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Win 10 disable updates and spyware. Blocking firewall actions and ads

Microsoft at release new system Windows has implemented a user activity tracking feature in it. How to disable tracking in Windows 10 and why is it there?

Most users liked the new Windows 10: it looks prettier and is easier to use. However, along with the new functionality, she also received a system for tracking user actions. According to Microsoft, the tracking system will help improve the product. With tracking enabled, the device will constantly communicate with the company's servers and transmit information about your activities to them.

You need to figure out how to turn off tracking in Windows 10, how to increase the speed of your computer, reduce network load and hide your personal data from unauthorized persons.

Why does Microsoft need your personal data?

According to Microsoft, it monitors users because it collects the following data:

personal information (last name, first name, patronymic);
Contact details ( phone numbers, mail, accounts in in social networks);
location data;
tastes and preferences (for example, attitude to the country's politics or favorite sports team);
logins and passwords from e-mail and other accounts;
payment data (numbers of credit cards, electronic wallets).

The developer claims that the information received will help simplify the work with the system and make it more functional. For example: if you are trading on stock exchanges, the system will take this into account and display ads that may interest you.

Maybe the goals are not bad, but it should be taken into account that the collected information will be stored on the company's servers and it is not known in what hands it can fall. And these can be not only intelligence agencies, but also hackers who regularly steal the personal data of network users and sell them to interested parties. In addition, data exchange with Microsoft servers occurs at your expense, network load increases and processor performance decreases.

These factors do not affect the performance of the device in the best way, so it is better to disable the tracking function.

Disabling spyware during installation

The option to turn off user activity tracking in Windows 10 is permanently available during the setup phase, which offers a speed boost. The majority of users do not bother to configure the installation parameters and agree with the standard settings, which, of course, includes surveillance.

To disable this option, find the "Settings" menu item.

A window will appear in which all the sliders need to be moved to the "Disabled" position. Now click the "Next" button and turn off the sending of statistics, reports and page prediction. You can leave only the protection against harmful content.

Click the "Next" button. You will be prompted to create an account Microsoft entry what not to do. Skip this step.

Disabling Tracking Directly in Windows

If you didn’t turn off tracking earlier, you can do this in Windows 10 itself. To do this, go to the system settings (gear in the menu), find the “Privacy” item, where the settings we need are located. All sliders in this menu must be turned off. On the same page there will be an ad setting from Microsoft, if the switches are in the active position, disable them too.

Now you can return to the privacy settings, and look for the "Location" tab. In this section, all functions must be disabled. In addition, there is a log with location records, you need to clear it.

The next section is camera settings. Select the options you don't need. Disable them. Similarly, you need to do with access to the microphone.

Under Speech, Handwriting, and Typing, there should be a Meet Me button. If it is present, then the keylogger is inactive. If not, find the Stop Learning button and turn it off.

In the information section account you need to set a ban on receiving applications of your personal data.

call log;
message exchange;
Email;
radio;
contacts;
the calendar;
Other devices.

All sliders must be off.

In the diagnostic item, select "Never" from the drop-down menu about requesting feedback by the operating system. You should do the same in the "Sending device data" menu - select the "Basic information" item. These measures will minimize the receipt of your information by Microsoft.

In the last menu, you can configure which programs can receive your information and which cannot.

Telemetry settings

Telemetry is the ability to collect information about the programs installed on your device and their actions. The information is sent to Microsoft for further analysis.

To disable this option, search for the command prompt (Utilities - Command Prompt), then type the following into the command prompt:

sc delete DiagTrack
sc delete dmwappushservice
echo"">C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Diagnosis\ETLLogs\AutoLogger\AutoLogger-Diagtrack-Listener.etl
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection" /v AllowTelemetry /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

These commands delete all the accumulated information, then turn off the ability to track and impose a ban on the further inclusion of telemetry.

Disabling Windows Tracking with Programs

In addition to manually setting up the system, you can also use special programs that can turn off tracking.

Destroy Windows 10 Spying program is one of the best free apps, which can disable surveillance by Win.

In the event that you use this program, download it from the official website of the developer.

After installation, launch the program, find the "Settings" menu. A list of features that the app can disable will appear. Check the boxes next to the features you want to remove. Then go to the main tab and click the delete tracking button. After the end of the program, the program prompts you to restart the computer.

Since the release new version OS from Microsoft, a lot of information appeared on the Internet about Windows 10 surveillance and that the OS spies on its users, uses their personal data in an incomprehensible way, and more. The concern is understandable: people think that Windows 10 collects their personalized personal data, which is not entirely true. Just like your favorite browsers, sites, and the previous version of Windows, Microsoft collects anonymous data to improve the OS, search, other system functions ... Well, to show you ads.

In Windows 10 settings, there is a whole "Privacy" section to configure the relevant settings and disable some features related to "spying". Press the Win + I keys on the keyboard (or click on the notification icon, and then - "All settings"), and then select the desired item.

There are a whole set of items in the privacy settings, each of which we will consider in order.

Are common

Allow apps to use my advertising recipient ID - off.
Enable SmartScreen filter - enable (the item is missing in the Creators Update).
Send my writing info to Microsoft - Disabled (not available in Creators Update).
Allow websites to provide local information by accessing my list of languages - off.

Location

In the "Location" section, you can turn off location detection for your computer as a whole (it is turned off for all applications), as well as for each application that can use such data, individually (below in the same section).

Speech, handwriting, and text input

In this section, you can turn off tracking of the characters you type, speech and handwriting. If you see a "Meet Me" button in the "Meet Me" section, this means that these features have already been disabled.

If you see the "Stop learning" button, then click it in order to disable the storage of this personal information.

Camera, microphone, account information, contacts, calendar, radio, messaging, and other devices

All these sections allow you to switch to the "Off" position the use of the corresponding hardware and data of your system by applications (the most secure option). They can also allow their use for individual applications and prohibit them for others.

Reviews and diagnostics

Set "Never" under "Windows should ask me for feedback" and "Basic Information" ("Main" data in the Creators Update) under the section about submitting data to Microsoft if you do not want to share information with it.

Background apps

Additional options that may make sense to disable in privacy settings (for Windows 10 Creators Update version):

How apps use your account information (under Account Information).
Allow apps to access contacts.
Allow applications to access email.
Allow applications to use diagnostic data (see Application Diagnostics).
Allow apps to access devices.

An additional way to give Microsoft less information about yourself is .

Additional privacy and security settings

For greater security, you should also perform a few more steps. Return to the "All Settings" window and go to the "Network and Internet" section and open the Wi-Fi section.

Disable "Search paid plans for nearby recommended open hotspots" and "Connect to suggested open hotspots" and Hotspot Network 2.0.

Return to the settings window again, then go to "Update and Security", then in the "Center windows updates» Click "More Options" and then click "Choose how and when to receive updates" (link at the bottom of the page).

Disable receiving updates from multiple locations. This will also disable other computers on the network from receiving updates from your computer.

And, as a last point: you can disable (or manually start) the Windows service "Diagnostic Tracking Service", since it also sends data to Microsoft in the background, while disabling it should not affect system performance.

Additionally, if you are using Microsoft browser Edge, look in additional settings and turn off the predictive features and save data there. Cm. .

Programs to disable surveillance Windows 10

Since the release of Windows 10, there have been many free utilities to disable spyware. Windows features 10, the most popular of which are presented below.

DWS (Destroy Windows 10 Spying)

DWS is the most popular program to disable Windows 10 surveillance. The utility is in Russian, is constantly updated, and also offers additional options (, removal of built-in applications).

O&O ShutUp10

The free program to turn off surveillance for Windows 10 O&O ShutUp10 is probably one of the easiest for a novice user in Russian and offers a set of recommended settings for safely disabling all tracking functions in Windows 10.

One of the useful differences between this utility and others is detailed explanations for each option to be disabled (called by clicking on the name of the parameter to be enabled or disabled).

You can download O&O ShutUp10 from the official website of the program https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

Ashampoo AntiSpy for Windows 10

In the original version of this article, I wrote that there were many free programs to disable the spyware features of Windows 10 and did not recommend using them (little-known developers, quick release of programs, and therefore their possible underdevelopment). Now, one of the fairly well-known companies, Ashampoo, has released its AntiSpy utility for Windows 10, which, in my opinion, can be trusted without fear of spoiling anything.

The program does not require installation, and immediately after launch you will have access to enable and disable all available user tracking features in Windows 10. Unfortunately for our user, the program is in English. But in this case, you can easily use it: just select the Use recommended settings item in the Action section to apply the recommended personal data security settings at once.

You can download Ashampoo AntiSpy for Windows 10 from the official website www.ashampoo.com.

WPD

WPD is another high-quality free utility for disabling surveillance and some other functions of Windows 10. Of the possible disadvantages is the presence of only the Russian interface language. Of the advantages - this is one of the few utilities that supports Windows version 10 Enterprise LTSB.

The main functions of disabling "spying" are concentrated on the tab of the program with the image of "eyes". Here you can disable the policies, services, and tasks in the Task Scheduler that are somehow related to the transfer and collection of personal data by Microsoft.

The other two tabs may also be of interest. The first is Firewall Rules, which allows you to configure Windows 10 firewall rules in one click so that Windows 10 telemetry servers, access to the Internet by third-party programs, or disable updates are blocked.

The second is the convenient removal of built-in Windows applications 10.

You can download WPD from the official website of the developer https://getwpd.com/

Additional Information

Possible problems caused by Windows 10 anti-spyware programs (create restore points so that you can easily roll back changes if necessary):

Disabling updates when using default settings is not the safest or most useful practice.
Adding multiple Microsoft domains to the hosts file and firewall rules (blocking access to these domains), subsequent possible problems with the work of some programs that need access to them (for example, problems with Skype).
Potential issues with the Windows 10 Store and some sometimes required services.
In the absence of restore points, it is difficult to manually restore the settings to their original state, especially for a novice user.

And finally, the author's opinion: in my opinion, the paranoia about Windows 10 spying is overblown, and much more often you have to deal with the harm of disabling surveillance, especially novice users using free programs for this purpose. Of the functions that really interfere with life, I can only note “recommended applications” in the Start menu (), and of the dangerous ones, automatic connection to open Wi-Fi networks.

Particularly surprising to me is the fact that no one scolds their Android phone, browser so much for spying ( Google Chrome, Yandex), a social network or messenger that sees, hears, knows everything, transmits where it should and should not, and actively use personal rather than anonymized data.

Did you read the license agreement before installing?

I think that most users will not be able to give an affirmative answer to this question. If you print its contents, you get about 30 pages in 12 font.

In today's article, we will talk about interesting (in terms of privacy) terms of the license agreement, as well as how to turn off tracking in Windows 10.

What does the Microsoft license agreement say?

In order to give a brief answer to a number of questions that arise around the text of the Microsoft and end user confidentiality agreement, let's rephrase a well-known quote:

"There are two kinds of users of Microsoft products - those who have read the license agreement and those who will read it."

The fact is that this agreement contains many clauses, the content of which some of the lawyers have already assessed as a potential interference with privacy.

While Microsoft motivates the need to collect information by improving the quality of the product.

Here is just a short list of the information that will be collected:

contact information (last name, first name, physical and email address mail, phone number, etc.);
credentials (passwords, password hints, etc.);
interests and hobbies (data on sports teams followed by the user, stock news, etc.);
usage data (search queries, web pages visited, products purchased);
payment data (credit card numbers, as well as their security codes);
location data;
content (information about files and transferred data);

However, this practice is very illogical because the license for the right to use the OS costs money, and advertising is imposed on the user for the same money.

Of course, the user can refuse to receive advertising, but this does not mean at all that he will not receive it (!) Or its quantity will decrease, or the collection of personal data listed above will be stopped.

And this is only a part of what you have given your consent to, for a more detailed acquaintance, we recommend visiting the official Microsoft website.

Advice! In this situation, there are several options for solving the problem: install Linux, do not purchase and do not upgrade to Windows 10, and if the upgrade has already occurred, roll back to the previous version (we will devote a separate article to this issue), disable the collection of personal data, or do nothing.

Within the framework of this article, as its title implies, we will talk about the option of disabling and blocking services that collect user data.

We note right away that the steps described below are ways to limit the process of collecting the user's personal data.

In the future, it is planned to expand and supplement this somewhat. This is not a panacea for solving the described problem, but a way of its compromise solution.

8 Steps to Disable Private Information Collection in Windows 10

Disabling services that are responsible for collecting information must begin at the installation stage operating system.

After that, you need to turn off all, without exception, items.

Step 2 We do not create or use a Microsoft account. When the installer comes to this step, select "Skip this step".

In the future, we use only a local account.

Step 3 Change privacy settings. Go to "Settings", then open the "Privacy" section.

In this section, you need to go through all the subsections and turn off everything that we consider necessary. For instance:

Step 4 Change security settings.

Step 5 Turn off Cortana and Internet search.

To do this, click on it in the taskbar, go to the settings, click on the gear icon and put both switches in the “Off” mode.

Step 6 Disable telemetry. We will perform this shutdown by entering directives into the command line, launched with administrator rights.

We will use the keyboard shortcut Win + X or by selecting the appropriate item in the Start menu. Enter the following commands in turn.

Recall that after entering each of them, you must press the Enter key.

Step 7 Setting up the Edge browser.

In an open browser, go to the menu "Additional actions" - "Settings" - "View advanced options" and turn on the switch to send "Do Not Track" HTTP headers, which allow you to bypass surveillance by sites of user actions.

And also turn off the switches "Display search suggestions as you type", "Use page prediction", "SmartScreen".

Step 8 Let's convert the Microsoft account to a local one.

To do this, go to "Settings", section "Your account" and click on "Sign in with a local account instead" and then log in according to the instructions.

In this article, we have considered only the main ways to limit the process of collecting user's personal data.

In the future, it is planned to expand and supplement this list somewhat, so stay tuned for new publications.

How to turn off tracking on Windows 10?

In this video you will learn how to disable all tracking services and remove unnecessary software on Windwos 10

It's a terrible thing, but Windows 10 is spying on its users around the clock. Everything happens without the knowledge of a person, since the data is transmitted in encrypted form. Few people like tracking, so the question has long been asked on the network: how to disable surveillance in Windows 10. There is nothing difficult in this, since you need to adjust the standard settings of the operating system.

We remove the spy

The network is full software, which supposedly neutralizes espionage from the new operating system. However, the reliability of such products is questionable. There are more easy way spy service neutralization. So, the whole point is that when installing the operating system, no one reads the license agreement. This is the very first mistake of users - it's the same as not reading the terms of the loan agreement. Therefore, at the initial Windows installation 10 follows:

Use only manual settings to set all the checkboxes yourself.
Do not create accounts Windows data, but use the left.

It happens that the user has already installed an operating system for himself, and later learned about its bad side of the spy service. In this case, the shutdown is done through the settings:

You need to go to the Start menu, select the Settings tab there, go to the section
Privacy and uncheck everything.
In the place of reviews and diagnostics, check the box Never.
Get rid of the useful Cortrana helper once and for all.

What is the need

Espionage, if not done in a timely manner, penetrates into all areas of the user's work. The operating system reads data from the keyboard, keeps a record of sites accessed through the browser, reads mail and notes, and captures search queries on the network. Microsoft argues for such a service only by trying their systems and understanding what they really need. You also need to control the software license. After all, federal agencies cannot always catch pirates selling counterfeit copies, and copyright holders lose millions of dollars. But, frankly, it is terrible to realize that somewhere on the server psychological portraits of people are stored, formed by their actions on the computer.

Everyone knows this relevant ad that appears on the pages of search engines. Also, Apple is amazingly accurate in guessing which ones are in their devices, so that they get the most out of them. But is it worth paying for good app service by exposing your personal information? And if you visit dubious sites? And if you are interested in dubious requests? Is it possible that on the basis of only the interests of a person, they will begin to bring charges against him in the future?

But all this is a beautiful thing far away, and today voice searches are already translating into a symbolic form what users were simply too lazy to write before. The assistant from Windows 10 called Cortarana was no exception. She also carefully captures all the interests of her master and sends them straight to the central servers. Of course, for feedback from Microsoft - it's great, but the interests of personal security suffer.

How did it open

It is not surprising that there are applications and software services that analyze network traffic. So fans of digging into network devices know how to analyze outgoing and incoming data. Everything that goes in and out of the computer needs to be controlled to ensure that the . As a result of traffic filtering, it turned out that Windows 10 sends binary files to the Internet at certain intervals. When decrypting these binary files, it turned out that these are nothing more than desktop photos.

That is new Windows 10 rhythmically sends information about what the user is doing at any given time. And all this happens with the tacit consent of the consumers themselves. Data can be intercepted by other people who are able to use network equipment in a qualified manner. Moreover, Microsoft says that it is intentionally willing to send such information to its partners. And who these partners are, and what they will do with this information, remains only up to chance.

Who needs such a lottery? Naturally, no one. But gullible consumers are ready, as before, to flip through the installation pages, pressing the Accept button everywhere. Now, this carelessness can be very costly. Of course, official companies may not initiate legal proceedings against users. But attackers can easily count the actions of people by connecting to the data stream from Windows 10.

Precautionary measures

It didn't just start with Windows 10. Big players like Apple and Google have been tracking their customers for a long time using software round the clock services operating systems. It makes no sense to collect a focus group of several people when you can get adequate data from millions of users. This modern technologies, which bypass the law due to their informational complexity.

So you should create truthful pages on social networks as little as possible and search engines. Do not give a reason to those who can easily send your data to special services. This insistent advocacy in movies and TV about putting every moment of your life online is a grim one. Our electronic devices tell the world where we've been, what we've done, what we've enjoyed. But you need to understand that the fewer traces a person leaves behind on the network, the less likely they are to use his life for personal gain.

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On the part of users, there is a huge dissatisfaction with the privacy policy of Microsoft. But even those who are not very worried about the safety of their data cannot be happy with the fact that a huge amount of traffic is transferred every minute to third parties.

Microsoft has never hidden that it collects various data from users of its systems. But what exactly?

The user sends general information about the name, version, language of the operating system. The OS scans data about the applications used, sends information from the search engine, provides for the embedding of application advertisements in the Start menu.

The OS provides a huge number of built-in programs, often inferior in functionality existing analogues. These programs access the user's microphone and camera, read keyboard input, and more.

When the system first came out, even the Russian legislation was concerned about the security of its services, which make full use of Windows in their work.

But, contrary to the dissatisfaction of many users, almost all of this can be disabled in the control panel of the system itself or during installation.

How to turn off tracking when installing Windows

Even when installing the system, you will be asked what you allow to send to Microsoft and what not.

Details can be seen in this video.

Video - How to easily disable tracking and sending data when installing Windows 10

How to turn off tracking by standard means

Unlink Microsoft account

Everything. After these steps, you have unlinked the Microsoft record.

Disable antivirus

Look for the magnifying glass icon at the bottom left, next to the start menu. If it doesn't appear, right-click on the taskbar and select Search > Show Search Icon.
Type in the search "Security Center".
As soon as the window opens, find "Virus and Threat Protection" and proceed to this menu.
Click on the "Virus and Threat Protection Settings" heading.
Disable all provided sliders in this menu: real-time protection, cloud protection, automatic sample submission, and controlled folder access.

Turn off general options

Go to the options menu through the "Start" icon.
Go to the "Privacy" section.
In the "General" tab, disable all 4 settings sliders.
Select the next menu on the left, called Location.
Turn off the tracking setting by clicking on the "Edit" button and turning off the slider. Also make sure that the slider below "Location Service" is also disabled.
Go to the next tab "Camera".
Make sure only apps you trust have access to your camera. If you don't use the Metro apps built into Windows 10 at all, then it's worth clicking the slider at the very top, which disables all apps from accessing the camera.
Microphone tab. Also, make sure that it is available only to the programs you need.
Click next on Speech, handwriting and text input.
Click on the "Turn off speech services" button and then on the "Turn off" button.
Continue down the list in "Reviews and Diagnostics".
Select the "Primary" method for sending data. Disable the slider just below. Scroll down to Review Frequency and select Never from the drop-down list.

These are the main things to turn off in the "Privacy" menu. If you want to turn something off yourself, then feel free to read the description and decide if you need this option. Go through all menu items.

On a note! On the menu« Confidentiality» we disable the same thing that we can disable during installation. There may also be a lot of other useful information here, such as background applications. They can also be turned off. Go through each menu and read the description and turn off everything you don't need.

Disabling telemetry

Open the search (magnifying glass icon) next to the start menu. If you don't have it, right-click on the bottom taskbar, then click Search > Show Search Icon.
Type "Command Prompt" in the search box.
Right-click on the suggested option and select "Run as administrator".
After the console appears, type in the first line " sc delete DiagTrack" and "Enter" after it. The console should return a "Success" result.
Enter the second command " sc delete dmwappushservice". The result should also be "Success".
Further, on one line we write: « echo "" C:ProgramData\Microsoft\Diagnosis\ETLLogs\AutoLogger\AutoLogger-Diagtrack-istener.etl".
The whole set of actions should look something like this (see the screenshot below).
We close the command line. Press the key combination "Windows + R".
We enter in the command line "regedit"\u003e "OK", confirm that we are coming from the administrator.
Go to the very top of the left folder tree and follow the path " HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" > "Software" > "Policies" > "Microsoft" > "Windows" > "DataCollection".
Double-click on "AllowTelemetry", type 0 into line, and click "OK".

Programs to disable

There are a large number of programs that will allow you to get rid of surveillance in just one click. Let's consider some of them.

Spybot Anti Beacon

A small portable program that disables:

surveillance (telemetry);
prohibits distributing Wi-Fi;
disables unnecessary services, such as Cortana, onedrive;
edits the hosts file, prohibiting the transfer of data to the server of the copyright holder.

All this and more is available in Windows 7/8/10.

Destroy Windows 10 Spying

A very easy to use program that will help you:

prevent feedback and your information from being sent to Microsoft;
disable antivirus;
uninstall standard Metro apps;
disable windows updates.

On a note! With a small size, the program is very powerful and some actions may be irreversible, which the developer himself warns about and does not recommend users to turn on the professional mode. But the program allows you to create a system restore point. The advantage of the program can be considered open source.

Windows Privacy Tweaker

Just like the previous two, it provides a rich set of options for disabling surveillance:

disabling telemetry not only of the system itself, but also of other programs, for example, Microsoft Office;
disabling antivirus;
removes ads in the Start menu, prohibits sending your search queries to the Microsoft server.

And many, many more.

The full list of changes can be found in the program itself. You can create a restore point, which is not an insignificant plus for inexperienced users.

Video - How to turn off snooping with Windows Privacy Tweaker

Conclusion

We've covered most of the ways to disable built-in user activity monitoring in Windows 10. Don't be paranoid and don't use a mostly good licensing system that provides quick and timely updates. We just showed you ways to reduce the consumption of your PC resources and outgoing traffic.