Blackbird V6 1.0.85.2

Security
14 August 2022, 10:51

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Blackbird was designed to alleviate spending hours on tweaking your privacy settings by using some known and less-known techniques to fully disarm Windows without leaving behind even the smallest possible footprint.

There are other tools that claim to block Windows spying but they are cumbersome to use and not as powerful or are limited in scope. So the author took Windows apart, piece by piece, analyzed web traffic, system calls, file changes,etc., compared different configurations, designed and built a stand-alone tool and spent hundreds of hours on beta testing so anyone can use it and it gets the job done right. Block Windows spyware, on both the application and network level, with dynamic filtering and without editing the HOSTS file or firewall settings as well as preventing diagnostic, password, contact, URL, SMS, handwriting, location, and P2P-update sharing.

How Blackbird V6 Works

Without going into too much detail, Blackbird employs some known and less-known techniques to fully disarm Windows while leaving the smallest possible footprint.
For instance, Blackbird does not edit the HOSTS file in any way, nor does it mess with your firewall settings.
It does not run in the background, instead relying on persistent routes and resolving hostnames to IP addresses each time Blackbird is applied by the user.
After usage no new files are left behind on your computer and you can safely delete blackbird.exe. Blackbird has succedded when you forget it was ever there. Everything our software does can be restored using the software itself or manually by hand. (*Dev.notice: Please don't do this manually, it will take forever and is confusing)
There are other tools that claim to block Windows spying but they are cumbersome to use and not as powerful or are limited in scope. So we took Windows apart, piece by piece, analyzed web traffic, system calls, file changes,etc., compared different configurations, designed and built a stand-alone tool and spent hundreds of hours on beta testing so anyone can use it and it gets the job done right.
Updated frequently and regularly, as long as Windows gets updates so will Blackbird.
Privacy is the only thing that should be opt-in by default.
Don't be another cog in the machine, instead throw a wrench in.

Features

Disables OneDrive
Disables Cortana (Kill Cortana completely with -kc switch; See Command-line Switches below)
Disables Bing-integration
Disables all AutoLoggers
Disables Wi-Fi Sense
Disables system-wide telemetry (on all editions of Windows 10 and older)
Disables Start menu ads
Disables all Xbox Live services
Disables web content evaluation («SmartScreen») and prevents URL check-in
Disables Windows Media online DRM
Disables Windows P2P Update sharing
Disables hidden Windows metric startup tasks
Disables all diagnostic tracking services
Disables all application metric-data collection agents
Prevents system read access to already collected diagnostic data
Prevents any location/contacts/messages/handwritting/password sharing
Prevents cross-device synchronization (ie; Windows Phone auto-syncing with PC account data)
Removes GWX and Windows 10 upgrade pop-ups
Removes Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA)
Removes your unique ad-tracking ID token
Removes a bunch of Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 telemetry updates (View full list here)
Removes all pre-install Windows 10 Upgrade files/folders on Windows 7, 8, 8.1
Blocks 150+ different tracking/telemetry/ad servers (View full list here)
Supports custom host lists, IPv4/IPv6, Wifi/Eth
Patches various data leaks (IE/Edge, Explorer, Defender, MRT)
Applies various network tweaks (enables RSS,ctcp,tcp-offload,ECN)

Command-line Switches

Blackbird can also be invoked in CMD with the following switches available:

blackbird -v > Verbose mode: Displays additional information on all changes as they're being made.
blackbird -s > Silent mode: No additional user interaction required, good for scripts.
blackbird -r > Recovery mode: Restores all values changed by Blackbird to default Microsoft values.
blackbird -std > STD mode: Destroys all Windows spy tasks. See README for more details.
blackbird -scan > Full system scan mode: Scans and reports all privacy issues.
blackbird -kc > Kill Cortana completely (prevent searchUI.exe from loading)
blackbird -ke > Kill Microsoft Edge
blackbird -kf > Kill Windows Feedback/ContactSupport
blackbird -kl > Kill Lockscreen
blackbird -kall > Kill all System Apps
blackbird -noupdate > Skip blacklisted Windows update removal.
blackbird -nohost > Skip host blocking.
blackbird -nospeed > Skip system optimizations.
blackbird -o > Enable OneDrive
blackbird -p > Enable Diagnostic Policy service
blackbird -t > Enable Sensors / Auto-screen-rotation on tablets
blackbird -x > Enable Xbox Live services.
blackbird -l > Fix LAN connectivity problems after using Blackbird.
blackbird -a > Disable SmartScreen application checking
blackbird -b > Disable Runtime Broker (will cause most UWP/Metro apps to stop working)
blackbird -c > Disable background access for all default system apps
blackbird -d > Disable Windows Defender.
blackbird -e > Disable SMB over NetBIOS (close listening port 445)
blackbird -f > Disable most used apps displayed in Start menu
blackbird -h > Disable Hibernation (deletes hiberfil.sys file).
blackbird -u > Disable automatic installation of updates / Sets to manual download and install only.
blackbird -m > Disable automatic installation of Windows Malicious Removal Tool (MRT) updates.
blackbird -n > Remove all Blackbird network blocks.
blackbird -? > Displays help information.