I turned off these Windows 11 settings to make Microsoft know much less about me

Windows 11 comes with a number of options and settings that may make your PC extra helpful, despite the fact that a few of these options additionally accumulate or use details about your PC use. For occasion, it might probably learn the way you utilize your PC or personalize search outcomes for you. Sure, it isn’t essentially malicious, however not everybody wants that data collected. If you’re somebody like me who desires to maintain your utilization habits to your self, you’ll be able to merely flip them off. The excellent news is that they received’t break any performance. Here are some Windows 11 settings that really feel like the largest privateness leaks.

Diagnostics and suggestions

I restricted what Windows sends to Microsoft

Windows 11 collects diagnostic knowledge on how you utilize your PC. This contains what options you utilize and error messages that you simply get. Microsoft makes use of this knowledge to repair software program bugs and enhance the general expertise. I don’t thoughts Windows sending some info to maintain the working system safe and useful, however numerous this knowledge is elective.

I can’t disable the minimal diagnostic knowledge that Windows wants. This contains system data and software program stock. The further diagnostic knowledge like app exercise and looking historical past is underneath the person’s management. So, I made a decision to restrict diagnostic knowledge on my Windows 11 PC.

Here’s the right way to do it:

1. Open Settings -> Privacy & safety.
2. Go to Diagnostic & suggestions.
3. Turn off Send elective diagnostic knowledge.
4. Also, flip off Improve inking and typing choice.
5. If you need, you can too view and delete the diagnostic knowledge that Microsoft has collected about your system.

Another factor it is best to verify on this web page is the Tailored experiences choice. When turned on, this function makes use of diagnostic knowledge to supply personalised suggestions, advertisements, and suggestions. I don’t need that, so I turned it off, too.

Advertising ID

The hidden cookie Windows has

I really feel that is a type of Windows settings that are spying on you. Windows provides a singular promoting ID to each person. Apps can use this identifier to trace your conduct and provide extra related advertisements. This is basically a cookie, however baked into the working system itself. Thankfully, you’ll be able to disable or reset this Advertising ID everytime you need to.

1. Open Settings and go to Privacy & safety from the left panel.
2. Click on General and switch off the promoting ID choice.

When I turned this function off, Microsoft didn’t cease exhibiting me advertisements. It simply made these advertisements much less related and personalised. I wished to cut back pointless personalization, so it was value disabling the Advertising ID. It’s value realizing that once you flip this function off after which again on, Windows will generate a recent ID for you and begin constructing a brand new behavioral profile.

Activity History

No personalised affords and advised content material, please

Windows retains a report of issues that I do on my system, just like the apps that I’ve opened, web sites I’ve visited in Edge, and even the recordsdata that I’ve edited. Windows may even sync my exercise historical past to Microsoft’s servers, so I can decide up the place I left off on one other system.

Over time, Windows builds a profile of my utilization habits, which is used to energy advised content material and personalised advertisements. I don’t like Windows tracking me in the background. So, I made a decision to not permit Windows to retailer my exercise historical past.

1. Open Settings -> Privacy & safety part.
2. Select Activity History.
3. Here, flip off Store my exercise historical past on this system choice.
4. Hit the Clear historical past button to take away beforehand saved knowledge.

If you’ll be able to’t discover this selection in your machine, it’s doubtless as a result of Microsoft has eliminated the Activity History web page within the newer Windows 11 builds.

Search and Start menu

I need search outcomes, not predictions

This one is fairly simple to miss. Windows Search is now not a easy field that indexes simply recordsdata and purposes in your PC. Rather, it pulls in net outcomes, Bing ideas, and different cloud content material linked to your Microsoft account. That means Microsoft can use my app-launch exercise to personalize Start and Search for me.

Well, I don’t need Windows to study my habits and resolve what I would need subsequent. I simply need to see related recordsdata, apps, and settings in my search outcomes. So, I went to Settings -> Privacy & safety -> General -> Let Windows enhance Start and search outcomes by monitoring app launches and turned it off.

Once I’ve completed this, Windows doesn’t use app-launch exercise for my Start and Search outcomes. If you don’t need net integrations in your search outcomes, you’ll be able to go to Settings -> Privacy & safety -> Search and switch off Search my accounts.

App permissions

I took again pointless permissions

Every time you put in an app in your PC, it might probably request entry for issues like location, digicam, microphone, contacts, and extra. Like many customers, I additionally did not pay a lot consideration to those requests. I’d merely hit the permit button and transfer on. Of course, some apps want sure permissions to operate correctly. However, not each app wants them.

For occasion, a navigation app has a great motive to entry your location. On the flip aspect, there’s no sense for a calculator, note-taking, or different utility app to ask for such permissions. This makes it vital to review app permissions on your device.

Here’s the right way to verify app permissions in your Windows PC:

1. Go to Settings -> Privacy & safety.
2. Under App permissions, evaluate digicam, microphone, and different classes one after the other.
3. In case an app does not want a particular permission, revoke its entry straight away.

This is perhaps time-consuming, however it is going to be a very powerful change that you simply make in your Windows machine.

Online speech recognition

I preserve my voice knowledge off the cloud

If you’re somebody who has ever used Windows’ native voice dictation options, there is a good likelihood your voice knowledge was processed on Microsoft’s servers slightly than regionally in your system. That’s as a result of Windows 11 has an internet speech recognition function that improves accuracy by sending your audio to the cloud. Sure, it’s helpful, however not one thing everybody desires to be enabled by default.

You will discover this selection underneath Settings -> Privacy & safety -> Speech. Remember, it is going to additionally scale back the accuracy of voice typing and dictation options. I barely use voice enter on my machine, so I want to show this setting off.

Windows doesn’t must know every part I do

When I turned these options off, it didn’t remodel my Windows PC into a superbly personal machine. That wasn’t even my aim. Windows can nonetheless accumulate some crucial details about me. That stated, these modifications gave me extra management over the data Windows makes use of to personalize my expertise. If you have been utilizing Windows 11 with its default privateness settings, it’s value spending a couple of minutes going by way of these menus. No, you do not have to change every part off or surrender on options you utilize. Just disable the options that don’t present sufficient worth for extra knowledge entry.