Privacy

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Laptop Hardening advice for Windows? (lemmy.today)

submitted 5 days ago by Ksk3829@lemmy.today to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Keep a super long story short, getting a Laptop from my University as the course starts in September, and the benefit I have applied for which covers my university course in the UK includes a Laptop.

They pay for the majority of the price.

Intel i5 10th generation or AMD Ryzen 5 4000 8 GB 512 SSD graphics Onboard

Onboard graphics Operating system Windows 10 64 Bit 10 64 Bit 2.8 kg

These are the minimum specs it will come with.

As a privacy consciousness individual, and since I will require the Laptop formy course at university, andpotentially a job, one day perhaps, I would like to make the laptop as privacy friendly and hardened as possible.

I want to basically make it a safe device. I need it to be not monitoring me, or watching me.

Potentinally there will be some sort of system or software that can monitor my activities through my.university orbenefitss people.

As it is for studying and for working, I think best to keep the same operating system (OS) Also I have only ever used windows in my life. Never Linux other than a virtual system on my host windows 11 pro edition PC.

My PC has an amd ryzen 55 000 CPU.

Thanks.

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[–] monovergent@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

In any case, minimize the number of parties that will have their hands on your data. Uninstall anything that's unnecessary, compartmentalize personal work in a privacy-respecting browser and office suite, and avoid unofficial Windows ISOs.

If your school is going to install monitoring software on it, consider the laptop compromised. Only do coursework, accessing things licensed through the school, exams, the bare necessities, on the Windows laptop. Start saving up for a (refurbished) laptop to learn and use Linux without risk to your work laptop.

If now is not the time to buy another laptop, consider installing Linux on a second SSD, if a slot is available, or even a USB 3.0 drive, if you're allowed to boot from one. Just back up and if possible remove the Windows SSD before installing so it's not overwritten by accident.

Be judicious with debloat scripts as they can interfere with some more invasive programs (e.g. Adobe suite, Autodesk) you may need for your studies. Consider making full disk backups before doing anything drastic. Anyway, if you can't or won't use LTSC, the yearly Windows updates can and will undo your hard work debloating and ticking privacy checkboxes.

At the end of the day, Windows is closed-source and we can't be completely sure what it's doing behind our back. It's fine for a dedicated work device, but the time spent on taming it for personal privacy could also be spent getting another machine and getting to know Linux.