Is there a way to stop windows from taking your pictures and making albums...

[Beamin]

I absolutely can't stand this and can't figure out how to stop it without uninstalling the picture viewers.

It goes through my images takes pictures of me, or just the ones it recognizes as with faces people etc, and pops up "cute little photo albums". The problem is that these are "personal" pictures and now I can't let other people use my lap top or even look at it because it will show pictures when I'm not expecting it. "No mom you can't borrow my computer for a few minutes because my computer will show you porn with me in it, in the format of a nice little photo album."

It just did this out of the blue today when I adjusted the volume and next to it was an image file. Seems to pop up after automatic updates when windows adds features I don't want or need. I wonder how many people have also had this happen to them when they thought their pictures were safely hidden in some obscure folder name. Seems like that would be a good way for hackers to ransom you by releasing your personal pics.

[Ampera]

The problem and solution is in the question.

"Windows taking your pictures"

"Stop Windows"

[amyk]

Is this Windows 10?

Search online for guides about disabling all the adware/spyware pieces...

[rdl]

https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+turn+off+automatic+photo+albums

[ebastler]

https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+turn+off+automatic+photo+albums

Did you have a look at the proposed solutions? The consensus seems to be that you uninstall *photo* via Powershell, which I presume removes the photo viewer app. Beamin mentioned that she was looking for a solution that does not require that.

(Apparently there is a less destructive way if it is OneDrive which creates the photo albums, rather than the local photo app: https://www.digitalcitizen.life/stop-onedrive-creating-automatic-photo-albums)

[rdl]

There wasn't enough info in the op for a perfect answer. If it's a Windows 10 program, it may be hard to fix any other way than removing the offending program. Luckily, there are other photo viewer programs available. You can apparently even use the Windows 7 Photo Viewer if you want.

[IanB]

There wasn't enough info in the op for a perfect answer. If it's a Windows 10 program, it may be hard to fix any other way than removing the offending program.

Maybe, maybe not. A Google search shows ways to turn off notifications of automatic photo albums, or to turn off the feature of automatically creating photo albums altogether.

One other thing I learned about Windows 10: it might be a good idea NOT to sign into your Windows 10 machine using a Windows account. If you sign in using a Windows account you automatically get connected to the Microsoft cloud and all the baggage that comes with it. By not using a Windows account it becomes much harder for Microsoft to do stuff behind the scenes that you may not like.

[factory]

https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+turn+off+automatic+photo+albums

Thanks for that, that piece of crap has been irritating me since updating from Windows 7 (I prefer the older Photo Viewer but it seemed to occasionally force you into the newer one), just uninstalled it using powershell, using the info from the link below. 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/apps_windows_10-photos/how-to-disableuninstall-the-photo-app-in-windows/9328ef95-2993-4be8-882a-442b96950f2b

David

[Yansi]

Use IrfanView instead. The windows photo viewing software always sucked and was always pure garbage with almost zero functionality and usability.

[edpalmer42]

Use IrfanView instead. The windows photo viewing software always sucked and was always pure garbage with almost zero functionality and usability.

+1 for Irfanview.  I've used it for years and I've always been happy with it.  I've even bought a few copies even though it's freeware.  It's one program that I don't have to relearn every time Microbrain comes out with some new, wonderful add-on for their latest OS.

But DON'T get Irfanview from the Microsoft Store.  Then it's a 'Windows App' with all the baggage that includes.  Just get the standard executable from the Irfanview site.

Ed

[factory]

Use IrfanView instead. The windows photo viewing software always sucked and was always pure garbage with almost zero functionality and usability.

I do also have & use IrfanView, mainly for editing & also the slideshow feature.

Edit, have been using Irfanview since updating from XP to 7, when the editing software for my ancient Lexmark scanner got updated to a total pile of crap. Really should buy a new one but it still works.

David

[Brumby]

Another +1 for Irfanview.

If you just want a picture viewer, then it's fine - but there is a whole lot more you can do with it ... if you want.

One of my favourites is batch processing.  Want to resize and watermark 1,000 images?  It takes less than a minute to set up and then start the batch - and go do something else.

[Cyberdragon]

Never seen that before, of course I beat-up Win10 and most of it's garbage along time ago.

No idea if this will help, but it kills OneDrive and all tracking stuff like that.

https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/

It might be Cortana Nosey Bitchbot 9000 (R) being a perv. Murder it.

https://www.howtogeek.com/265027/how-to-disable-cortana-in-windows-10/

[bob225]

spybot anti beacon kills Cortana and disables a lot of the telemetry

https://forums.spybot.info/downloads.php

photo and viewer is a pain, if you can find it windows essentials 2012 gives you the photo gallery and import tools

[Zero999]

Have you tried storing all of your pictures in a ZIP file?

I've not heard of this issue before, but I hardly ever use Windows 10 these days. I use Linux at home and we have 7 at work. My only experience is on my dad's PC and it's a nightmare.

[Cyberdragon]

spybot anti beacon kills Cortana and disables a lot of the telemetry

https://forums.spybot.info/downloads.php

photo and viewer is a pain, if you can find it windows essentials 2012 gives you the photo gallery and import tools

*sigh* link repost...

[TerraHertz]

Another vote for http://www.irfanview.com/ here.  Was there EVER a photoviewer that came with an OS that was any good?

For my part, I'd like a way to stop 4chan downloader from creating thumbnails in the root of the work drive. Or anywhere for that matter.  Similar problem to Beamin's. It's weird that config-->Thumbnails has no 'don't create thumbnails' option.

[Beamin]

https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+turn+off+automatic+photo+albums

Did you have a look at the proposed solutions? The consensus seems to be that you uninstall *photo* via Powershell, which I presume removes the photo viewer app. Beamin mentioned that she was looking for a solution that does not require that.

(Apparently there is a less destructive way if it is OneDrive which creates the photo albums, rather than the local photo app: https://www.digitalcitizen.life/stop-onedrive-creating-automatic-photo-albums)

I went through this computer when I first got it and shut off all the spyware and settings I could find twice so far seems like I'm always finding another level of spying. Ridiculous how much work that is and how hidden they make those options.

[Beamin]

There wasn't enough info in the op for a perfect answer. If it's a Windows 10 program, it may be hard to fix any other way than removing the offending program.

Maybe, maybe not. A Google search shows ways to turn off notifications of automatic photo albums, or to turn off the feature of automatically creating photo albums altogether.

One other thing I learned about Windows 10: it might be a good idea NOT to sign into your Windows 10 machine using a Windows account. If you sign in using a Windows account you automatically get connected to the Microsoft cloud and all the baggage that comes with it. By not using a Windows account it becomes much harder for Microsoft to do stuff behind the scenes that you may not like.

Exactly. The windows account on this is just the bare minimum needed to set it up one time. No email, back up, sync, calendar , contacts, outlook, cloud storage or any of that BS. If I need files stored I put them on flash or external HDD.

[CJay]

Another vote for the awesome Irfanview, absolutely excellent.

If you *have* to use Windows then this is the best way to stop Win 10

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows7

[Beamin]

Another vote for the awesome Irfanview, absolutely excellent.

If you *have* to use Windows then this is the best way to stop Win 10

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows7

No. These new lap tops don't come with restore CDs or CD drives so I would rather not mess with it and risk being without my 6 hours a day internet habit.


I have a few lap tops that would be like new if I had the windows CD with all the weird drivers specific to them to restore them. I have an ASUS that looks like new with no hard drive in it and can't remember why I stopped using it but more then likely the touch pad or something got messed up and was a huge PITA to fix and I bought a new one.

[Mr. Scram]

The problem and solution is in the question.

"Windows taking your pictures"

"Stop Windows"

How about we stop the religious wars for once and actually try to help someone?

I really haven't seen this issue before. Maybe OP can post a screenshot of what he's seeing, obviously with a family friendly example picture. What version and release are you using, Beamin?

[Beamin]

The problem and solution is in the question.

"Windows taking your pictures"

"Stop Windows"

How about we stop the religious wars for once and actually try to help someone?

I really haven't seen this issue before. Maybe OP can post a screenshot of what he's seeing, obviously with a family friendly example picture. What version and release are you using, Beamin?

Windows 10 build 1803
installed 5/25/ 2018. <--- I don't understand that I bought this computer in 2017 or 16 unless it did some major update.


It's not doing it now but seems to pop up on the right side of the start menu or when you are looking at pictures; you double click on a picture and other pics then come up in a family photo album that is X rated. When it first happened I was like "She has nice legs and I have heels just like that was I downloading porn on ambian? OH SHIT THATS ME!!!"


Yes obviously if I am using windows it's for a reason. All my SDR stuff doesn't work on linux or mac. OK maybe linux but I don't like messing with installing wrappers and spending an hour to try out software that I may tire of in a few minutes.

Then trying to get the touch pad SD card wireless etc etc on Linux is more work then I want to spend.

[Mr. Scram]

Windows 10 build 1803
installed 5/25/ 2018. <--- I don't understand that I bought this computer in 2017 or 16 unless it did some major update.


It's not doing it now but seems to pop up on the right side of the start menu or when you are looking at pictures; you double click on a picture and other pics then come up in a family photo album that is X rated. When it first happened I was like "She has nice legs and I have heels just like that was I downloading porn on ambian? OH SHIT THATS ME!!!"


Yes obviously if I am using windows it's for a reason. All my SDR stuff doesn't work on linux or mac. OK maybe linux but I don't like messing with installing wrappers and spending an hour to try out software that I may tire of in a few minutes.

Then trying to get the touch pad SD card wireless etc etc on Linux is more work then I want to spend.

It automatically installs updates and new releases. 1803 is a 2018 release and was therefore installed in 2018. That's expected behaviour.

[Beamin]

Windows 10 build 1803
installed 5/25/ 2018. <--- I don't understand that I bought this computer in 2017 or 16 unless it did some major update.


It's not doing it now but seems to pop up on the right side of the start menu or when you are looking at pictures; you double click on a picture and other pics then come up in a family photo album that is X rated. When it first happened I was like "She has nice legs and I have heels just like that was I downloading porn on ambian? OH SHIT THATS ME!!!"


Yes obviously if I am using windows it's for a reason. All my SDR stuff doesn't work on linux or mac. OK maybe linux but I don't like messing with installing wrappers and spending an hour to try out software that I may tire of in a few minutes.

Then trying to get the touch pad SD card wireless etc etc on Linux is more work then I want to spend.

It automatically installs updates and new releases. 1803 is a 2018 release and was therefore installed in 2018. That's expected behaviour.

[Beamin]

Windows 10 build 1803
installed 5/25/ 2018. <--- I don't understand that I bought this computer in 2017 or 16 unless it did some major update.


It's not doing it now but seems to pop up on the right side of the start menu or when you are looking at pictures; you double click on a picture and other pics then come up in a family photo album that is X rated. When it first happened I was like "She has nice legs and I have heels just like that was I downloading porn on ambian? OH SHIT THATS ME!!!"


Yes obviously if I am using windows it's for a reason. All my SDR stuff doesn't work on linux or mac. OK maybe linux but I don't like messing with installing wrappers and spending an hour to try out software that I may tire of in a few minutes.

Then trying to get the touch pad SD card wireless etc etc on Linux is more work then I want to spend.

It automatically installs updates and new releases. 1803 is a 2018 release and was therefore installed in 2018. That's expected behaviour.

For me it always does the update when I am in a rush and need to check the internet for a minute before I go. A long time ago I needed MapQuest to go some where and CrapAfee took so long to get going I missed an important appointment. Also the MapQuest directions were wrong.

[pcdroid13]

thanks for sharing this info. cool

[pcdroid13]

I too feel that it keeps collecting thing which you search. I just now disable Cortana Search in my Windows 10.
You just need to set one flag in Registry Editor to 0.
This is the link I followed: https://www.hows.tech/2019/04/disable-cortana-in-windows-10.html

Make sure you restart your computer. I did not restart after tweaking the registry and I got confused that why it is not going away.

[Mr. Scram]

I too feel that it keeps collecting thing which you search. I just now disable Cortana Search in my Windows 10.
You just need to set one flag in Registry Editor to 0.
This is the link I followed: https://www.hows.tech/2019/04/disable-cortana-in-windows-10.html

Make sure you restart your computer. I did not restart after tweaking the registry and I got confused that why it is not going away.

You want to disable Cortana. It has so many tentacles everywhere and disagree with its behaviour.

[Black Phoenix]

There are an easy program that I use: O&O ShutUp10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=q4iXFbtLNRU


It let's do a lot more that simply shutdown Cortana, including Call Home that Windows 10 does.

Just Select Actions, Recommended Settings and Restart.

Normally I do the Recommended and Somewhat Recomended or you can select each and everyone individually. By clicking in the Setting it gives what he does and what it affects.

[tooki]

It goes through my images takes pictures of me, or just the ones it recognizes as with faces people etc, and pops up "cute little photo albums". The problem is that these are "personal" pictures and now I can't let other people use my lap top or even look at it because it will show pictures when I'm not expecting it. "No mom you can't borrow my computer for a few minutes because my computer will show you porn with me in it, in the format of a nice little photo album."

Honestly, given how pervasive sexting and porn pics are, I really think the phone/computer vendors should have implemented a “this is porn” flag long ago, where you can just tag the pictures as sensitive, causing them to be separated out from the rest of the photo library and handled in a separate area, possibly with warnings when trying to send them to a new recipient.

I know iOS/Apple Photos now has a “hide” command that works a bit like that, putting them in the “hidden” album and hiding them elsewhere. But it’s a bit cumbersome. :/

[Chris_Walch]

Actually there is a setting in the Photos app:
"Enable automatically generated albums"

And also this one:
"People" (facial recognition)

[Zero999]

How about having two different user accounts: one for porn and another more family friendly one?

[tooki]

How about having two different user accounts: one for porn and another more family friendly one?

I don't know about Android, but iOS doesn't have user accounts, and even if it did, that'd make it quite difficult to move photos between accounts if they needed to be moved, not to mention that you'd have to switch between accounts to do everyday things, and have all your social media and messaging accounts set up again so that you can marshall pix to the right photo library.

Doesn't seem like a practical solution in any way.

[SiliconWizard]

Have you tried uninstalling Windows 10?
 

[MyHeadHz]

The short version is there is no way to do it permanently.  With updates, microsoft *happens* to *add new features* that kill previous solutions to fix Win10 tracking/adware/etc.  When people refused to *upgrade* to Win10, they just added that BS to older versions of Windows in updates (7, 8, etc).  Any solution you will find for any current Windows OS is only permanent if you disable updates, which you should not do.  There is simply no avoiding these problems in Windows now because Microsoft has gone full retard "OS as a Service."  Windows is no longer a normal OS as a commodity.  It is now an advertising platform, and YOU are the product.

The only permanent solution is to ditch Windows.  And there are only two real alternatives (MAC and GNU+Linux), and my recommendation is for the latter.  If you have anything you "need" in windows, just run it in a virtual machine from within your main OS.  You will get the functionality you need while remaining in control and safe.  Windows is antiquated now and there just is no reason to *need* it at all anymore.

If you decide you want to do that, that is your choice.  Just be aware that once a month or so there will be similar *new feature* that abuses your machine, your privacy, or your security.  You won't know about it for weeks, and then it will take hours and hours to research how to permanently temporarily fix it again until they break it in a different way and you have to start all over again.

[Zero999]

It goes through my images takes pictures of me, or just the ones it recognizes as with faces people etc, and pops up "cute little photo albums". The problem is that these are "personal" pictures and now I can't let other people use my lap top or even look at it because it will show pictures when I'm not expecting it. "No mom you can't borrow my computer for a few minutes because my computer will show you porn with me in it, in the format of a nice little photo album."

Honestly, given how pervasive sexting and porn pics are, I really think the phone/computer vendors should have implemented a “this is porn” flag long ago, where you can just tag the pictures as sensitive, causing them to be separated out from the rest of the photo library and handled in a separate area, possibly with warnings when trying to send them to a new recipient.

I know iOS/Apple Photos now has a “hide” command that works a bit like that, putting them in the “hidden” album and hiding them elsewhere. But it’s a bit cumbersome. :/

That's a point, I wonder if simply setting the file attribute to hidden will solve the problem?

How about having two different user accounts: one for porn and another more family friendly one?

I don't know about Android, but iOS doesn't have user accounts, and even if it did, that'd make it quite difficult to move photos between accounts if they needed to be moved, not to mention that you'd have to switch between accounts to do everyday things, and have all your social media and messaging accounts set up again so that you can marshall pix to the right photo library.

Doesn't seem like a practical solution in any way.

The original poster is using Windows 10, which definitely does support different user accounts.

I don't see why having a separate account for porn is that difficult or impractical. The ideal behind two accounts is it's not easy to move pictures between them and don't set up any social media on the porn account.

[Beamin]

It goes through my images takes pictures of me, or just the ones it recognizes as with faces people etc, and pops up "cute little photo albums". The problem is that these are "personal" pictures and now I can't let other people use my lap top or even look at it because it will show pictures when I'm not expecting it. "No mom you can't borrow my computer for a few minutes because my computer will show you porn with me in it, in the format of a nice little photo album."

Honestly, given how pervasive sexting and porn pics are, I really think the phone/computer vendors should have implemented a “this is porn” flag long ago, where you can just tag the pictures as sensitive, causing them to be separated out from the rest of the photo library and handled in a separate area, possibly with warnings when trying to send them to a new recipient.

I know iOS/Apple Photos now has a “hide” command that works a bit like that, putting them in the “hidden” album and hiding them elsewhere. But it’s a bit cumbersome. :/

That's an awesome idea but there must be some reason why they don't do this.


Having two accounts isn't a good solution because my computer shouldn't be spying on me. If you have a behavior analyst study anyone's computer you would know more about them then their mother or wife. Do you really trust some corporation to have that? "switch to Linux" yeah but un like when I was younger I hate fixing the computer. Look at the email program outlook and how infinite complex they have made it. Probably would take a work week to fully understand how to use all of it. No reason why it should be that complex its not like excel where it does useful math as a tool, its fucking email that can't even filter the spam well.

[IanB]

Look at the email program outlook and how infinite complex they have made it. Probably would take a work week to fully understand how to use all of it. No reason why it should be that complex

Could use Microsoft Mail instead?

[Mr. Scram]

That's an awesome idea but there must be some reason why they don't do this.


Having two accounts isn't a good solution because my computer shouldn't be spying on me. If you have a behavior analyst study anyone's computer you would know more about them then their mother or wife. Do you really trust some corporation to have that? "switch to Linux" yeah but un like when I was younger I hate fixing the computer. Look at the email program outlook and how infinite complex they have made it. Probably would take a work week to fully understand how to use all of it. No reason why it should be that complex its not like excel where it does useful math as a tool, its fucking email that can't even filter the spam well.

People definitely use those advanced functions in Outlook. It's a tool for power users. People use it in complex workflows. You don't have to use those functions and there are much simpler and cheaper alternatives if you don't need all that.

[MyHeadHz]

Food for thought:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-stirs-suspicions-by-adding-telemetry-files-to-security-only-update/

[tooki]

The original poster is using Windows 10, which definitely does support different user accounts.

Yes, that's true. But my main point was that even with that, that's a poor solution at best, for various reasons. But in a nutshell, things are rarely as black-and-white as to be able to separate everything you'd set up in a computer neatly into "nudies" and "non-nudies" accounts with zero overlap.

I don't see why having a separate account for porn is that difficult or impractical. The ideal behind two accounts is it's not easy to move pictures between them and don't set up any social media on the porn account.

I dunno about you, but for me, there is no way I could separate those things so cleanly. I use social media for both "public" things and personal ones. On various social media, I have everything from friends that I share nudies with, all the way to distant family. As it happens, the social media platforms are actually reasonably good at allowing permissions for particular things. But the OSes could stand to have a better way of handling this particular issue.

[Mr. Scram]

Food for thought:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-stirs-suspicions-by-adding-telemetry-files-to-security-only-update/

TLDR the update in question is a veritable security update.

[rdl]

While it was released as a security update, this part is not security related.

Microsoft included the KB2952664 functionality (known as the “Compatibility Appraiser”) in the Security Quality Monthly Rollups for Windows 7 back in September 2018. The move was announced by Microsoft ahead of time.

With the July 2019-07 Security Only Quality Update KB4507456, Microsoft has slipped this functionality into a security-only patch without any warning, thus adding the “Compatibility Appraiser” and its scheduled tasks (telemetry) to the update.

https://www.askwoody.com/2019/microsoft-surreptitiously-adds-telemetry-functionality-to-july-2019-win7-security-only-patch/

[Mr. Scram]

While it was released as a security update, this part is not security related.

Microsoft included the KB2952664 functionality (known as the “Compatibility Appraiser”) in the Security Quality Monthly Rollups for Windows 7 back in September 2018. The move was announced by Microsoft ahead of time.

With the July 2019-07 Security Only Quality Update KB4507456, Microsoft has slipped this functionality into a security-only patch without any warning, thus adding the “Compatibility Appraiser” and its scheduled tasks (telemetry) to the update.

https://www.askwoody.com/2019/microsoft-surreptitiously-adds-telemetry-functionality-to-july-2019-win7-security-only-patch/

Read the article in the previous link. It seems there may have been a security issue with the Compatibility Appraiser and the fix was therefore released as a security release. Microsoft has been creative with how they classify updates in the past but nothing of this nature.

[Beamin]

While it was released as a security update, this part is not security related.

Microsoft included the KB2952664 functionality (known as the “Compatibility Appraiser”) in the Security Quality Monthly Rollups for Windows 7 back in September 2018. The move was announced by Microsoft ahead of time.

With the July 2019-07 Security Only Quality Update KB4507456, Microsoft has slipped this functionality into a security-only patch without any warning, thus adding the “Compatibility Appraiser” and its scheduled tasks (telemetry) to the update.

https://www.askwoody.com/2019/microsoft-surreptitiously-adds-telemetry-functionality-to-july-2019-win7-security-only-patch/

Read the article in the previous link. It seems there may have been a security issue with the Compatibility Appraiser and the fix was therefore released as a security release. Microsoft has been creative with how they classify updates in the past but nothing of this nature.

So what is "telemetry"? Remember that thing that started with a p? What was it called? Privacy? Maybe? Huge violation of privacy all so they can makes cents per user as most won't buy shit they advertise to them.

I called my bank and offered to pay them money to not "share" my information. I told them what ever the average  was that they make per customer selling massive lists I would double it. The people on the phone have no idea that they sell your info. Go download your personal data if you have ever used uber. You will get an excel with thousands of lines of data with times and long lat. They know where your kids go to school and where your mistress lives.

[magic]

So what is "Windows" and "Uber"? Remember that thing that started with a d? What was it called? Dignity?