[German]Many users swear by O&O Shutup10 to turn off telemetry data collection under Windows 10. However, there was a problem with telemetry data collection being automatically reactivated under Windows 10 when it was switched off with O&O Shutup10. Now there is an update for O&O Shutup10. In addition, there is a way how to disable telemetry collection in Windows 10 with on-board tools. I'll just post it on the blog.
Advertising
I had discussed the problem with O&O Shutup a few days ago in the blog post Windows 10 20H2 activates telemetry despite O&O Shutup 10 settings. A switched off telemetry data collection is automatically activated again under Windows 10 20 H2. O&O had been aware of the problem for weeks. Whether the article made a difference, I don't know, but something is moving.
O&O Shutup10, version 1.8
On March 30, 2021, the O&O developers have released version 1.8 of the freeware O&O Shutup10 – thanks to Gerold for the tip. In the changelog you can find the following hints about a fix for the disabled telemetry data collection:
- FIX: Disable telemetry
- FIX: Disable automatic driver updates by Windows update
- Available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Chinese (simplified)
Maybe the people who download the application from O&O can give feedback if telemetry remains disabled with version 1.8.1420.
Disable telemetry with on-board tools
Mark Heitbrink already described it in October 2020 on German site gruppenrichtlinien.de in the article Windows 10 Telemetrie und Diagnosedaten richtig abschalten. Mark writes that the easiest way to disable the services in question is via GPO for the clients and gives the relevant information. A few days ago the information also came from Patrick, who implemented the whole thing via PowerShell. Here roughly the web pattern using Windows 10 20H2 as an example:
Disable Windows Error Reporting (WER)
You can query, disable and also re-enable Windows Error Reporting (WER) using PowerShell with the following commands. To do this, enter the following commands in an administrative PowerShell console.
Advertising
Get-WindowsErrorReporting
Disable-WindowsErrorReporting
Enable-WindowsErrorReporting
That's probably affects registry entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting
which is then set to 0 or 1 and allows or disables error reporting.
Disabling telemetry (DiagTrack)
The point of attack is to disable the relevant services for telemetry (DiagTrack) and Windows Error Reporting (WER / WerSvc) via the Services Manager. To do this, go to Computer Management as an administrator and select the Services branch (or call Services directly as an administrator via the Start menu search. Then the following services:
- 'User experience and telemetry in connected mode' (DiagTrack) from 'Automatic' to 'Disabled'.
- Set 'Windows Error Reporting Service' (WerSvc) from 'Manual' to 'Disabled'.
You can also query the whole thing using PowerShell with the following commands in an administrative PowerShell console:
Get-Service DiagTrack | Select-Object -Property Name, StartType, Status
Get-Service WerSvc | Select-Object -Property Name, StartType, Status
This should also be what O&O Shutup10 does in the end. What I don't know now is whether these services are activated cyclically via tasks or via updates. But with the two approaches outlined here, users should be able to contain telemetry data collection on Windows 10. If I missed something or there are new findings, leave a comment.
'User experience and telemetry in connected mode' is actually now referred to in the service list as "Connected User Experiences and Telemetry"
I have found even with the O&O ShutUp10 1.8.1419.318, and the Powershell commands above that the telemetry still returns following a system shut down.
To resolve this you need to edit the "Connected User Experiences and Telemetry" service under services.msc.
Select the 'Recovery' tab and select "Take no action" for each of the 3 options.
Im sure Microsoft will move the service or find another way round but in the mean time this confirms you do not need to restart after ever windows boot just to re-disabe the service.