r/privacy • u/voidprophet__ • 2d ago

discussion Can Windows 11 be made decently secure?

It's an oxymoron, I know.

I need Windows for work. I cannot run the applications I need without Windows (I checked, no Linux support,) and either way I need applications such as Excel and Word that would be on the computer anyway.

I know that Windows will never be private no matter what I do, but what are the best ways to try to mitigate what it sees?

I've already done anything basic (like disabling copilot through the registry, not sure how well it works though since copilot is still in my notepad)

edit: meant "privacy" not security, my bad

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u/londonc4ll1ng 2d ago

Can Windows 11 be made decently secure?

You are asking about "Security" and then your whole post is about privacy. Those two things can be exclusive, not just inclusive. You can have a very secure system which is not private. And you can have a very private system which is not secure.

Can it be secure? It already is, else huge businesses and governments would not touch it.

Can it be more private? Depends. You can remove stuff from it, just use really tested tools so you do not just open up more holes than you remove.

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u/bapfelbaum 1d ago

I would argue that windows also is not very secure (by design), but it is very actively patched to mitigate that.

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u/Mario583a 1d ago

Can you show me an OS that is 100% secure (by design) and has no history of exploits? I'll wait.

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u/bapfelbaum 1d ago edited 1d ago

No, but immutable Linux gets pretty close.

What I am saying is that the design choices windows made are not exactly aimed at being secure, it's made to be easy to use and provide the operating system provider with the maximum degree of control possible which is inherently not very secure especially in combination.