOUR PC, instead you should click skip (or whatever it says for no basically which is also small and dimmed out like the customize settings window)
8) Now your ready to go and use your PC and enjoy windows 10, right? NO, Microsoft still has some tricks up it's sleeve, so although you switched off every single option you are still unprotected, so let's complete our tutorial.
Click on the start menu and click settings, which should pop up this window:
click on Privacy:
9) Turn off all the buttons on each option all the way down to background applications and turn those off too. (trust me, this you can still use them but they won't collect data)
10) We are almost done here but one more thing remains because Microsoft will not allow you to switch off some privacy options, in fact it does not even provide a way to switch them off, so we're going to download a 3rd party software (which is completely safe to use) called Spybot Anti-Beacon, which you can download here:
http://download.spybot.info/AntiBeacon/SpybotAntiBeacon-1.5-setup.exe#hash(md5:63C2CF7B61D29D7664BFA55D33EDA510)
11) After downloading, install the software and make sure to check the box that says to check immunization after system restart, which basically checks if windows has turned back on some privacy settings, after that it should come up like this or close to it:
click on Immunize and this should appear now:
12) Click on optional, it will contain other privacy options that might want to apply for maximum protection, like disabling bing collecting info, which would consequently disable bing.
13) That is it your PC is now private like it should be.
A couple of last advises to go by:
1- Avoid using Edge browser and bing, instead use Firefox/Chrome/Opera and Google/Yahoo.
2- Avoid sending crash reports to Microsoft.
3- Rerun Spybot Anti-Beacon after system updates as those tend to reverse privacy settings
4- Keep your PC safe, that is always important.
Thank you for your time.
So here are the simple steps to upgrade, but first some notes:
1- Please read the tutorial thoroughly before upgrading.
2- You must have a copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 on your computer, for users of windows 10 you will have to buy a copy of windows 10 as you are not eligible for the free upgrade.
3- I'm not the all knowing, feel free to add points to this tutorial to better enhance it.
4-This tutorial is based on a video made by an ex Microsoft developer so all thanks to him, here's a link to the original tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1kGMCfb2xw
without any further, here we go:
1) so we start by heading to Control Panel> System and Security> Control Panel Which should look something like this:
Click on Install Update and Windows will automatically download Windows 10 which is about 3GB.
Alternatively, you can click on the windows 10 logo in your task bar and choose Upgrade Now.
2) After the download is finished, your PC will take several hours, yes several hours, to prepare the Installation, don't fear it isn't stuck (I restarted the download 3 times, when I shouldn't have).
3)after that an installation window will open click upgrade you will go through casual installation windows and legal stuff, and then you should be alerted to take a decision regarding your files which looks like this:
you can keep the files or go for a fresh installation
4) Your PC will restart and will pop up the Windows 10 Installation windows which look like this:
5) DO NOT CLICK ON USE EXPRESS SETTINGS, otherwise you are risking your privacy, instead click on the small and almost dimmed Customize Settings button, which will take you to the following screen:
6) you can review what each option says but you must eventually turn them all off and click next, which should take you to a similar screen so just keep clicking next and switching off all options.
7) After that you will be taken to a screen to login and tells you to choose your local account to log on at some point here you will be alerted to login or create a Microsoft account, DO NOT DO THAT, MICROSOFT WILL USE THIS TO COLLECT DATA FROM YOUR PC, instead you should click skip (or whatever it says for no basically which is also small and dimmed out like the customize settings window)
8) Now your ready to go and use your PC and enjoy windows 10, right? NO, Microsoft still has some tricks up it's sleeve, so although you switched off every single option you are still unprotected, so let's complete our tutorial.
Click on the start menu and click settings, which should pop up this window:
click on Privacy:
9) Turn off all the buttons on each option all the way down to background applications and turn those off too. (trust me, this you can still use them but they won't collect data)
10) We are almost done here but one more thing remains because Microsoft will not allow you to switch off some privacy options, in fact it does not even provide a way to switch them off, so we're going to download a 3rd party software (which is completely safe to use) called Spybot Anti-Beacon, which you can download here:
http://download.spybot.info/AntiBeacon/SpybotAntiBeacon-1.5-setup.exe#hash(md5:63C2CF7B61D29D7664BFA55D33EDA510)
11) After downloading, install the software and make sure to check the box that says to check immunization after system restart, which basically checks if windows has turned back on some privacy settings, after that it should come up like this or close to it:
click on Immunize and this should appear now:
12) Click on optional, it will contain other privacy options that might want to apply for maximum protection, like disabling bing collecting info, which would consequently disable bing.
13) That is it your PC is now private like it should be.
A couple of last advises to go by:
1- Avoid using Edge browser and bing, instead use Firefox/Chrome/Opera and Google/Yahoo.
2- Avoid sending crash reports to Microsoft.
3- Rerun Spybot Anti-Beacon after system updates as those tend to reverse privacy settings
4- Keep your PC safe, that is always important.
Thank you for your time.
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