Use windows 10 without internet/updates

[emosun]

I was working on a few ideas that would allow me to use windows 10 in the future and was wondering if it's possible.

I currently have no reason to use windows 10 as it offers no advantage and several disadvantages to me. But in the future it may be a requirement for some software that I might end up needing.

I was thinking would it be possible to disable the network adapter within windows 10, then run a vm of linux and use that to browse the internet or do whatever I need via the internet and simply manually move whatever files I need over to the windows environment? I think this would be pretty streamlined vs having two whole machines and having to manually move files from one machine to another via a network or drive. I could just have everything on the same screen.

I'm aware windows 7 can have the ability to block every bit of data between the os and the internet and isolate just a browser , but I don't for one second trust that windows 10 will actually do that. So i don't think that will be a viable option.

Anyway , I'm up for ideas that will allow windows 10 to run with no ability to access the internet and having a program/workaround within the os able to access it

[Mira Yurizaki]

If you disable the host from accessing network resources, then how can a VM access those resources?

 

If you don't have a need for Windows as your daily OS, use Linux as the host and run Windows in a VM. Unless you need hardware GPU acceleration, you can get by just fine this way.

[Master Disaster]

You're being far to paranoid over a non issue.

[Radium_Angel]

4 minutes ago, emosun said:

I'm up for ideas

Reverse it. Run *nix as your main, and run Win10 in a VM isolated. With modern hardware the GPU/PCI passthrough gives you darn near full performance anyway...

[Enderman]

You know your ISP gets all your data regardless of what you do, right?

They take hundreds of times more information than microsoft.

[Eastman51]

if you disable the network adapter in Windows, I'm not 100% sure that even a VM can communicate out. 

 

However, there are VM solutions that offer you the ability to treat a folder on the host like a network drive inside the VM. So file transfers would be easy. But if you're so sketched out by Windows, why not just run Windows as a VM on whatever OS you're already using now?

[Speed Weed]

5 minutes ago, Enderman said:

You know your ISP gets all your data regardless of what you do, right?

 They take hundreds of times more information than microsoft.

VPN and DNS can stop ISP but not the government from tracking you. 

[Enderman]

2 minutes ago, Speed Weed said:

VPN and DNS can stop ISP but not the government from tracking you. 

I don't think you know what a DNS is.

Also a VPN will just make it so a different ISP gets your data, instead of your ISP.

The VPN still needs to connect to the internet somehow at the other end.

[emosun]

12 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

 

 

6 minutes ago, Enderman said:

 

It should be said that I'm not really going to respond to replies that are not what I'm asking. Sorry. Not here to argue even if you are

 

12 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Reverse it. Run *nix as your main, and run Win10 in a VM isolated. With modern hardware the GPU/PCI passthrough gives you darn near full performance anyway...

I don't know that linux will be 100% stable without bricking itself. One lesson I learned when trying out linux for the first time many years ago was , sometimes , it can brick itself for no reason.

When i had joined a linux forum and got started with it several linux enthusiast that were helping said that it sometimes happens. It's of no fault with the user , and can be fixed provided you know the issue. But it can be a big problem if you don't really know why it occured. Very rarely have I ever had windows brick itself beyond repair so I'd like to stay on windows as the base and keeping updates off will prevent any major changes to the software.

Plus I used adobe and I'm sure it could run in a vm but I'm not so sure it would be stable at 100% cpu load while rendering.

 

it's a good idea though and if worse come to worse it's an option so ty.

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, emosun said:

It should be said that I'm not really going to respond to replies that are not what I'm asking. Sorry. Not here to argue even if you are

Well, if you want to inconvenience yourself for the placebo of false security, then go right ahead

[emosun]

8 minutes ago, Eastman51 said:

why not just run Windows as a VM on whatever OS you're already using now?

Again I don't think that'll be very stable or efficient at 100% load in adobe vs just using the os as is. 

[Eastman51]

1 minute ago, emosun said:

Again I don't think that'll be very stable or efficient at 100% load in adobe vs just using the os as is. 

At that point I would just have a separate machine for Windows and a network drive for file transfers, and block it from going outside the LAN.  Or just dual boot my system and have networks disabled in Windows, then you can just grab files from the drive inside the other OS

[emosun]

2 minutes ago, Eastman51 said:

Or just dual boot my system and have networks disabled in Windows, then you can just grab files from the drive inside the other OS

I'll be honest I've never dual booted something before but that sounds interesting , kinda what i'd like to do

[emosun]

6 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Well, if you want to inconvenience yourself for the placebo of false security, then go right ahead

If you aren't going to contribute anything and only want to attempt to argue please do not comment there's plenty of other people I'm sure you can help elsewhere.

 

[Eastman51]

3 minutes ago, emosun said:

I'll be honest I've never dual booted something before but that sounds interesting , kinda what i'd like to do

If you have linux installed and install Windows, it should pop up with an OS selector automagically when you boot

edit: I know this is the case with Ubuntu for certain. Not 100% if it works this way with other distros

[emosun]

3 minutes ago, Eastman51 said:

If you have linux installed and install Windows, it should pop up with an OS selector automagically when you boot

and then you just boot both at the same time? is there then a keyboard command to flip flop between them?

So long as linux can be put onto it's own drive and is 100% seperate from windows (in the sense it could fail or be unplugged and not affect windows) then that seems ideal

[Speed Weed]

27 minutes ago, Enderman said:

I don't think you know what a DNS is.

 Also a VPN will just make it so a different ISP gets your data, instead of your ISP.

 The VPN still needs to connect to the internet somehow at the other end.

Domain Name Servers which maintain a directory of domains and translate them to the IP.

 

A lot of VPN providers offer no logging and encryption traffic such as Windscribe VPN( Canadian VPN provider) and Nord VPN. DNS like 1.1.1.1 is more privacy respect than Verizon FIOS ISP according to people that are used them before. 

 

If you host your own DNS and VPN than it will going stop ISP, but not the government. 

[Enderman]

9 minutes ago, Speed Weed said:

Domain Name Servers which maintain a directory of domains and translate them to the IP.

 

A lot of VPN providers offer no logging and encryption traffic such as Windscribe VPN( Canadian VPN provider) and Nord VPN. DNS like 1.1.1.1 is more privacy respect than Verizon FIOS ISP according to people that are used them before. 

 

If you host your own DNS and VPN than it will going stop ISP, but not the government. 

Well first of all, having a private DNS does not make your web traffic any more secure.

 

Second, a VPN still needs to connect to the internet through an ISP which then connects to the web, so all your traffic gets unencrypted and logged there. Even if the VPN itself doesn't log anything.

 

Third, hosting a VPN yourself does the same thing, it only encryps between your computer and the VPN, and then gets unencrypted in order to access the internet. Unless you're only accessing another one of your private computers.

 

Fourth, my point is that OP is just wasting his time for a placebo effect. But hey, there's really no point in my explaining that, I might as well be telling a flat earther that the earth isn't flat 

[Master Disaster]

40 minutes ago, emosun said:

 

It should be said that I'm not really going to respond to replies that are not what I'm asking. Sorry. Not here to argue even if you are.

 

No one's arguing, simply stating a fact. If you're that worried about your internet presence then you need to ring your ISP and cancel your connection. Microsoft are taking nothing from you that multiple other companies aren't already taking and a huge amount of the stories you hear about Windows 10 collecting data on you are exaggerated at best and pure fiction at worst.

 

Also btw I bet you've got a mobile phone on you at this very second....

[emosun]

7 minutes ago, Enderman said:

OP is just wasting his time

her not his

 

Also , nothing you have posted is anything I was asking for. 

[emosun]

2 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

If you're that worried about your internet presence

I don't recall mentioning or asking about this. Please do not create an argument I'm not at all interested.

[Master Disaster]

3 minutes ago, emosun said:

I don't recall mentioning or asking about this. Please do not create an argument I'm not at all interested.

Oh I'm sorry, I thought this entire thread was about how to avoid connecting to the internet. I guess one of us must be confused.

 

Btw you do realise Microsoft backported the telemetry from Win 10 to 7 & 8/8.1, right? You're literally no better off running 7 than 10.

[emosun]

2 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Oh I'm sorry, I thought this entire thread was about how to avoid connecting to the internet. 

 

no , If I wanted to avoid connecting to the internet I could just unplug it

I'm asking about alternatives for browser connectivity either via perhaps a vm or dual boot into linux or other alternatives. If you're not sure how to do that it's totally fine but if that's the case then I don't really need your help right now maybe you can help if another issue arises.

8 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Btw you do realise Microsoft backported the telemetry from Win 10 to 7 & 8/8.1, right? You're literally no better off running 7 than 10.

I would be pretty impressed if there was a windows update that I didn't know about or was able to install without me seeing it or being logged.

A lot of changes to windows 7 require quite a lot of updates to be installed in order to function so I'm more than 100% positive that I don't have this issue.

If you know the update number for this backport I can check the list to see if it was ever applied.

[Speed Weed]

36 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Well first of all, having a private DNS does not make your web traffic any more secure.

 

Second, a VPN still needs to connect to the internet through an ISP which then connects to the web, so all your traffic gets unencrypted and logged there. Even if the VPN itself doesn't log anything.

 

Third, hosting a VPN yourself does the same thing, it only encryps between your computer and the VPN, and then gets unencrypted in order to access the internet. Unless you're only accessing another one of your private computers.

 

Fourth, my point is that OP is just wasting his time for a placebo effect. But hey, there's really no point in my explaining that, I might as well be telling a flat earther that the earth isn't flat 

If the VPN provider say they don't log nothing from you than they will not going to log anything from you. User ISP will not going to see any traffic when the VPN is connected. User PC > User ISP > VPN > Internet. VPN acts like a secure server tunnel. 

 

 

[Enderman]

9 minutes ago, Speed Weed said:

If the VPN provider say they don't log nothing from you than they will not going to log anything from you. User ISP will not going to see any traffic when the VPN is connected. User PC > User ISP > VPN > Internet. VPN acts like a secure server tunnel. 

 

 

You don't understand.

The VPN cannot connect directly to the internet, it still requires an ISP.

User PC -> VPN client -> User ISP -> VPN server -> ISP -> internet.

Since the VPN connection is encrypted your ISP doesn't see your info.

The problem is that on the other end the connection needs to be decrypted in order to access websites, and that needs to go through the VPN's ISP.

Even if that data isn't collected by the VPN/ISP it will get collected by all the websites you visit, the search engine you use, the browser you use, etc etc etc