Privacytools.io: ❌ Software Removal | W10Privacy

[losuler]

Reason for removal

I feel as if W10Privacy (which is featured under the Don't use Windows 10 section) should be removed as it is not open source. I understand a piece of software being open source or free software isn't a requirement, however as there is an equivalent program that is open source, I believe this would be preferred.

Suggestion for replacement

Name: Private Winten
Source code: https://github.com/DavidXanatos/priv10
Forum: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/private-winten-open-source-windows-10-privacy-tool-with-built-in-firewall.411531/
gHacks article (outdated version): https://www.ghacks.net/2018/12/26/private-winten-new-windows-10-privacy-tweaker-with-firewall/

It's to my understanding that Private Winten offers a similar feature set and interface as W10Privacy. Of all the other open source tools similar to W10Privacy, they either involved the command line in some manner (not necessarily great for the target audience for privacytools.io) or lacked the features of W10Privacy.

[Mikaela]

Also discussed for a few comments in https://github.com/privacytoolsIO/privacytools.io/issues/926#issuecomment-491769142 .

IMO we should be strongly discouraging Windows 10 use in the first place rather than provide recommendations on how to manage it, which ultimately seems like a flawed concept given that Microsoft could change/add things at any time via Windows Update in the future that breaks these protections.

~ @JonahAragon

[losuler]

Could this issue be reassessed @blacklight447-ptio? A user in the recent AMA on r/privacy brought up the same issue which went unanswered:

Why do you recommend W10Privacy? It's a proprietary tool poking system internals. It's like putting lipstick on a pig anyway. Sounds like a huge red flag whether author seems trustworthy or not.

In response to the quoted comment from https://github.com/privacytoolsIO/privacytools.io/issues/926#issuecomment-491971104, if

we should be strongly discouraging Windows 10 use in the first place rather than provide recommendations on how to manage it

then I believe that W10Privacy should be removed. If not, I think it should be replaced with Private Winten as it's open source, unlike W10Privacy.

[ghost]

I also agree with the removal.

[ghost]

I do not understand leaving this.
Discussion is neglected.
It should be removed soon.

[ghost]

I have no opinion on whether to post replacement software.
Either way this should be removed.

[blacklight447-ptio]

We plan to remove it, it has just been on the low priority list for us.

[Mikaela]

Please feel free to send a PR.

[dngray]

I did some research into this. Unfortunately the developer didn't want to put the sourcecode up. I did inquire and got this reply:

Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2020 22:26:58 +0100 (CET)

Hi Daniel,

thanks for your message.
The topic Open Source is certainly interesting, but so are other topics.
Everyone's time is limited, and I don't have the time or leisure to deal with it right now. This may change, but I'm not going to do anything about it at the moment.
Basically the program is not very well protected and with enough knowledge the source code can be determined. Therefore it is not important for me to prove to other people that the program is "clean".
As I said: I have the topic on my mind, but not more than that at the moment.

Best regards,
Bernd Schuster

It's not particularly difficult to reverse engineer, as it's only an AutoIt script and I did so.

I don't believe we've found an acceptable alternative, many of the apps simply stop various telemetry by adding them to the hosts.txt file. This program does more than that, and helps clean up Windows machines with all the crap that comes pre-installed.

1. Extract W10Privacy

   7z x W10Privacy.zip
   

2. Unpack

   upx -d W10Privacy.exe
   

3. Extract executable

   7z x W10Privacy.exe
   

4. I used https://github.com/dzzie/myaut_contrib on

   \.rsrc\0\RCDATA\SCRIPT to extract.
   

   .
   ├── 2-6-20 21.12.14_SCRIPT_.log
   ├── 2-6-20 21.12.16_SCRIPT_.log
   ├── 2-6-20 21.15.22_SCRIPT_auto.log
   ├── CommandLine
   │   ├── 7za.exe
   │   ├── 7za.pak
   │   └── 7za.raw
   ├── Icons
   │   ├── Leeres_Icon.ico
   │   ├── Leeres_Icon.pak
   │   └── Leeres_Icon.raw
   ├── PowerShell
   │   ├── Get-WUInstall_org.pak
   │   ├── Get-WUInstall_org.ps1
   │   ├── Get-WUInstall_org.raw
   │   ├── Get-WUInstall.pak
   │   ├── Get-WUInstall.ps1
   │   ├── Get-WUInstall.raw
   │   ├── PSWindowsUpdate_org.pak
   │   ├── PSWindowsUpdate_org.psm1
   │   ├── PSWindowsUpdate_org.raw
   │   ├── PSWindowsUpdate.pak
   │   ├── PSWindowsUpdate.psm1
   │   └── PSWindowsUpdate.raw
   ├── SCRIPT
   ├── SCRIPT.pak
   ├── SCRIPT.raw
   ├── SCRIPT_restore.au3
   ├── SCRIPT.stub
   ├── SCRIPT.tok
   ├── Tools
   │   ├── Anheften.pak
   │   ├── Anheften.raw
   │   ├── Anheften.vbs
   │   ├── donate.gif
   │   ├── donate.jpg
   │   ├── donate.pak
   │   ├── donate.raw
   │   ├── Internet Explorer_X64.lnk
   │   ├── Internet Explorer_X64.pak
   │   ├── Internet Explorer_X64.raw
   │   ├── Internet Explorer_X86.lnk
   │   ├── Internet Explorer_X86.pak
   │   ├── Internet Explorer_X86.raw
   │   ├── wu_andere_ms_produkte_an.pak
   │   ├── wu_andere_ms_produkte_an.raw
   │   ├── wu_andere_ms_produkte_an.vbs
   │   ├── wu_andere_ms_produkte_aus.pak
   │   ├── wu_andere_ms_produkte_aus.raw
   │   └── wu_andere_ms_produkte_aus.vbs
   └── W10Privacy
       ├── Languages.ini
       ├── Languages.pak
       ├── Languages.raw
       ├── W10Privacy_HOSTS_LIGHT.pak
       ├── W10Privacy_HOSTS_LIGHT.raw
       ├── W10Privacy_HOSTS_LIGHT.txt
       ├── W10Privacy_HOSTS.pak
       ├── W10Privacy_HOSTS.raw
       ├── W10Privacy_HOSTS.txt
       ├── W10Privacy_IPs_LIGHT.pak
       ├── W10Privacy_IPs_LIGHT.raw
       ├── W10Privacy_IPs_LIGHT.txt
       ├── W10Privacy_IPs.pak
       ├── W10Privacy_IPs.raw
       ├── W10Privacy_IPs.txt
       ├── W10Privacy_update.exe
       ├── W10Privacy_update.raw
       ├── WSUS-Server_entfernen.raw
       ├── WSUS-Server_entfernen.REG
       ├── WSUS-Server.pak
       ├── WSUS-Server.raw
       └── WSUS-Server.REG
   

Essentially it's a bunch of power shell scripts, registry entries and autoit scripts.