The more, the merrier! I've been using https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 for some time when using Windows, and being able to check settings at a glance in one place is very helpful.
This is cool! Might be less of a problem on MacOS, but I'd love a script that automatically turned off sending analytics to Apple every time I do a beta OS update.
Is sending analytics not most of the reason to opt in to beta updates?
I can't think of any upside to installing a release that's likely to have bugs or regressions if you're not going to send the analytics required to find the bugs that impact your software.
Is there a similar facility for Linux distro system packages? Like the Windows DISM command, I want to be able to know if e.g. some malware or other software has changed a system file... I can't believe this is not a standard thing in Linux distros already.
I've read so much FUD about Windows undoing settings with updates but in 3+ years it hasn't happened to me. The one thing they do revert with updates and have now removed completely is the registry hack to enable the old alt-tab menu. When they got rid of that I found Alt-Tab Terminator as a replacement and I'm happy with it.
But I see no trace of AI/Copilot, no ads, no suggestions, telemetry is still off, I disabled that stuff a long time ago and I didn't see them come back when I updated to 24H2 a few months ago.
The more, the merrier! I've been using https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 for some time when using Windows, and being able to check settings at a glance in one place is very helpful.
This is cool! Might be less of a problem on MacOS, but I'd love a script that automatically turned off sending analytics to Apple every time I do a beta OS update.
Is sending analytics not most of the reason to opt in to beta updates?
I can't think of any upside to installing a release that's likely to have bugs or regressions if you're not going to send the analytics required to find the bugs that impact your software.
Heads up: when you get a new Mac and use the transfer process, your disk ends up unencrypted on the new device.
Is there a similar facility for Linux distro system packages? Like the Windows DISM command, I want to be able to know if e.g. some malware or other software has changed a system file... I can't believe this is not a standard thing in Linux distros already.
It is. Most distros have a verify built into their packaging systems. For example; https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/red_hat_enterprise_...
Sounds like you want Tripwire https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/security-monitoring-tripwire
I've read so much FUD about Windows undoing settings with updates but in 3+ years it hasn't happened to me. The one thing they do revert with updates and have now removed completely is the registry hack to enable the old alt-tab menu. When they got rid of that I found Alt-Tab Terminator as a replacement and I'm happy with it.
But I see no trace of AI/Copilot, no ads, no suggestions, telemetry is still off, I disabled that stuff a long time ago and I didn't see them come back when I updated to 24H2 a few months ago.
More transparency is still good, though.
If you aren't checking, then it probably has happened to you. If it was trivial to monitor the settings, we wouldn't need a tool for it.