Is Microsoft Taking Stealth Screenshots For 'Feedback' Purposes?

HippsieGypsie said:

I assume you're not an insider and with/using RTM build 10240? What exactly is this screenshot you have? Can it be opened?

I have no such folder. Insider Preview build 10532.

The screenshot is a screenshot, lol. As I said, it was taken when I was organising files using File Explorer; so it consists of the taskbar and File Explorer maximised. From the time shown, the folder that is open, and the state of its content, I know exactly what I was going when it was taken. And it wasn't using the feedback app or other such nonsense.

The machine is a clean Win 10 install with no insider associations.

DavidY said:

I'm sure I have logged in to the feedback app with a Microsoft Account, even though I was logged into the machine itself with a local account, which I do most of the time.

That is, you (or anyone else who may have logged in) can login to the feedback app separately from the method you use to login to the machine, using any email address that is setup as an Insider account. You don't need to have a MS Account setup on the machine itself.

Yes, that is not in question. The feedback app has never been opened.

You said:

How is this unhelpful and generic? I'm trying to wipe the idea of Windows having built-in spyware. That's also a really ironic comment, and so is this. If it is irrelevant why add more irrelevant posts pointing out that it is irrelevant, which will instigate even more irrelevant posts? Someone else having a Microsoft account and leaving feedback certainly is relevant. Maybe that's what happened and if you had the privilege to decide whether comments should be relevant or not before they're posted and to delete them if they aren't, this conversation would drag on for weeks.

Your comment is unhelpful and generic because it shows you either didn't read my posts or ignored what was stated therein. You're trying to 'wipe the idea of Windows having built-in spyware', ha! Why? It is well documented that Windows 10 has many aspects that fit the definition of spyware.

I don't have the 'Pictures\Feedback' folder..., running Windows 10 RTM, and I used DestroyWindowsSpying.

Nus said:

The screenshot is a screenshot, lol. As I said, it was taken when I was organising files using File Explorer; so it consists of the taskbar and File Explorer maximised. From the time shown, the folder that is open, and the state of its content, I know exactly what I was going when it was taken. And it wasn't using the feedback app or other such nonsense.

The machine is a clean Win 10 install with no insider associations.



Yes, that is not in question. The feedback app has never been opened.



Your comment is unhelpful and generic because it shows you either didn't read my posts or ignored what was stated therein. You're trying to 'wipe the idea of Windows having built-in spyware', ha! Why? It is well documented that Windows 10 has many aspects that fit the definition of spyware.

If that was spyware, do you think that they'd make the folder visible and in your Pictures folder? You also haven't ruled out the possibility of some kind of crash reporter or something. Please, stop with the nonsense. And what are the aspects of spyware? Reporting your computer performance is not spying on you, and Windows has had this feature since Vista. "When you use Bing services, we collect your search queries, location and other information about your interaction with our services." Technically, all search engines will send your search history to the website. It has to be processed somehow. And why do you think that things like "blue screen of death" show up in the search predictions of Google when you type "blue screen"? It's not like that's an official phrase and Google automatically knows that it is what you're looking for. They taken data about how many times it has been searched and decided that it is probably what you're looking for because so many other people have searched for it. Your location is tracked to provide relevant results, unless you want to view IHOPs from halfway across the country when you search for "ihop" or something. Google also does the same thing.

And honestly, if they wanted to actually spy on you, then they wouldn't make the option VISIBLE.

Right I can reproduce something like this, although not quite the same.

One of the new keyboard shortcuts introduced in Windows 8 was WindowsKey+PrintScreen. When you use this shortcut, the screen dims slightly and the screenshot is put into c:\Users\{Username}\Pictures\Screenshots. It's very handy and I use it quite a lot.

However a new shortcut in Windows 10 is WindowsKey+? (that is, the Windows key plus the question mark, in practice on a UK keyboard that's Windows Key plus Shift plus /). This purports to open the Feedback app, but before it does this, the screen dims slightly, in the manner of taking a screenshot.

If I push this keyboard shortcut with File Explorer open, and with the default "Recent Files" showing, I notice it does indeed create a screenshot, in a new file Capture.png.

In my case it goes into a folder:
C:\Users\{Username}\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsFeedback_cw5n1h2txxyewy\LocalState\{Diff erentGUIDEveryTime}

But it's jolly similar behaviour.

So question for the OP - what happens on your machine if you push this keyboard combination:
WindowsKey+?
aka (on UK keyboard)
WindowsKey+Shift+/

And could you have pressed it (or perhaps a similar combination I haven't found yet!) by accident on the day in question?

Edit: Actually when I do this, it seems to briefly create a folder c:\users\{Username}\Pictures\Feedback, presumably with a screenshot in it, then it disappears again. I don't know what is different on my machine that makes it do that, but my money is on you hitting that keyboard shortcut by accident.

Windows 10: WindowsKey and Print - Screenshoot in Windows Pictures.
Windows 10: WindowsKey and Shift and ? - Nothing! No Screenshoot in Pictures, no Screenshoot in Feedback.

Cluster Head said:

Windows 10: WindowsKey and Print - Screenshoot in Windows Pictures.
Windows 10: WindowsKey and Shift and ? - Nothing! No Screenshoot in Pictures, no Screenshoot in Feedback.

Do you get a screenshot in
C:\Users\{Username}\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsFeedback_{Guid}\LocalState\{Subfolder}

Edit: Also, if you open Windows Explorer at the folder
c:\Users\{Username}\Pictures\Feedback
(if you have it) or
c:\Users\{Username}\Pictures\

if not, and you press WindowsKey+?, does anything flash up and disappear?

[

Do you get a screenshot in
C:\Users\{Username}\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsFeedback_{Guid}\LocalState\{Subfolder}

No! There is nothing! Except a XML File.

Edit:

if not, and you press WindowsKey+?, does anything flash up and disappear?

Nothing!

Cluster Head said:

[

No! There is nothing! Except a XML File.

And no subfolders next to the XML file? If you're in that folder looking at the XML file and you press WindowsKey+?, does anything change?

I edited my post above (but too late) to ask this - if you open Windows Explorer at the folder
c:\Users\{Username}\Pictures\Feedback
(if you have it) or
c:\Users\{Username}\Pictures\
otherwise

and you press WindowsKey+?, does anything flash up and disappear?

c:\Users\{Username}\Pictures\Feedback
(if you have it) or
c:\Users\{Username}\Pictures\
otherwise

No, I don`t have this Folder in Pictures. I have only this, but without a Screenshoot, only one naked .XML File is there stored. C:\Users\{Username}\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsFeedback_{Guid}\LocalState

When I press Windowskey and print I get a "normal" Screenshot like in Windows 8. When I press WinKey and Shift and ? - Nothing! No Screen, no flashing.