I know how bad the guys who use Windows as their main OS have it, but I love all of my fellow Jow Forumsentoomen regardless. I've been forced to use Windows a lot lately for work, so I took the time to make Windows-equivalents to a bunch of bash script utilities I use on LiGnux. Some of them are quite useful, particularly the hosts file updater and file-sharing block list updaters. This is probably the most autistic thing I've ever done, but I hope some of you enjoy it. Jahbless.
Oh, and it's all FOSS, except for one stupid thing I couldn't find a good FOSS-equivalent to. Don't tell Rich.
I have no idea what this does but I respect that you did it.
Alexander Diaz
Based
Luke Wright
it is pretty much the opposite of a virus
Thomas Adams
Does it have a microsoft safety certification?
Josiah Murphy
but microsoft is pretty much a virus
Nathan Johnson
Hmmm
Gavin Sanchez
What does it do exactly?
Logan Smith
Interesting
Liam Morris
many thanks
it is a friendly command prompt interface to two types of hosts file updaters, two types of bittorrent / file-sharing block list updaters, and a proxy autoconfig updater, all of which i wrote. it's mostly batch scripts that i converted from bash scripts i made, which have been running as cron jobs in the background on my linux installs for years. i missed having these tools on windows, so i rewrote them to work in that environment, and rolled them all into an installer so i could use them on any windows machine. then i thought i'd just share it all and do work to improve on it from time-to-time. this is what the main menu looks like.
it can protect anyone from some glowinthedarks, not just furries.
Charles Phillips
I appreciate what ya did but there are multiple projects that already do this.
Unified Host File Updater Win10 Privacy OOSU10
Can ya tell me what yours does differently?
Jose Harris
A. Mine is FOSS, and released under a free software license (unlike two of the ones you mentioned).
B. Mine is completely transparent. If you have ever written shell scripts, you can configure any aspect of it to your liking.
C. Mine includes utilities to generate unified BitTorrent / file-sharing block lists, which the others do not do.
D. Mine is completely self-contained.
E. I think the defaults on my host file updater are better.
F. Mine is meant to run on any machine, doesn't have external dependencies (as they're all shipped with the installer) and doesn't rely on pre-merged meta-lists (as it does the merging, sorting, de-duping etc... on its own).
That's about it, and those are the reasons I use my scripts and tools as opposed to the ones you mentioned. I don't think they're bad at all by the way, and I know mine is in an early stage of development for public use, but it works, and I strongly prefer using my own software and generating my own lists as opposed to solely relying on the work of others.
Also, afaict neither OOSU10 or Win10 Privacy are meant for updating hosts files and block lists. I'm not attempting to write some kind of gigantic system configuration thing. Just a simple block list centric program, that will eventually have a nice point-and-click gui so people who don't write shell scripts can configure anything they like.
Jordan Ross
Thank you. I am doing my best to keep it under control.
Justin Gomez
Have you tested this with wireshark to see how much shit is still leaked?
Jeremiah Jenkins
is there a way to reverse everything the program has done if it fucks shit up or something?
Josiah Long
It's a list updater and series of text parsers that are based on batch scripts, that were based on bash scripts, and the foss tools the scripts rely on only create network connections to download lists. The only two binaries in there that make network connections are wget and curl. One host list (MVPS) is connected to over http, because even though they've been a widely used list for years, they still don't serve their site over https for some reason. The other lists are downloaded via https. This isn't an email client or voip application. Nothing sensitive could be "leaked" in the first place.
The uninstaller removes everything that was installed. The only aspect of the software that touches the system is the hosts file updater, and you can simply delete the content in the hosts file or revert back to a default one from MS (support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/972034/how-to-reset-the-hosts-file-back-to-the-default). No registry entries are created either.
Samuel Sanchez
>The uninstaller removes everything that was installed. The only aspect of the software that touches the system is the hosts file updater, and you can simply delete the content in the hosts file or revert the issue for me is that I use: github.com/ScriptTiger/Unified-Hosts-AutoUpdate so I'm not seeing how it's doable to use both.
What does it do for someone who's absolutely not into tech? I have no idea what "it is a friendly command prompt interface to two types of hosts file updaters, two types of bittorrent / file-sharing block list updaters, and a proxy autoconfig updater" actually means. Should I run it? What should I choose when I run it?
>This isn't an email client or voip application. Nothing sensitive could be "leaked" in the first place. I'm talking about windows telemetry, not your apps network requests. From what I understand your thing is also supposed to be an alternative for those win10 privacy scripts? Because you've implied so here . If not then I don't see why you'd use this instead of win10privacy or oosu10.
Henry Thomas
There is absolutely no stopping Win10 telemetry completely. Any program that claims to do so is probably full of spyware and telemetry itself.
Also: >I'm not attempting to write some kind of gigantic system configuration thing. Just a simple block list centric program, that will eventually have a nice point-and-click gui so people who don't write shell scripts can configure anything they like.
Summary of changes: "PAC Updater now fully fleshed out. Processes most domain lists and generates a comprehensive PAC file by default. Almost as rich as the hosts updater..."
And for anyone who is still confused, this set of software is comprised of a relatively friendly interface to several script utilities that I originally wrote for LiGnux, then converted to work on Windows. The main functions which CWP Utilities performs are as follows:
1. Hosts file updater (standard entries / IPv4-only). 2. Hosts file updater with standard entries and added IPv6 entries. 3. Ad and tracker-blocking PAC file updater. 4. DAT Blocklist updater for torrent clients like Halite. 5. P2P Blocklist updater for torrent clients like qBitTorrent and Transmission.
CWP Utilities downloads hosts files, block lists and so on, from reputable sources, then merges, sorts, de-duplicates, and properly formats them for immediate use. The hosts file updater also updates your system's hosts file. It is FOSS software, released under a FOSS license, fully transparent, and despite its early stage of development, fully functional.
It is tested under both 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows 7 and Windows 10, but should work just fine on Vista and 8, and potentially other Windows versions as well. It requires no other software in order to use, as any dependencies are bundled with the installer. It creates no registry entries, and the uninstaller removes all traces of the program. It is self-contained, and can be installed to and run from a portable drive, though it is preferable to keep it installed on your main hard drive.
Ethan Gray
seconding this post what the fuck is a "bittorrent / file-sharing block list"??
Oliver Cooper
Many bittorrent clients (and other file-sharing programs) allow for the use of a blocklist from their settings interface. Transmission and qBitTorrent are two examples of popular clients that allow you to specify a block list to use. The block list is meant to prevent malicious traffic like corporate and ISP snooping (responsible for those piracy warning letters some people get from their ISPs), and also to prevent known bad actors from connecting to your machine. Transmission and qBT use p2p format lists. Halite uses dat format lists. Many other programs utilize block lists in these formats. The block lists are ranges of IP addresses coupled with basic descriptors of what's being blocked. They tend to be pretty big and difficult to parse manually. One of the things my software can do is combine multiple block lists into one, removing any duplicate entries and extraneous lines, for such file sharing clients. By default it uses the two most popular block lists from bluetack. It merges, sorts, de-duplicates and generally cleans up these lists so one can have a more thorough block list than simply using the data from a single list.
Jason Powell
Thanks for the info and for your hard work. Stupid yet honest question: should I just run it, select every option, and be done with it?
Ryder Carter
Is this signed with the _NSAKEY?
Hunter Nguyen
>What does it do for someone who's absolutely not into tech? I'm not even trying to be insulting, but what are you actually doing on the tech board if you're not into tech?
Camden Robinson
Thank you.
For the Hosts File Updater, choose either the first or the second variety from the main menu. The first option should be good for most users. The second option will produce a larger hosts file because it blocks malicious traffic over IPv4 and IPv6 (so double the entries).
It's your choice which version of the hosts updater to use, but if you're unsure, just stick with the first one for now, and find out whether or not your ISP is fully IPv6 capable. If you find out that they are, then go on and use the second hosts updater option. There is no harm in using the second option at all though, but it is better to have a slimmer hosts file if you don't need the extra entries.
Everything else you can run safely, yes. With the exception of editing the configurations (unless you are sure you know what you're doing). You will also have to set your bittorrent or other file-sharing client to use the block lists generated by those options. Most allow you to do that simply through the settings dialogs.
The PAC file updater creates a simple yet comprehensive block list which is mostly geared toward users of older phones and other devices that can't take advantage of a hosts file or local-vpn-based ad-blocking solution. So unless you're using a really old mobile phone or an obscure antiquated operating system, you'll probably never need to use a PAC file. I mean you can, but for people with relatively modern devices it's unnecessary. I only included this option for the few people who do need such a thing.
You know what? That reminds me. I need to make a help file for this thing.
Oliver Martinez
>use botnet OS >install more botnet Jow Forums is irredeemable. OP, now make more "privacy" ransomware for iOS and you'll kill ¾ of all Jow Forums posters.
Joshua Barnes
Very cool user looks like a neat and impressive project, although I personally don't have much use for it I will share it in my online circles.
Hudson Williams
>an obscure antiquated operating system Is XP antiquated yet?
This is anti-botnet, released under a free software license, and it does most of its work through free software ports of GNU utilities.
Jack Myers
You don't even need a PAC file to do ad-blocking on that. I've only used PAC files with old blackberries and other things that are generally considered "dumb phones" and "feature phones" now. It's just a nice tool to have handy for if you ever need to use such devices.
Chase Morales
So you can torrent files without needing a VPN?
Zachary Hall
refined and haughty kek.
Jayden Reed
this is stupid
Jacob Ortiz
it's no guarantee, but many people have found that using such block lists and regularly updating them helps a lot.
Enjoy! A new feature or two will be added soon. And there will always be improvements with each release. To upgrade you can simply install the new version over the old one. Easy as that. Enjoy!
Luis Gomez
That's interesting. Anything like this done before?
Nathan Turner
there have been a bunch of hosts updaters released for windows over the years. i like mine better though. maybe some people will too. it's different, as they all are.
there are other utilities to generate PAC files on windows, but i don't think any of them are as easy to use as mine is (and i can't find any that have been updated in years and years and years).
afaik, there have not been any utilities released for maintaining regularly updated file-sharing block lists for windows, so it's cool mine has this feature.
i mean, my thing is different, and offers some things other things do not offer. i can only hope that some people find my thing to be useful.
Fuuuuk. Noticed a small bug in the new and improved PAC updater. Released a fix, then noticed that the fix introduced another tiny bug in the same utility. So I had to fix that. All done now. Help file included in new release too. Enjoy what should be the final beta, at-least for the next week.
Friends, please heed my words. Be aware that, through using any of my software, in any way shape or form, you have implicitly agreed to abide by my Code of Conduct: github.com/bongochong/Code-of-Conduct/blob/master/Code-of-Conduct.md (which, just like my software, is released under a FOSS license). The elders have assured me that it is legally binding, and instructed myself and the others in my village to enforce it with all of our might. The only escape is death.
Colton Sanchez
>Windows-equivalents to a bunch of bash script utilities I use on LiGnux. couldn't you just have installed cygwin and used the same bash scripts?
Levi Jones
unfortunately, nope. some cygwin ports do not function as expected, and i kept having to create work-arounds, until i realized that it made more sense to make this project, which is the ultimate work-around.
Camden Allen
Just not using W10 would be better
Christian Murphy
this was cobbled together on win 7 my friend :) even though i've been forced to use windows, there's no way i'm going past win 8 in the foreseeable future. i might even shell out cash to keep win 7 officially updated for a bit after the deadline. i test CWPU on my roommate's machine who happens to have win10, just to make sure it works under that. the only surefire way to stop win10 telemetry completely, is through using hosts list and ip blocking software directly on your router, which i did setup. CWPU is not an all-in-one windows configuration manager though, and never will be. it's a general lists-based privacy tool for windows, and only that. though i will be adding a handful of nifty new features over time, they will all be simple and in a similar vein.
i don't like snake oil type shit, and there is not a single piece of software that can be run on windows10 which will completely disable its telemetry features. this has been well-documented and confirmed by numerous researchers. outside of blocking those connections on your router or modem (which i highly suggest), it can only be mitigated.
