In case you care about privateness, it is best to change off this Home windows 11 setting

Beginning with Windows 10 in 2015, Microsoft adopted a notoriously aggressive coverage in the case of the gathering of diagnostic knowledge for telemetry functions. Early on, the corporate acquired main warmth for this apply, culminating within the implementation of extra user-facing choices and much-needed transparency into the combo. Even nonetheless, nevertheless, 2025-era Windows 11 loves its knowledge assortment, with no indicators of relenting anytime quickly.

Sure, telemetry is a helpful vector for figuring out developments and for tailoring the software program expertise to the person person, and, sure, Microsoft’s knowledge assortment is anonymized. That being mentioned, it may well nonetheless be seen as an intrinsic breach of privateness when the person cannot absolutely choose out of any and all knowledge assortment (or if they are not well-informed that knowledge is being collected within the first place).

Essentially, my important drawback with Microsoft’s telemetry apply stems from the truth that Home windows 11 is not a free service. Somewhat, the working system is a paid providing, with activation keys costing a fairly penny. Within the web age, we’re used to buying and selling our privateness in alternate free of charge providers (suppose: Facebook), however, merely put, Microsoft’s flagship PC OS does not fall into this class.

In any case, there are settings out there out of the field to restrict Home windows 11’s diagnostic knowledge assortment to only the required necessities, in addition to extra instruments hidden beneath the floor — you simply must know the place to search for them.

Find out how to disable telemetry on Home windows 11

You possibly can choose out of sending some (however not all) diagnostic knowledge to Microsoft out of the field

To show off the automated sending of non-compulsory diagnostic PC knowledge to Microsoft, comply with these steps:

1. Launch the Settings utility.
2. Navigate to Privateness & safety > Home windows permissions > Diagnostics & suggestions.
3. Inside the Ship non-compulsory diagnostic knowledge part, change the toggle to the off place.

Sadly, even with this setting toggled off, a separate set of required diagnostic knowledge will continue to be sent to Microsoft for the aim of telemetry assortment. This conduct cannot be opted out of, however you do have entry to a few instruments for managing your knowledge inside Privateness & safety > Home windows permissions > Diagnostics & suggestions:

• Activate the Diagnostic Knowledge Viewer: in alternate for taking on a complete of as much as 1GB of cupboard space, this function supplies entry to the assorted telemetry particulars despatched to Microsoft.
• Delete diagnostic knowledge: a button will be pressed to clear the diagnostic knowledge collected by Microsoft for the PC in query.

In case you occur to be operating the Professional, Enterprise, or Schooling variants of Home windows 11, there are some extra measures at your disposal for disabling telemetry by way of the Group Coverage Editor. To take action, comply with these steps:

1. Launch Run (both by way of Win + R, right-clicking on the Begin Menu, Home windows Search, or the Home windows Instruments folder).
2. Inside the Run window, kind within the following: gpedit.msc
3. Press the Enter key.
4. The Native Group Coverage Editor will launch on display screen. From right here, navigate to Laptop Configuration > Administrative Templates > Home windows Elements > Knowledge Assortment and Preview Builds.
5. Find and double-click on the Permit Telemetry coverage setting after which toggle it off.

Optionally, you may also disable the Linked Consumer Experiences and Telemetry service, to cease it from operating within the background at boot. This may be achieved on all editions of Home windows 11, together with the Dwelling model. To take action, comply with these steps:

1. Launch Run (both by way of Win + R, right-clicking on the Begin Menu, Home windows Search, or the Home windows Instruments folder).
2. Inside the Run window, kind within the following: providers.msc
3. Press the Enter key.
4. Providers will launch on display screen. From right here, find the Linked Consumer Experiences and Telemetry service from the alphabetized checklist and double-click on the entry.
5. Subsequent, an applet will seem on the display screen. Below the Startup kind drop down menu, choose disabled.
6. Click on on Apply, adopted by OK.

The subsequent time you reboot your PC, the Linked Consumer Experiences and Telemetry service will not instantly run, saving you from but extra diagnostic knowledge harvesting.