Nowadays, most companies try to integrate telemetry in different forms into their software. This data collection process is done to improve the software. Windows can also collect such data. However, if you prefer not to share your usage data on Windows 10, you can disable it. In this tutorial, we'll learn to disable telemetry on Windows 10 in different ways. In the end, a complete script is also provided to help you automate the entire process. Although there is no foolproof way to block data collection completely, you can take steps to reduce it to the minimum. You can apply this process on Windows 11 as well.
Although it is not going to affect your files, there's no harm in taking a backup of your important data before applying the telemetry blocking techniques. This includes a complete backup of the registry.
So, let's get started and implement telemetry blocking in Windows 10 to ensure our data is not sent to the Microsoft servers. We'll learn about all the available methods to enforce telemetry blocking.
What is Windows 10 Telemetry?
If you are still unsure about what exactly telemetry is, let's quickly learn about it. It's a Windows mechanism to collect data related to:
- System diagnostics
- Usage patterns of apps
- Performance data of hardware
- Different types of error reports
Before moving ahead, you must understand that complete blockage of Windows telemetry is not possible. You can use all the methods to reduce it to almost negligible.
Method 1: Reduce Telemetry via Settings
The first method is the Windows settings GUI for limiting the diagnostics data collection. To fine-tune the required settings:
Go to the Settings → Privacy → Diagnostics & feedback option. Here, under the 'Diagnostics data' section, choose the 'Required diagnostic data' option.
Similarly, scroll down and turn off both 'Improve inking & typing' and 'Tailored experiences' options.
And lastly, for the 'Feedback frequency' option, ensure Never is selected from the dropdown menu.
All these settings significantly reduce telemetry data collection.
Method 2: Disable Telemetry via Group Policy
There's another way to disable or tweak how much diagnostic data is collected from your Windows machine. You can do it through the group policy editor.
To open the group policy editor, press the Win + R key and type gpedit.msc in the box. Hit the Enter key to open the policy editor.
Now navigate to the following option:
- Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Data Collection and Preview Builds
Here, you'll find the 'Allow Telemetry' option. Double-click on it to open the dialogue box.
Use the Disabled option to stop telemetry data collection. Or, you can also choose the Enabled option with the Security (0) level from the drop-down menu. The latter approach ensures the data collection is a bare minimum.
Make sure to click the Apply button for changes to take effect.
Method 3: Turn Off Telemetry Services
Despite blocking diagnostic data collection through the group policy editor, telemetry services may still run in the background, capturing tids and bits of data from your PC. To disable these services, start PowerShell with administrator privileges and run the following commands:
sc stop "DiagTrack"
sc config "DiagTrack" start= disabled
sc stop "dmwappushservice"
sc config "dmwappushservice" start= disabledBoth 'Connected User Experiences and Telemetry' and dmwappushservice services are stopped and disabled through these commands.
Method 4: Disable Telemetry Tasks in Task Scheduler
Next comes the scheduled tasks Windows run to collect and send diagnostic data. We must disable these tasks too. Here's how you can open the task scheduler.
Press the Win + S key and type 'Task Scheduler' in the search box. Click the app entry that appears in the result.
Go to the Task Scheduler Library → Microsoft → Windows → Customer Experience Improvement Program option.
Here you'll find a collection of scheduled tasks on the right. Select the Consolidator and KernelCeipTask tasks one by one and disable them as shown in the image above.
On the same page on the left, go to the Microsoft → Windows → Application Experience option. Here, select the ProgramDataUpdater scheduled task and disable it.
This one too collects telemetry data and sends it to Microsoft servers.
Method 5: Block Telemetry Endpoints
To further strengthen telemetry data collection, you must block well-known domains to put a cap on outbound data. This helps you prevent collected data from being sent to the Microsoft servers.
To do that, open the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file with administrator privileges and add the following entries to it.
127.0.0.1 vortex.data.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 settings-win.data.microsoft.comAn alternate method is to create a firewall rule for the same. To create such a rule, open PowerShell with admin privileges and run the following command:
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Block Telemetry" dir=out action=block remoteip=13.107.4.50,13.107.5.88 enable=yesRemember, the data pushing domains may change in the future, so you have to update them accordingly.
Method 6: Use a Privacy Tool
If you want to complete all these steps with additional measures from a single user-friendly interface, you can do so through 3rd-party privacy apps. Here are the two most popular ones.
- O&O ShutUp10++ - It's a portable and free app that works like a charm.
- W10Privacy - This one is a bit advanced and gives you tons of privacy options.
Before using these apps, I'd strongly recommend creating a system restore point on your Windows machine.
Conclusion
While Windows 10 Pro doesn’t offer a simple “Off” switch for telemetry, combining Group Policy changes, service disablement, task scheduler edits, and domain blocking can drastically reduce the amount of data sent to Microsoft.
With these steps, you’ll be running a far more privacy-friendly system, without sacrificing core functionality.
