Tool to Disable Any/All Windows 10 Telemetry with a Couple of Mouse Clicks

[Bubbaleone]

Safer-networking.org whose "Spybot – Search & Destroy" free edition remains one of the oldest and best anti-malware tools on the market, has a no-brainer solution for disabling unwanted Windows 10 telemetry options with a couple of mouse clicks.

Spybot Anti-Beacon is a standalone tool which was designed to block and stop the various tracking (telemetry) issues present in Windows 10. It has since been modified to block similar tracking functionality in Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems.

I've run the portable version on my 10, 8.1 and 7 boxes and it works as advertised. The tool is very simple to use, you select what you do or don't want disabled and everything has an "Undo" button to revert back to the original MS registry entry/entries following a reboot of the PC...plus it's free:

Spybot Anti-Beacon

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[balloonshark]

Thanks for sharing. I didn't know about this tool. It's pretty bad when operating systems need anti-spyware to protect the user from the operating system itself.

 

[bruceb]

I have that installed on my Windows 10 Home 64 Bit OS on a Toshiba laptop

 

[WT]

Correct me if I am wrong, but this only deals with the most egregious portions of Win10 telemetry. Some of it is baked far enough into the HAL that you can NOT stop it from phoning home.

 

[DigDog]

you can stop it from phoning home entirey, but it's a PITA and quite a good deal of work, couple hours at least, with all the googling, maybe an afternoon.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Correct me if I am wrong, but this only deals with the most egregious portions of Win10 telemetry. Some of it is baked far enough into the HAL that you can NOT stop it from phoning home.

From the page I linked in the OP:

....Simply clicking “Immunize” on the main screen of Anti-Beacon will immediately disable any known tracking features included by Microsoft in the operating system.

Given their long history and excellent industry reputation in privacy/security software, I don't believe safer-networking would ever or has ever released a product that did not perform as advertised.

 

[Elixer]

I am not so sure that Safer-networking has a good reputation these days, in that, they crippled the freeware version pretty severely.
I only noticed this when I got a S&D ad in their program saying that the paid version can detect more malware than the free version, since, you can only update the free version 1 time a week.
The paid version, gets multiple updates per week.
That means that the free version can't detect malware that was detected in the paid version, depending on the date it last updated.

 

[Dude111]

See if that works as good as this bud: www.grc.com/never10.htm

 

[Bubbaleone]

See if that works as good as this bud: www.grc.com/never10.htm

Steve Gibson has this to say about his Never 10 tool:

The name “Never 10” is a bit of an overstatement, since this utility may also be used to easily re-enable Windows operating system automatic upgrading. But the primary reason for using this is to disable Windows' pestering insistence upon upgrading Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10.

It's a handy utility that disables upgrading to Windows 10 but it has no capability to disable MS telemetry in Windows 7/8/8.1/10.

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[Mike64]

I am not so sure that Safer-networking has a good reputation these days, in that, they crippled the freeware version pretty severely.
I only noticed this when I got a S&D ad in their program saying that the paid version can detect more malware than the free version, since, you can only update the free version 1 time a week.
The paid version, gets multiple updates per week.
That means that the free version can't detect malware that was detected in the paid version, depending on the date it last updated.

But none of the "issues" you mention has anything to do with "not performing as advertised".

 

[Dude111]

Steve Gibson has this to say about his Never 10 tool: It's a handy utility that disables upgrading to Windows 10 but it has no capability to disable MS telemetry in Windows 7/8/8.1/10.

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Thank you my friend....Im sorry for the confusion

 

[Iron Woode]

here is an article comparing some of the tools to stop win 10 spying:

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/08/14/comparison-of-windows-10-privacy-tools/

 

[balloonshark]

here is an article comparing some of the tools to stop win 10 spying:

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/08/14/comparison-of-windows-10-privacy-tools/

Thanks for sharing :thumbsup:. I was hoping for a comparison article.

 

[MadScientist]

I use Ultimate Windows Tweaker 4 for Windows 10.
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-4-windows-10

 

[John Connor]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2466775&highlight=

 

[Bird222]

you can stop it from phoning home entirey, but it's a PITA and quite a good deal of work, couple hours at least, with all the googling, maybe an afternoon.

Do tell.

 

[John Connor]

Sophos firewall in a ITX based computer blocking all outbound to what is caught in Wire Shark on said Winblows 10 computer?