Security risks with using Windows 10

[Pattart]

I am looking to upgrade to a new computer with Windows 10 but i have head that Windows 10 has some privacy issues which can be security risks to bitcoin wallets on Windows 10 devices. What exactly are those issues and what risks do they pose to bitcoiners using Windows 10?

[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

I am looking to upgrade to a new computer with Windows 10 but i have head that Windows 10 has some privacy issues which can be security risks to bitcoin wallets on Windows 10 devices. What exactly are those issues and what risks do they pose to bitcoiners using Windows 10?

See for background:

http://bravenewcoin.com/news/using-bitcoin-on-windows-10/
http://www.secureworks.com/cyber-threat-intelligence/threats/cryptocurrency-stealing-malware-landscape/

Windows 10 is a privacy nightmare for users but the new operating system is no more inherently insecure for bitcoin that 7 or 8. You need to be aware that malware stealing bitcoin has become common. Using a passphrase is often no protection as the malware logs your keystrokes or monitors the clipboard. If you use a hardware wallet like Trezor to keep your private keys offline you can avoid the risks.

[Amph]

remain with windows 7 for bitcoin, maybe run it on a virtual machine or separated machine

you can also leave a small amount on your machine as a trap to now if it is secure, best method ever for me

[RustyNomad]

Quoted from the privacy policy...

“We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to protect our customers or enforce the terms governing the use of the services."

I fail to see how they will protect their users by invading their privacy. That is unless they mean to 'backup' the data for the user but if that is the case they should make use of encryption so that nobody at MS will be able to access such information. This statement from them comes across as very arrogant. Sounds just like the NSA and all the other 3 letter agencies... 'We do this for your protection...'

[italianobitcoin]

If you are using your pc for bitcoin I would suggest against windows 10

There are so many things that microsoft is storing on windows 10 at the moment, it's not worth the risk

[OmegaStarScream]

Read my topic here :  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1152619.0 (there is a part about Windows 10 users) and you should be fine.

[Holliday]

Your private keys should never touch a networked computer. If you take that precaution you can use any OS you like.

[XinXan]

Quoted from the privacy policy...

“We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to protect our customers or enforce the terms governing the use of the services."

I fail to see how they will protect their users by invading their privacy. That is unless they mean to 'backup' the data for the user but if that is the case they should make use of encryption so that nobody at MS will be able to access such information. This statement from them comes across as very arrogant. Sounds just like the NSA and all the other 3 letter agencies... 'We do this for your protection...'

Although they can access personal data and other content on your pc I highly doubt they would steal your bitcoin wallet, Im pretty sure they would only access the data if something happened and you were involved or had something to do with it.
I think OP had more concerns about the security breaches that windows 10 could have.

[Meuh6879]

buy a Win7 PC ... simple.

http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-Professional-Generation-Processor/dp/B015D956UQ/
http://www.amazon.com/Inspiron-Professional-i5-5200U-Processor-Bluetooth/dp/B0157VW72K/

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satellite-Professional-Processor-Multi-DVD/dp/B00YUZBAX2/
http://www.amazon.com/ThinkPad-E450-i5-5200U-Business-Computer/dp/B00V57VRX6/

http://www.amazon.com/15-6-inch-Business-Professional-i5-5200U-Bluetooth/dp/B016J3TW5K/
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-NX-MG7AA-005-E1-771-6496-17-3-Inch/dp/B00I9HJU2A/
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Notebook-NX-MHFAA-004-E1-572-6660-15-6-Inch/dp/B00KE7YZNW/

other complicate solution : install Ubuntu 64 bits UEFI compliant ... to erase Win10.

I prefer Win7 solution ...

[ArticMine]

If you trust Microsoft and the US Government with your private keys then by all means use Windows 10. I use GNU/Linux and I must say that I trust the US Government way more than many on this forum.

As for staying with Windows 7, why keep fighting change? The direction that Microsoft is heading in has been very clear for a very long time. I moved to GNU/Linux back in 2006 since at the time I did not like the "vista" on the horizon.

[Tstar]

If you trust Microsoft and the US Government with your private keys then by all means use Windows 10. I use GNU/Linux and I must say that I trust the US Government way more than many on this forum.

As for staying with Windows 7, why keep fighting change? The direction that Microsoft is heading in has been very clear for a very long time. I moved to GNU/Linux back in 2006 since at the time I did not like the "vista" on the horizon.

I switched to GNU/linux back in 2009. The only problem for me arose when I bought an HP laptop. It has been a pain in the ass only to install Ubuntu due to UEFI restrictions. After I installed everything, wifi and video card would not work properly and I had to go back to win 8.1
I also tried manjaro linux (based on Arch) and opensuse but nothing changed.
Do you know any good laptop which are fully compatible with linux nowadays?

[RodeoX]

I consider windows as just a massive malware app. IMO, it's not safe to use for any online computing. But certainly not something to trust your money with.
Linux for the win!11!! 

[shorena]

-snip-
Do you know any good laptop which are fully compatible with linux nowadays?

Yes, driver support is difficult for linux sometimes. Older Lenovos work very well in my experience. You can often get them cheap after a leasing contract. You might want to add a (new) SSD, some RAM and a new battery though.

[XinXan]

I consider windows as just a massive malware app. IMO, it's not safe to use for any online computing. But certainly not something to trust your money with.
Linux for the win!11!! 

Well by itself, without taking anything about bitcoins in consideration I have to say that windows 10 dissapointed me, it's not good, it has some bugs and problems that the other windows didnt have and it basically has nothing new.. also fuck cortana.

[ArticMine]

If you trust Microsoft and the US Government with your private keys then by all means use Windows 10. I use GNU/Linux and I must say that I trust the US Government way more than many on this forum.

As for staying with Windows 7, why keep fighting change? The direction that Microsoft is heading in has been very clear for a very long time. I moved to GNU/Linux back in 2006 since at the time I did not like the "vista" on the horizon.

I switched to GNU/linux back in 2009. The only problem for me arose when I bought an HP laptop. It has been a pain in the ass only to install Ubuntu due to UEFI restrictions. After I installed everything, wifi and video card would not work properly and I had to go back to win 8.1
I also tried manjaro linux (based on Arch) and opensuse but nothing changed.
Do you know any good laptop which are fully compatible with linux nowadays?

The first thing to understand about buying a laptop from a vendor such as HP is that there are basically two kinds of laptops. Those sold to consumers and students which are basically junk that is engineered to fail in about 6 months, and those sold to businesses that are quality products designed to last for a long time. It is important to realize that the same manufacturers are selling both the junk and the quality products. The simple way to tell them apart is that the consumer versions come with a glossy high glare screen and the "standard" "home" or "personal" versions of Windows while the business versions come with a matt anti glare screen and the "pro" or "business versions of Windows. So "HP Laptop" is meaningless depending on whether it is consumer or business it is either a piece of junk or a quality product.

The option for a GNU/Linux laptop are several depending on budget.

1) Purchase a Laptop that is designed from the ground up to run GNU/Linux

Here are some examples:

https://puri.sm/ This in an over subscribed crowd funding campaign for a Laptop designed for 100% Libre GNU/linux distributions. This by the way ensures it will work with virtually any modern GNU/linux distribution.

https://system76.com/

zareason.com/

etc.

2) Purchase an older (Windows 7 era) business laptop, and upgrade the hard drive to large SSD and possibly also the RAM. Before buying check online if that particular model has any driver issues with GNU/Linux. One thing to keep in mind is that if it is two or there years old and there little or no hits on the fora then it is likely to have few if any problems. Also when it comes to drivers GNU/Linux is very good at supporting hardware typically after about 2 years so something that failed say in 2013 could very easily work fine today. I recently bought two HP 2760p EliteBooks from a government auction for well under 200 CAD each. After adding a 1 TB SSD each and upgrading the RAM on one to 16 GB and the other to 8 GB I have two quality laptops that will last me a long time.  One of them replaced an HP Evo 1000c with a Windows 2000 logo and 3.5in floppy drive that provided me with close to a decade of service. When I replaced it this summer it was running a full Bitcoin node using Trisquel GNU/linux. By the way UEFI should not be a problem if it is unlocked (Windows 8.x and earlier). Just go into the bios and unlock it. If it is a Windows 10 machine it may be locked. I suspect that most of the locked Windows 10 laptops will be sold to consumers as part of Microsoft and its partners ongoing junk for consumers program.

3) Buy a Chromebook and upgrade the hard drive. Chromebooks are good GNU/Linux computers except that they have ridiculously small hard drives. They have to be sold unlocked because Chrome OS contains GPLv3 code.

[USB-S]

in before Microsoft steals millions of wallets worth half a billion dollars. Would not be that bad of a business plan. Big corporations do anything for money nowadays. Just look at VW corp, a bit of a childish move by them don't you think? however Microsoft days would be numbered if that surfaces. For now I would stick with windows 7. Just in case, always have your tinfoil hat ready.

[ArticMine]

One option for those who are running Windows 7 is to upgrade to GNU/Linux and then run windows 7 in a virtual machine using VirtualBox, using the existing Windows 7 license. https://www.virtualbox.org/. One can move the bulk of one's computing to GNU/Linux while keeping the virtualized Windows 7 for those situations where organizations require that people pay a license fee to Microsoft in order to across a product or service.

[erikalui]

If you trust Microsoft and the US Government with your private keys then by all means use Windows 10. I use GNU/Linux and I must say that I trust the US Government way more than many on this forum.

As for staying with Windows 7, why keep fighting change? The direction that Microsoft is heading in has been very clear for a very long time. I moved to GNU/Linux back in 2006 since at the time I did not like the "vista" on the horizon.

I switched to GNU/linux back in 2009. The only problem for me arose when I bought an HP laptop. It has been a pain in the ass only to install Ubuntu due to UEFI restrictions. After I installed everything, wifi and video card would not work properly and I had to go back to win 8.1
I also tried manjaro linux (based on Arch) and opensuse but nothing changed.
Do you know any good laptop which are fully compatible with linux nowadays?

Dell inspiron is the best laptop compatible with Linux. HP is really bad as I have owned that laptop and it was the worst experience. It started giving me issues in just 3 months. Dell works the best.

[ArticMine]

..
Dell inspiron is the best laptop compatible with Linux. HP is really bad as I have owned that laptop and it was the worst experience. It started giving me issues in just 3 months. Dell works the best.

Dell Inspiron is for Home and Home Office. I would not touch it with a 10 ft pole. With Dell I would look at a Latitude, Vostro etc. Stick to the Business products.

Edit 1: Which specific model of HP Laptop did you own?

Edit 2: I have had no problems at all with HP but I only buy their business products. I do agree some of their consumer stuff is complete junk.

[Amph]

in before Microsoft steals millions of wallets worth half a billion dollars. Would not be that bad of a business plan. Big corporations do anything for money nowadays. Just look at VW corp, a bit of a childish move by them don't you think? however Microsoft days would be numbered if that surfaces. For now I would stick with windows 7. Just in case, always have your tinfoil hat ready.

it's not microsoft per se the problem, is the fact that one of their stupid and greedy employees, especially those that have problem in their RL(these people can do anything to save their ass) can in some way be aware about your private key if they are the one recording all that shit of cortina

once i read about the story of a guy, that noticed that in his credit card some funds were vanished, and he didn't know why, because he was using it only on legit site(only online) like amazon and company, then he begin to think about this possibility of bad employees...