Introduction

Man is a social being. But as soon as it comes to personal data and their protection, many of us turn into real paranoids. Whether this is good or bad, we will not judge now (to each his own), but simply tell you how to make Windows 10 more private, because the new version of the operating system is very “talkative” by default and does not always know how to “keep secrets”. I will say right away that there can be no complaints against Microsoft because all these points with privacy are stipulated in the user agreement (Yes, the one that no one ever reads). Even more — when installing the system, you can choose a local account, disable a few items and sleep peacefully (no one will follow you), without thinking that Microsoft is going to use your search queries for advertising purposes. But if during the update you just pressed the “Next” key and now you are afraid that someone will see your browser history, then the following information is exactly for you (let’s call it all a guide to the” top ten ” for the paranoid).

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Privacy

Let’s start with the fact that in the settings of Windows 10 there is a special menu, which is called “Privacy”. By default, all the items are included there, but we are not satisfied with this material. In the “General” tab (Settings → Privacy → General) you can safely disable the first item: “Let apps use advertising ID to make ads more interesting to you based on your app activity” and ” Send my spelling information to Microsoft to…”. But there is nothing stopping you from setting the other sliders to the “Off” state.

In the “Location” tab, it is enough to deactivate only one item — “Location”. Or you can take a more loyal approach to this issue and set up a list of apps that will be allowed to use your location data. By the way, by default, only the Maps program has access.

The “Camera” and “Microphone” items are not particularly interesting to us. There you can simply deny access to your camera and microphone.

Well, to finally finish working with our “Privacy” menu, we will touch on the “Diagnostics & feedback” item. Here we should change “Feedback frequency” parameter to “Never”, and Delete diagnostic data that Microsoft has collected about this device

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Windows update

To get to the Windows update settings, open “Settings” and select “Update and security”. After that, look for the “Advanced options” link and uncheck the box next to “Receive updates for other Microsoft products”.

After these manipulations, go to the “Delivery Optimization” menu and move the slider “Allow downloads from other PCs” to the “Off” position.

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Edge browser and Microsoft account

If you are going to use the built-in browser in Windows (and in the case of the ” ten ” this phrase no longer seems so funny), then you can “fix” some parameters in it. Open the browser, go to settings and look for “Advanced settings”. Now you can allow the “Send Do Not Track requests” parameter and disable the “Use page prediction” option.

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As for the Microsoft account, of course, you can disable it (Settings → User account → Log in with a local account), but this is already a very serious step, so nothing prevents us from following the path of least resistance and in the “Sync your settings” tab, turn off the “Sync settings” item.

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Conclusion

Personally, I am not very bothered by the fact that someone sees my search queries or collects other information, because I do not conduct any secret missions to save humanity from an alien threat (just as an example), but judging by the comments and reviews, many of you, dear readers, will like this information.