October 3, 2025
Helpful episodes to listen to first
Do I Need to Upgrade to Windows 11?
Should I Upgrade to Windows 11?
Episode summaryIf you are sticking with Windows 10, I highly recommend installing the InControl app from my favorite security podcaster, Steve Gibson.
Fair warning: his website looks like it’s straight out of the early 2000s and is geared toward technical folks like me. If you poke around, just be ready for some serious computer geekiness.
The good news: his app is dead simple to use. Download it, double-click to run, click the "Take Control" button, and the big red text will turn green -- letting you know that Microsoft can't trick you into accidentally upgrading to Windows 11 before you're ready.
LinksInstall Steve Gibson's InControl app
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Super Simple Security Principles, where you learn how to think, not just what to do.
I'm Nick Jackson, here to learn along with you from our good buddy, Master Guardian,
Makani Mason. Woo! Okay, this is episode 83. Don't accidentally upgrade to Windows 11.
(00:30):
Now, Master Guardian, question, why should we not accidentally upgrade to Windows 11?
Well, like you said in our last episode, the takeaway was we want to be intentional about it, right? We want to decide for sure.
(00:51):
And so this episode, like if you've already decided that you're going to Windows 11, then you don't need to listen to this episode.
Perfect. Right. But if you decided to stay on Windows 10, then do want to listen to this one.
Okay. If you're unsure, you can go back to listen to 79 and 82.
(01:14):
Because, yeah, I know it's a little bit of a strange title, but the background behind that is,
if you haven't already experienced this, and lots of people have, but Microsoft, when going from 7 to 10, from 10 to 11,
they're very pushy and deceptive, frankly, in my opinion, on how they get you to try to trick you into upgrading before you want to.
(01:39):
Yeah.
Does that make sense?
That makes sense.
It's what has come to become known in this world, and a phrase that I'm adopting that I like is it's called a dark pattern.
It's a trick, you know, different kind of psychological tricks or whatever tricks that trick you into doing things or fall into the social media feed or whatever.
(02:05):
Yeah.
Does that make sense?
It makes total sense.
So, today is just about a little tool that's free to help prevent you from falling into the traps if you are staying on Windows 10.
Awesome.
So, this episode is geared for those people that are saying, no, Windows 11 is not the upgrade we're wanting to take.
(02:27):
Yep.
Okay.
All right.
All right.
So, tune in if you're saying, hey, look, I want to stay on the platform I'm on.
Yep.
Yeah, and this will be our last one, I think, about Windows 10 and 11 thing, and then we're going to move on to some other things.
Nice.
So, this tiny little, like I said, freeware.
(02:49):
There's no ads, no gimmicks, no strings attached.
It's called InControl.
Okay.
And it's built by one of my favorite security podcasters that we've mentioned on here a number of times.
His name is Steve Gibson.
Nice.
Way to go, Steve.
Yeah.
From his, from podcast fame, Security Now.
(03:13):
That's, it's a podcast that just passed their 20 years mark.
Nice.
Yeah.
So, right, and after doing it for a year, about a year and a half now ourselves, we can appreciate the dedication.
Oh, yeah, the work and the dedication, man.
That thanks.
Talk to those guys.
So, yeah, he's trustworthy.
He does great work.
(03:35):
Yeah.
So, I will put a link in the show notes, of course, to download it, but just, just a little bit of a warning about his website when you go.
So, you'll see the name on there is Gibson Research Corporation.
First, you know, because Steve Gibson.
And, you know, it looks like it was built 20, 30 years ago because it was.
(03:57):
Okay.
He is, he's very much a technology guy, but he does not like to change and upgrade to the latest and greatest.
He is very much a, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
So, his website is very, very old school.
Don't be scared off, but, you know, it's not a non-techie friendly website, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend you go explore all of them.
(04:26):
Okay.
The app itself, though, is super easy.
So, all you have to do is click on the link in the show notes, download it.
You can even leave it in the downloads directory because it doesn't have an installation thing.
Like, if you double-click on it in the downloads, it just runs the app.
It doesn't do an install.
(04:47):
That's the other thing to be aware.
You can drag it to any other folder you want.
It doesn't really matter.
So, all you do, though, is you download it.
You double-click on the file that you downloaded, and it'll have a little window, and it'll say, basically, in big red text that, you know, essentially, you're not in control of whether or not your Windows box gets upgraded.
(05:08):
And there's a little button at the bottom that says, take control.
So, you click that, you'll know it works when the text changes from red to green that says, you now are in control.
Nice.
The end.
The end.
Super simple.
Yeah.
And it's kind of an interesting trick because, I guess, when he explained how it works, it's basically like it's pretending that your box is managed by a corporate environment where they have all sorts of controls.
(05:40):
And so, they can say, hey, don't touch this computer.
You know, they're going to manage the updates and everything centrally.
And so, that's kind of the back door into telling Microsoft to, you know, hands off.
Nice.
So.
Very nice.
I like it.
Yeah.
So.
I need some more corporate settings like that, man.
(06:03):
I know.
Seriously.
Yeah.
That's actually a good point.
It would be nice to have more controls.
All right.
But, yeah.
So, I know that's a super quick one, but that's really all I have today.
My takeaway is actually just a call to action.
(06:26):
If you're committed to Windows 10, I would just install this.
Take a quick second to install.
It'll take you all five minutes to get installed.
And I have it online right now, actually.
I installed it quite a while back just so it wasn't bugging me with any of its shenanigans.
And when and if I decide to upgrade Windows 11, I mean, when, I guess.
(06:49):
It will be eventually.
It might be five years from now.
But anyway, then I'll turn it off.
But until then.
So.
Nice.
Okay.
So, you ready for my takeaway?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, given that I don't have the years of experience you do, here's my thought.
(07:11):
You're not going to upgrade.
You'd better hit up Steve's app.
Better hit that up.
On top of that, I'm going to do a call to action.
For all you tech geeks out there, I want this corporate thing explored more.
How can we utilize this loophole for us and want better security and want Microsoft to keep their hands off?
(07:38):
I like that.
Yeah.
So, that's pretty good.
So, there's my call out.
Tech geeks, let's go.
Let's figure something out, man.
Let's exploit this loophole.
Yeah.
No, I agree.
And that's right in line with what I feel like is kind of our general mission is I look at so many of the tech systems that we depend on.
(07:59):
And Microsoft is certainly one of those systems.
And they're just so badly broken, in my opinion, in so many ways.
And so, my kind of high-level two-fold mission is, one, to long-term hopefully improve some of those systems.
That's what I'd like to do.
Yeah.
Like, you know, as a software developer, like, that's something within my realm of capability of designing and, you know, obviously with enough support and funding and whatever anyway.
(08:27):
But, you know, improve some of those systems.
But in the meantime, my more direct focus is figure out ways to work around and mitigate the problems inherent in the broken systems that we depend on.
Yeah.
I love it, man.
Let's get to work.
Yeah.
(08:48):
Yeah.
There's a lot of work to do.
Right.
Awesome.
Dude, I love it.
Hey, thanks, Steve, for creating something useful.
We appreciate it.
Yeah.
Definitely always good to call out Steve.
He's getting old, too.
I don't know how much longer he's going to be able to keep doing it.
He's like 80.
(09:09):
I can't remember.
80-something.
Oh, geez.
Yeah.
He was already old.
He's older than I am when he started.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Okay, man.
That was a good show.
Okay.
Well, we'll see you for next episode.
(09:31):
Are you ready to take action and wondering where to start?
Get my Bulletproof My Identity Starter Kit for free.
The seven most vital layers of protection everyone needs.
I'll send you one step at a time and help you if you get stuck.
Just go to bulletproofmyid.com and enter your name and email, and I will send you the first
(09:56):
step.
Again, that's bulletproofmyid.com.
Welcome to Super Simple Security Principles, where you learn how to think, not just what to do.
I'm Nick Jackson, here to learn along with you from our good buddy, Master Guardian,
Makani Mason. Woo! Okay, this is episode 83. Don't accidentally upgrade to Windows 11.
(00:30):
Now, Master Guardian, question, why should we not accidentally upgrade to Windows 11?
Well, like you said in our last episode, the takeaway was we want to be intentional about it, right? We want to decide for sure.
(00:51):
And so this episode, like if you've already decided that you're going to Windows 11, then you don't need to listen to this episode.
Perfect. Right. But if you decided to stay on Windows 10, then do want to listen to this one.
Okay. If you're unsure, you can go back to listen to 79 and 82.
(01:14):
Because, yeah, I know it's a little bit of a strange title, but the background behind that is,
if you haven't already experienced this, and lots of people have, but Microsoft, when going from 7 to 10, from 10 to 11,
they're very pushy and deceptive, frankly, in my opinion, on how they get you to try to trick you into upgrading before you want to.
(01:39):
Yeah.
Does that make sense?
That makes sense.
It's what has come to become known in this world, and a phrase that I'm adopting that I like is it's called a dark pattern.
It's a trick, you know, different kind of psychological tricks or whatever tricks that trick you into doing things or fall into the social media feed or whatever.
(02:05):
Yeah.
Does that make sense?
It makes total sense.
So, today is just about a little tool that's free to help prevent you from falling into the traps if you are staying on Windows 10.
Awesome.
So, this episode is geared for those people that are saying, no, Windows 11 is not the upgrade we're wanting to take.
(02:27):
Yep.
Okay.
All right.
All right.
So, tune in if you're saying, hey, look, I want to stay on the platform I'm on.
Yep.
Yeah, and this will be our last one, I think, about Windows 10 and 11 thing, and then we're going to move on to some other things.
Nice.
So, this tiny little, like I said, freeware.
(02:49):
There's no ads, no gimmicks, no strings attached.
It's called InControl.
Okay.
And it's built by one of my favorite security podcasters that we've mentioned on here a number of times.
His name is Steve Gibson.
Nice.
Way to go, Steve.
Yeah.
From his, from podcast fame, Security Now.
(03:13):
That's, it's a podcast that just passed their 20 years mark.
Nice.
Yeah.
So, right, and after doing it for a year, about a year and a half now ourselves, we can appreciate the dedication.
Oh, yeah, the work and the dedication, man.
That thanks.
Talk to those guys.
So, yeah, he's trustworthy.
He does great work.
(03:35):
Yeah.
So, I will put a link in the show notes, of course, to download it, but just, just a little bit of a warning about his website when you go.
So, you'll see the name on there is Gibson Research Corporation.
First, you know, because Steve Gibson.
And, you know, it looks like it was built 20, 30 years ago because it was.
(03:57):
Okay.
He is, he's very much a technology guy, but he does not like to change and upgrade to the latest and greatest.
He is very much a, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
So, his website is very, very old school.
Don't be scared off, but, you know, it's not a non-techie friendly website, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend you go explore all of them.
(04:26):
Okay.
The app itself, though, is super easy.
So, all you have to do is click on the link in the show notes, download it.
You can even leave it in the downloads directory because it doesn't have an installation thing.
Like, if you double-click on it in the downloads, it just runs the app.
It doesn't do an install.
(04:47):
That's the other thing to be aware.
You can drag it to any other folder you want.
It doesn't really matter.
So, all you do, though, is you download it.
You double-click on the file that you downloaded, and it'll have a little window, and it'll say, basically, in big red text that, you know, essentially, you're not in control of whether or not your Windows box gets upgraded.
(05:08):
And there's a little button at the bottom that says, take control.
So, you click that, you'll know it works when the text changes from red to green that says, you now are in control.
Nice.
The end.
The end.
Super simple.
Yeah.
And it's kind of an interesting trick because, I guess, when he explained how it works, it's basically like it's pretending that your box is managed by a corporate environment where they have all sorts of controls.
(05:40):
And so, they can say, hey, don't touch this computer.
You know, they're going to manage the updates and everything centrally.
And so, that's kind of the back door into telling Microsoft to, you know, hands off.
Nice.
So.
Very nice.
I like it.
Yeah.
So.
I need some more corporate settings like that, man.
(06:03):
I know.
Seriously.
Yeah.
That's actually a good point.
It would be nice to have more controls.
All right.
But, yeah.
So, I know that's a super quick one, but that's really all I have today.
My takeaway is actually just a call to action.
(06:26):
If you're committed to Windows 10, I would just install this.
Take a quick second to install.
It'll take you all five minutes to get installed.
And I have it online right now, actually.
I installed it quite a while back just so it wasn't bugging me with any of its shenanigans.
And when and if I decide to upgrade Windows 11, I mean, when, I guess.
(06:49):
It will be eventually.
It might be five years from now.
But anyway, then I'll turn it off.
But until then.
So.
Nice.
Okay.
So, you ready for my takeaway?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, given that I don't have the years of experience you do, here's my thought.
(07:11):
You're not going to upgrade.
You'd better hit up Steve's app.
Better hit that up.
On top of that, I'm going to do a call to action.
For all you tech geeks out there, I want this corporate thing explored more.
How can we utilize this loophole for us and want better security and want Microsoft to keep their hands off?
(07:38):
I like that.
Yeah.
So, that's pretty good.
So, there's my call out.
Tech geeks, let's go.
Let's figure something out, man.
Let's exploit this loophole.
Yeah.
No, I agree.
And that's right in line with what I feel like is kind of our general mission is I look at so many of the tech systems that we depend on.
(07:59):
And Microsoft is certainly one of those systems.
And they're just so badly broken, in my opinion, in so many ways.
And so, my kind of high-level two-fold mission is, one, to long-term hopefully improve some of those systems.
That's what I'd like to do.
Yeah.
Like, you know, as a software developer, like, that's something within my realm of capability of designing and, you know, obviously with enough support and funding and whatever anyway.
(08:27):
But, you know, improve some of those systems.
But in the meantime, my more direct focus is figure out ways to work around and mitigate the problems inherent in the broken systems that we depend on.
Yeah.
I love it, man.
Let's get to work.
Yeah.
(08:48):
Yeah.
There's a lot of work to do.
Right.
Awesome.
Dude, I love it.
Hey, thanks, Steve, for creating something useful.
We appreciate it.
Yeah.
Definitely always good to call out Steve.
He's getting old, too.
I don't know how much longer he's going to be able to keep doing it.
He's like 80.
(09:09):
I can't remember.
80-something.
Oh, geez.
Yeah.
He was already old.
He's older than I am when he started.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Okay, man.
That was a good show.
Okay.
Well, we'll see you for next episode.
(09:31):
Are you ready to take action and wondering where to start?
Get my Bulletproof My Identity Starter Kit for free.
The seven most vital layers of protection everyone needs.
I'll send you one step at a time and help you if you get stuck.
Just go to bulletproofmyid.com and enter your name and email, and I will send you the first
(09:56):
step.
Again, that's bulletproofmyid.com.
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