In some cases, you will have to make a decision about whether to err on the side of privacy or lean toward letting Microsoft monitor some of your actions in favor of a more convenient computing experience. All information and screenshots will be related to this build.
This information is up to date as of the Windows 10 – Update Version 2004 (Build 19041.264).
In this article, I’ll take you on a tour of those settings and show you which settings to change and how to do so to best protect your personal info. Whenever I set up a new computer or update a current setup for my family or job, I always carefully go through the general privacy settings for each install, making sure to lock it down to make it as private as possible. The Windows 10 default privacy settings leave a lot to be desired when it comes to protecting you and your private information. Here’s a nice bit of info from the Microsoft “Privacy” website:įinally, we will access, transfer, disclose, and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails in, or files in private folders on OneDrive), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to: protect the rights or property of Microsoft, including enforcing the terms governing the use of the services – however, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property of Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer’s private content ourselves, but we may refer the matter to law enforcement. I sure as heck don’t want complete strangers monitoring and saving information about my every move. I don’t know about you, but I don’t even like my boss looking over my shoulder while I’m working. It turns out that there are plenty of “convenience” features in Microsoft’s latest Windows release that look to monitor your every move on the Windows desktop in order to “improve the Windows experience.” I have to admit that the interface and overall experience of Windows 10 is much improved over 8.īut what about privacy in Windows 10? What’s changed? When done, you can close the Command Prompt if you want.You’ve been told over and over that Windows 10 is the best thing since MS-DOS 5, and you’ve finally broken down and updated your PC from Windows 8. Copy and paste the following command into the Command Prompt and press Enter.Ĭode: PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command "& "
Install and re-register the Settings app in the Command Prompt When done, you can close PowerShell if you want. Get-AppxPackage * windows.immersivecontrolpanel * | Reset-AppxPackage Copy and paste the below command into PowerShell and press Enter. Right-click or press and hold the Settings icon (gear) on the Start list, click More and select App settings. Reset the Settings app from the Start menu This guide will show you how to reset and re-register the Settings app in Windows 10.
If Settings fails or fails to open, you can reset and / or re-register the Settings app to hopefully fix the problem. You can click on a category to view and change other settings for that category.
Settings are organized into categories System, Devices, Phone, Network & Internet, Personalization, Apps, Accounts, Time & language, Gaming, Ease of Access, Search, Privacy, Update & Security, and Mixed Reality (if available). Most of the settings you want to change in Windows 10 are in the Settings app.