Is it really neccessary to ditch Windows 10 ?.

[dunno]

Windows Firewall Control is nice.

Browsing WFC for what is allowed to "phone home" I noticed that Remote Access is Allowed by default, I scratched my head as I have disabled "Allow Remote connections to my PC".

1). Is there any harm in blocking all the Remote Access which is allowed that WFC shows ?.
2). Is it necessary to do this if Remote Connections is disabled ?.

I don't trust Microsoft hence the reason for my "puzzled Alsatian look" with this Remote access disabled but allowed in firewall.

[Kilmatead]

I can't speak authoritatively on this (I don't even have a rule for remote access!), so that may be a leftover rule from when you first installed windows and WFC is just integrating the old rules with the new. It's usually best to just start clean with recommended rules and turn on notifications so you can be pestered about every process until you surrender all hope or exhaust the supply of soiled street children who are always tugging on your robes asking for bread.

I have RA disabled as well, so I probably just deleted the rule a long time ago as being superfluous, but you're always free to experimentally disable any rules you like at any time without having to actually delete them. It can get a bit tedious attempting to track down exactly which service is invoking yet another svhost instance, so it's easy to get caught up in the weeds. What's the worst thing that can happen if Windows can't phone home?

When in doubt, delete a rule (maybe export them first), and wait to see if any notifications pop up. If the service is disabled, odds are nothing will happen.

The dev keeps an active "help" thread on Wilder's Security Forums for any random questions/queries you may have, if necessary.

[nikos]

so no more quick assist (remote desktop) for you, you're on your own

[Kilmatead]

And a thousand East Indian maidens sigh with relief that they no longer have to laugh politely at the silly Westerners with their first world PC problems which no amount of assistance could ever help anyway.

You've got to keep an eye on Windows... I also keep Restore Points disabled as they are unnecessary, but not only does Windows keep trying to create them (usually failing), but on larger "updates" the setting has been known to be turned back on, no doubt "for my own good". Untrustworthy bastards, are they.

[dunno]

so no more quick assist (remote desktop) for you, you're on your own

Who in his right mind would ever allow anyone to control their PC ?, like giving the car keys to a stranger and hope that all goes well.

[nikos]

I do it all the time, helping "mature" users get out of xplorer2 troubles

[Tuxman]

Why does xplorer2 cause so much trouble?

[nikos]

it's rather the septuagenarians that get into knots with simple things, not xplorer2

[Kilmatead]

I've got a couple of those septuagenarians as neighbours, and they (no matter how much I attempt to dissuade them) cling to the disturbing belief that "clicking on pop-ups without reading them first will make them go away faster".

A classic philosophy, if e'er t'was. Nothing a little arsenic in the tea couldn't solve.

[dunno]

Click close web page is the fastest way of making obnoxious banners go away. "that'l learn them".

[Kilmatead]

You know that perverse pleasure you get from betting the neighbour's kid a tenner that he can't reverse a hitched trailer around a bend into a parking spot? Hours of entertainment. Ireland is an entire country filled with people who couldn't drive 2 metres in reverse with a trailer without causing an international incident - and it's even worse when they become septuagenarians.

Closing the web page just isn't an acceptable solution when there are hedges to be wrecked, grasses to be trampled, and stupid statuesque bollards to be knocked around instead. It's a bloody national past-time.

[nikos]

Nothing a little arsenic in the tea couldn't solve.

be kind to old timers -- you'll be there sooner than you think!

[Kilmatead]

I am the ironically wry smile Mick Jagger flashes every time he sings, at age 82, "hope I die before I get old". Somebody's got to keep the faith and stand up for the classical values, despite any inherent hypocrisy that may entail!

[Tuxman]

Mick Jagger sings for The Who now?

[Kilmatead]

See? Memory's the first thing to go, though in my experience the motherboard is usually at fault there. I, of course, meant Roger Daltrey, who, himself at 81, is in the same quandary as Mick. That being said, if you simply replace "What a drag it is getting old" in my original sentence, it still works.

In my defence, recently reading David Hepworth's Hope I Get Old Before I Die: Why Rock Stars Never Retire filled my poor brain with entirely too much nonsense to keep straight. Am looking forward to Cameron Crowe's new memoir "Still Uncool After All These Years" though, so time to rewatch Almost Famous for the umpteenth-time.