![]() Of course, this presents potential security risks as Microsoft will no longer be able to patch known vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, Windows 10 Home users are stuck with the built-in deferral, but Pro and Enterprise users can utilize W10Privacy allows users to disable Windows Update without diving into menus. In recent memory, Windows 10 updates have also posed a risk as users lost significant amounts of data due to errors on the publisher’s side. Microsoft has been lambasted for its forceful approach to updating Windows 10, with patches often catching users at inconvenient times. Disabling Windows Update on Windows 10 Pro/Enterprise This makes the selection significantly easier to browse, but it does seem a loss that there is no Search function to locate particular options quicker. These preferences are also sorted into categories, consisting of Privacy, Apps, Telemetry, Search, Network, Explorer, Services, Edge, Internet Explorer, OneDrive, Tasks, Tweaks, Firewall, Background-Apps, User-Apps, and System-Apps. The terminology isn’t the friendliest to users without experience, but W10Privacy elaborates and explains when the cursor hovers over the option. Restricted recommended settings are highlighted in red, and can potentially negatively impact the system if changed from their default state. Yellow, or amber, is conditionally recommended, requiring the user to look into the option they’re about to alter before confirming any changes. Using a traffic light structure, green means that the user can change the setting with almost no noticeable fallout beyond the loss of the option’s direct functionality. W10Privacy prides itself on being accessible to all color-coding recommended actions based on their side effects to the system. W10Privacy offers 316 options in total across 16 categories, consisting of Privacy, Apps, Telemetry, Search, Network, Explorer, Services, Edge, Internet Explorer, OneDrive, Tasks, Tweaks, Firewall, Background-Apps, User-Apps, and System-Apps. Microsoft’s default stance on data protection and collection has been questionable at best in recent years, leaving the user to sift through endless menus and complicated jargon manually to reach an acceptable level of privacy. Preferences are hidden within a plethora of drop-down menus that can often contain unfamiliar terminology and changing them can sometimes bring about unforeseen repercussions.įortunately, as recommended when touching the Registry Editor, W10Privacy automatically prompts the user to create a restore point which can then be used to reset changes should anything go wrong. While it’s possible to in Windows 10, traversing the Windows 10 Registry manually can often be a challenge for the casual user. Simply click "more info" to make the "Run" button appear. This is a false flag, as W10Privacy is perfectly harmless. If you're not quite sure what competing tools are doing, give this a try instead.Windows Defender often flags W10Privacy as unsafe and prompts you to cancel the download. The interface needs work, but W10Privacy scores for the details it gives about every setting and tweak. There's not just a vague "block telemetry" option: instead you can choose to "block IP addresses of known Microsoft telemetry servers" through either a firewall rule or your HOSTS file, in both full-strength and lightweight versions.Įach action is colour-coded, too, as either green (safe to set), amber (check carefully) or red (don't do this unless you're really sure), reducing the chance that you'll cause some major problems. W10Privacy gives you quite fine control over some areas. If that's not enough, hovering the mouse over that action displays a tooltip with more information. One immediate plus point is that most of these actions are very clearly described, like "Do not let apps use my camera" or "Do not let apps access my name, picture and other account into". ![]() Some of these are Windows 10-specific ("Disable the Delivery Optimization Service", the scheme where Windows updates can be obtained from other systems on your network), but others are general PC tweaks ("Show extensions for known file types in Explorer"). ![]() There are a lot of options to browse, but W10Privacy tries to make life easier by organising them in several tabs: Privacy, Telemetry, Search, Network, Explorer, Services, OneDrive, Tasks, Tweaks and more.Ĭlick any tab and a list of related actions appears. W10Privacy is a portable free tool which makes it easier to view and control Windows 10's many privacy-related settings. ![]()
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