As a service tech, I have looked pretty hard for a means to shut off windows telemetry in an efficient way... Not only for setting up machines, which gets pretty laborious wandering around in settings, but to do so efficiently the same way every time, and in a way that combats MS trying to turn the stuff back on... Because they DO try to. Without some magic pill, one must repeat that wandering every single time that Windows is updated.
Now, the solution I have is not perfect - But it is a one-click wonder that does what I need to have it do. Simple enough to teach to end users, and reasonable to maintain.
Both of the products I will mention here are from
O&O Software GmbH (direct links to tools below), a reputable source among techs. Both are free to use.
Both are portable - That means they do not use the windows registry for themselves, so they do not need to be installed or uninstalled - Just drop them somewhere and run them... and simply delete them to uninstall (sort of).
SHUTUP10The first tool, the one that will shut off all that promiscuity with Microsoft and it's partners, is
ShutUp10Make a folder somewhere on your machine where you can find it again - I use C:\LocalToys\ but anywhere will do.
Download the file and copy/move it to that folder
Navigate to the folder and run the file.
It looks awfully complicated, but here's the trick:
On the 'Actions' tab Choose the 'yellow triangle' (Use recommended and somewhat recommended settings), and then hit the big [X] to leave... It will ask to make a restore point (YES), and then may ask to restart the machine (will for sure the first time) (YES)
And that's it. When the machine comes back up, it will be very locked down, and will run much better.
Now that can be problematic insofar as getting things to run - To use skype as an instance, you will have to go turn the mike and cam back on, and allow Skype to use them - If you do something like that go back and run ShutUp10... it will have a notice at the top stating that settings have changed - Accept the changes (because you did them), and close the program...
And another thing - Every time windows updates, go back and check with ShutUp10. If it has that notice at the top saying settings have changed, and
you did not change them tell it to revert the changes, and close the program (it may or may not ask for restore point/restart).
So obviously it is something you need to keep around. That is where it is not as good as I wish it was - It will not notify you of alterations without running the program, and it will not tell you when updates are available for itself - You have to go look for yourself. So you need to make a mental note to use it from time to time, and go look for an update to the program now and then.
If you DO decide to remove it, I would run it one last time and in the actions tab, set it back to factory settings... Then delete it as mentioned above. But your machine will be back in promiscuous mode.
APPBUSTERAnother thing that gives me fits is shutting off all the bloody apps MS shoves down our throat - Mine are business machines, and do not need games and xbox onboard. nor does it need 3D studio or MS's liberal news app... Some you cannot uninstall, and those you do will often come back...
That brings me to the other useful tool
AppBusterLike ShutUp10, DL the file, copy to a convenient place (I use the same place as ShutUp10) and run the file. When it comes up you will find a long list of apps that can be removed (or reinstalled)... Pretty self explanatory, just wander down the list checking check-boxes and then poke Remove (or install). You will have an option to remove for this user, all users, or from the machine... It will ask for a restore point, and process the removals... One stop wonder.
Enjoy.
