Hidden browsing traces in Windows?!
My father claims that there is some cache in Windows that records all internet activity. No matter which browser I use, whether I use private mode or just delete the history, my father seems to be able to see everything that I do on my mother's laptop. This once resulted in me being punished because I was taking brakes from studying in order to post on Cemetech (my parents were out whole day). If someone could please tell me how this works, how to delete the 'traces', and whether Opera's built-in VPN will keep me protected. I really can't live without using the internet at every possible opportunity, so help with this issue would really mean alot to me and would also allow me to be more active on WinBoards.
Best regards,
pcgeek
P.S The Laptop in question is running Windows 10 Home w/ latest updates.
Best regards,
pcgeek
P.S The Laptop in question is running Windows 10 Home w/ latest updates.
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Comments
Yup. Need to downgrade - only way. How? Piracy, that's how.
Anyway, assuming that what you're saying is true, and your father IS spying your activity, check what is causing this. There might actually be tracking software or screen monitoring software installed on your computer. If you can confirm that there is NO 3rd-party app or system preference set to measure activity, then disable all the Windows 10 spying features. Just go to settings, privacy, and disable virtually everything (unless you can guarantee that causes no problem).
Finally, it could be that your father has set the spying thing on the router, in which case you can just go to the router's control panel and check the settings and stuff. I don't think VPN would help though in this case since it's still going through your router.
Anyway, I'm out of ideas. Hopefully you get your issue fixed.
What does robbing boats have to do with windows?
Anyways if you want to get Windows 7 without using torrents or file-sharing-is-caring sites, well windows 7 discs and serials are cheap.
Ugh.
If you're young enough for your dad to be concerned whether or not you're studying, then I'd probably suggest that trying to outsmart your parents isn't going to end well. Enjoy being grounded.
Secondly, I'd take a guess he has no concrete proof either way as to what you're doing. However parents always know what their kids are up to, and only kids themselves are able to fool themselves otherwise. He knows you're probably not doing any studying, in the same way he probably knows you've been watching porn, drinking, smoking, or whatever other depraved act the teens are doing this week.
If you're barred from using the net then unless you can find another PC to tunnel through (which even then would show up as LAN usage) then there's nothing you can do apart from ask your parents to stop being overprotective idiots.
You'd be best off getting a cheapo 3G dongle and SIM - I know Three in the UK do a 200MB data sim that lasts forever and resets use every month for £0.99. 3G dongles, at least in the UK, are available at a local entertainment shop called "CeX". Either that or just buy a cheapo smartphone and tether it.
Otherwise, resetting the router's admin password is easy - on BT routers for example it is just a pin in the back, D-Link is also similar.
But hey, if your parents set restrictions it's best not to break them, and instead actually discuss with them. You don't want your internet access cut altogether.
But anyway, that's kinda unrelated - it's definitely not Windows 10 reporting OP's browsing activity to his parents lol
That's not digging themselves into a hole, it's providing useful features to parents that want to have more control over what their child does on the computer.
No one likes Windows 10. I looked at the OS marketshare thing and people have actually been DOWNGRADING from Windows 10.
Last month Win10 was %22.99, win7 %47
Now, Win10 is %22.50, win7 is %48 - Windows 10 is just garbage. Stop trying to defend it. This is one of the MANY reasons Windows 10 is absolute trash.
Sadly there's a lot of shitty parents out there and there are a lot of LGBT youth who will use the internet looking for advice, and now their parents can spy on them; When these shitty parents find out their kids are gay, they'll react violently for sure.
^ That's a very good point. As someone on the LGBT spectrum myself with a dad who wouldn't be very accepting if he found out - I would be pissed off if my computer had sent my browsing history to my father, although I'm old enough that I have my own computers that I paid for and have my own passwords set that they don't know.
But either way, let's say OP is 8 or 9 years old (This isn't saying that he's younger than like even 16, it's just an example), in that case parental controls/reports are a good thing. You don't want your kids accidentally wandering off into weird parts of the internet (*cough* 4chan *cough*) and getting scarred for life when they see something like goatse.
Either way, Parental Controls can be a good and bad thing, but the useless paranoia over windows 10 is just dumb (Not saying anything towards dosbox who I quoted, just talking about certain other people in this thread). If I remember correctly Windows 7 also had parental controls, and even if it didn't they could just install a program like safe eyes or something. (When I was around 7 years old or so and had an XP machine my dad installed that on my computer. Perfectly reasonable seeing as I was seven)
I completely agree, but you need to telling all these parents that.
There are some legitimate concerns about Windows 10 and some poor choices which will hopefully bite MS in the ass later... but they'll fix it eventually and everyone will forget about it. In MS's eyes, Windows 10 has been a success. Maybe not quite as many installs as they were originally hoping for, but still quite a bit.
Because the ISP is not going to hand over log data to its customers just so they can spy on their kids. Besides which, that's a lot of data to sort through. Do you really expect parents to sift through log data and filter out by protocol to get the stuff they're interested in?
Furthermore, the ISPs not going to be able to distinguish between different computers in your home. So you'd better be sure that the kid was the only one using the connection at the time... and if this were 1995, that would be a safe assumption... but it's not. It's 2016 and it's pretty damn rare to have only one computer accessing the internet at a time.
Anyway, I wonder how the OP's father found out about his online activity and where did he stumble across it. The "Roaming" folder springs to mind but I'm not so sure.
Sometimes the changes aren't bad, they're just different and it's annoying to have to learn a different way of doing something I've been doing for years. And sometimes the change is actually stupid and results in less customization, less choice, less freedom... but more mouse clicks and I get angry about it. Eventually I just get tired of scowling at my computer screen and just deal with it. After enough years I'll forget what I was angry about and then MS will release a new version of Windows with a new stupid design and I'll get angry again.