Privacy Settings with Windows 10 Setup

So... Windows 10 really likes to share your data with Microsoft and others. Most of the below settings are adapted from an Ars Tech article (found HERE) plus my own personal experience with the setup of Windows 10. Just note that with increased privacy and/or security settings comes a decrease in features (such as disabling Cortana). You don't have to do all of these, but some of them I'd highly recommend.

On the instillation screen you'll see a large button that says "Use Express Settings". Instead look for the small "Customize Settings" button and select that.

The first customization page has settings for personalization, targeted advertising and location tracking. Go ahead and disable everything on this page.

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The second page has some useful options. Turn off the following options:
Predictive Web Browsing; Connecting to open Wi-Fi hot spots; and Wi-Fi Sense

Finish the install as directed. The rest of the changes will need to be made after the install is completed.

In the new "Settings" app select the Privacy button and flip any option available to OFF except for SmartScrren Filter.

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Next, Select the Feedback option in the bottom left and change the Feedback frequency to "never" or Basic Health and Performance".

Next, go back to Settings (back arrow in top left) and Select the Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced Options > Choose how update are delivered. From here disable the sharing feature completely by flipping the toggle button to OFF:

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Now, hit the Start button and start typing "Cortana". Click on the cog icon to bring up Cortana's settings, Then select the toggle button to turn Cortana OFF:

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And that *should* do it for now...

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Using Python for GPG/PGP File Encryption - Part 1

So, this will be the start of a series that will build a python script for GPG/PGP file encryption. In this post, we'll look at installing gnupg for python and using python to setup the keystore, create a private key, exporting the associated public key, and importing a public key. Now everything done here can be done with simple gnupg commands, but learning how to do this with python will help in understanding the script we'll be building to complete file encryption. I will be covering non-python gnupg commands in a future post. Additionally, the folks at the python-gnupg site over at pythonhosted.org have done a really great job at documenting everything (link to their site at the bottom). The stuff I'll be going over will be more of a start-to-finish for anyone that may get lost in the muck of doing stuff with python. Full Disclosure #1: Any key identifier throughout the series of posts is FICTITIOUS and DOES NOT represent any real key, either associated with myself or...

Windows Server 2008: Log on as batch job

From time to time, I have to set up some scheduled tasks that required a dedicated account to run. And when doing so, I'll usually forget that the dedicated account usually isn't given any more permissions than what it needs to complete the task at hand. So, after setting up the task, Windows will usually yell at me and say "The account needs batch job rights". So here's how to grant batch job permissions on your server. Go to your start menu, and start searching for Local Security Policy In the left pane of the MMC that opens up, expand Local Policies, and highlight User Rights Assignment. Now, in the left right pane, locate "Log on as a batch job" and double click it. In the properties window that opens up, add the user or group that needs this permission. I find that if you have multiple service accounts running different tasks on the same server, it's easier to just add a group verses the individual a...

Visio Stencils Pack for Azure and Microsoft Integration (v5.0.0)

First off, I'd like to send a big shout out to Sandro Pereira who's been managing the vision stencils pack. Essentially, I'm re-posting his information here, because I had a really hard time finding the latest Visio pack for Azure, that wasn't a bunch of SVG's. My thought is that if more people re-post, maybe the search engines of the internet will have an easier time propagating the information... Sandero's Blog (the original post around the new stencils): https://blog.sandro-pereira.com/2019/10/18/microsoft-integration-and-azure-stencils-pack-for-visio-new-major-version-available-v5-0-0/ Sandero's GitHub: https://github.com/sandroasp/Microsoft-Integration-and-Azure-Stencils-Pack-for-Visio Microsoft TechNet Download: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Collection-of-Integration-e6a3f4d0 I will say, and maybe it's just because I'm using Visio 2013, each icon has a boarder that needs to be removed when putting it on the page... Likely it...

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