Microsoft is preventing users from blocking Windows 10 telemetry services via HOSTS file
Microsoft Telemetry Service is a service built by Microsoft in the company’s various software and operating systems. It is designed to collect user usage data for analysis and product improvement.
However, data collected by telemetry services usually involve privacy issues. Although Microsoft promises that all data is desensitized, many users still think that turning off telemetry is a risk.
The built-in telemetry service of Windows 10 can be adjusted to the basic mode, that is, collecting less data, while the beta version must select the complete mode to submit all data.
So some users who do not want to be telemetry by Microsoft use the HOSTS file Microsoft Telemetry Service, but it seems that Microsoft is now preventing users from blocking the Telemetry Service.
It was a simple matter to block the telemetry service through the HOSTS file, which can redirect specific domain names to specific addresses to bypass the domain name resolution system.
Therefore, the user only needs to redirect the domain name used by the Microsoft Telemetry Service to the localhost, so that the telemetry service data cannot be reported to achieve the purpose of shielding.
Recently, Microsoft updated the Microsoft Defender antivirus software built into Windows 10, and the new definition update began to detect this blocking behavior.
It is okay for users to modify the file to redirect other content, but adding the telemetry service address and then saving it will be intercepted by Microsoft and prevent the user from continuing to save.
For users who have been modified, Microsoft will issue an alert in Microsoft Defender, saying that the system has potential threats and restore the files to the system default state.
At present, Microsoft only prevents users from modifying but not forbidding users to modify. Therefore, we can close the Microsoft antivirus software before modifying and saving.
After the modification, you can ignore it when the Windows Defenders detects it and alarms, or add the HOSTS file directly to the whitelist to prevent Microsoft from detecting it.
Via: bleepingcomputer
