Disable Windows 10 Tracking and Telemetry Without Affecting Functionality
Windows 10 comes bundled with a lot of options designed to improve user experience by collecting and using information about your PC activity. This means that it (partly) monitors what you do on your computer.
Many users object to Microsoft's policy in this regard and prefer to prevent it from gathering personal data by disabling tracking and telemetry services. If you're one of them, then you probably know how difficult it is to search the Windows features and find the right tools to block.
Fortunately, there are third-party applications that take this matter into their own hands, providing you with neatly structured lists of all Windows 10 services and settings you can say no to and protect your privacy. We're breaking down three such tools to show you how they work: O&O ShutUp10, Win10 Wizard, and W10Privacy.
Getting started
Administrative rights are necessary to tinker with Windows 10 settings, so make sure to log in with the admin account or run the apps with elevated rights. Since you're going to change system-related settings, it's strongly recommended to create a system restore point. This way, you can go back to a previous, stable state if you come across OS compatibility issues after making the modifications.
O&O ShutUp10
The tool doesn't require setup, so you can directly launch it by double-clicking the downloaded .exe. All Windows 10 components that can be disabled with O&O ShutUp10 are sorted into different categories: Security, Windows Defender and Microsoft SpyNET, Privacy, Synchronization of Windows Settings, Cortana (Personal Assistant), Location Services,User Behavior, Windows Update and Miscellaneous.
Each option is accompanied by a slider button on the left, whose color indicates the status: green means that the respective feature is turned on while red indicates that it's disabled.
On the right of the options, you can view various symbols. These correspond to O&O ShutUp10's recommendations toward maintaining Windows 10 stability by keeping some features enabled. They can also be found in the Actions menu on top: green tick (Apply all recommended settings, the safest option), yellow square (Apply all recommended and limited settings, less safe), and red exclamation point (Apply all settings, least safe).
If you click an option, it opens up an area to view its description. Open the Actions menu and click Apply all recommended settings (the one with the green tick, the safest option).
A window pops up and asks you if you want to create a system restore point. Click Yes if you haven't already done this. Modifications are immediately applied without Windows restart, and the Windows 10 features that were disabled are now emphasized in the list (bold effect). If you change your mind, open the Actions menu and click Undo all changes ("factory settings").
The tool doesn't require setup, so you can directly launch it by double-clicking the downloaded .exe. All Windows 10 components that can be disabled with O&O ShutUp10 are sorted into different categories: Security, Windows Defender and Microsoft SpyNET, Privacy, Synchronization of Windows Settings, Cortana (Personal Assistant), Location Services,User Behavior, Windows Update and Miscellaneous.
Each option is accompanied by a slider button on the left, whose color indicates the status: green means that the respective feature is turned on while red indicates that it's disabled.
On the right of the options, you can view various symbols. These correspond to O&O ShutUp10's recommendations toward maintaining Windows 10 stability by keeping some features enabled. They can also be found in the Actions menu on top: green tick (Apply all recommended settings, the safest option), yellow square (Apply all recommended and limited settings, less safe), and red exclamation point (Apply all settings, least safe).
If you click an option, it opens up an area to view its description. Open the Actions menu and click Apply all recommended settings (the one with the green tick, the safest option).
A window pops up and asks you if you want to create a system restore point. Click Yes if you haven't already done this. Modifications are immediately applied without Windows restart, and the Windows 10 features that were disabled are now emphasized in the list (bold effect). If you change your mind, open the Actions menu and click Undo all changes ("factory settings").
Win10 Wizard
After installing and launching Win10 Wizard, you're greeted by a large window with a menu: Privacy, Location Services, Security, Themes, Reclamation and Device & App Compatibility.
Click Privacy to view a list of all Windows 10 features that can be disabled. To deactivate an option, you just have to tick the box next to it. Each setting has a description.
You can disable Sharing of handwriting data, Inventory Collector, Camera in logon screen, App access to user account information, Transmission of typing information, Cortana Reset, Input personalization, Feedback reminders, and Windows 10 Search Extension with Bing. The remaining options can be left unchecked. Click Done to commit modifications.
Returning to the main menu, click Location Services and tick all options to disable them, as well as click Done to apply changes. In the Security area, check the boxes to disable User Steps Recorder and Telemetry. The other settings can be cleared. Click Done to finish.
If you change your mind, you can go back to any of these sections and click Reset to Windows Defaults.
W10Privacy
The app doesn't require setup, but make sure to extract the .exe file from the downloaded archive before double-clicking it for launch, because additional files are auto-created by W10Privacy (in the same location).
Run W10Privacy with administrative rights. It takes a while to load the main window, after which it asks you if you want to create a system restore point. Click Yes if you haven't already done this.
All Windows 10 features that can be disabled are categorized in different tabs: Privacy, Telemetry, Search, Network, Explorer, Services, Edge, OneDrive, Tasks, Tweaks, Firewall, Background-Apps, User-Apps and System-Apps.
These options are color-coded so you can tell apart the Recommended settings (green) from the Conditionally recommended options (yellow) and Restricted recommended (red). When hovering the mouse over an option, a tooltip is shown to explain what it does.
Tick the box next to each green option in Privacy, Telemetry and Network, only the first two in Search. Clear all options (green and yellow) in Explorer but check the !Disable the collection of information about running programs and opened files box, check the green options in Services and leave the rest cleared, as well as tick Send "Do Not Track" requestand Do not use page prediction to speed up... in Edge, clear the yellow option and leave the remaining green options cleared.
Clear all options in OneDrive, Tasks, Firewall, Background-Apps, User-Apps and System-Apps, as well as tick all green options in Tasks and deselect the red and yellow ones.
Afterward, click Set changed settings on the lower-right side of the window to apply modifications. The app restarts itself to commit modifications. It may also be necessary to reboot the computer.
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