windows 11 privacy

Microsoft Recall, the Windows 11 feature that saves searchable snapshots of a user’s PC activity on Copilot+ PCs, has moved from a 2024 privacy fiasco to a more defensible opt-in tool in 2025 and 2026, though real-world testing still shows dangerous gaps around sensitive information. The latest...

O&O Software has released O&O ShutUp10 3.0.1076 for Windows 10 and Windows 11, according to Neowin, adding a Premium edition that can automatically monitor and reapply privacy settings after Windows updates change them. That turns a long-running portable privacy tweaker into something closer to...

Windows 11 users can make the operating system substantially less intrusive by disabling Copilot where possible, turning off personalized recommendations and diagnostic extras, trimming startup apps, and limiting Windows’ ad-style prompts through Privacy & security settings. The deeper story is...

BGR’s May 2026 privacy guide argues that Windows 11 users can make the operating system less intrusive by uninstalling the standalone Copilot app, disabling app-level AI features such as Notepad writing tools, and turning off Copilot’s cross-product Microsoft usage data setting. The advice is...

Windows 11 privacy is not controlled by one master switch: it is spread across diagnostic data, advertising identifiers, app permissions, browser settings, Microsoft account syncing, and newer AI features such as Copilot and Recall. That is the practical lesson inside ExpressVPN’s Windows 11...

TweakTown’s latest Windows 11 setup guide argues that a fresh Windows 11 install in 2026 still arrives with Start menu recommendations, Search highlights, Edge prompts, lock-screen promotions, advertising identifiers, notification nags, and optional diagnostics enabled unless users turn them off...

Windows 11 has a built-in privacy switch that many users still overlook: DNS over HTTPS, the operating system-level feature that encrypts the domain lookups your PC makes before it loads websites, updates apps, checks mail, or contacts cloud services. The renewed attention around this setting is...

Windows 11 privacy controls often feel like they promise more than they deliver, and telemetry is one of the best examples. A registry-based policy edit can do more than the normal Settings toggle: it can force Windows to stay at the lowest diagnostic-data level your edition allows, gray out the...

Windows 11 has turned privacy management into a scavenger hunt. Microsoft has spread data-collection controls across Settings, account dashboards, and feature-specific panels, which makes the platform feel less like a desktop operating system and more like an ecosystem of opt-ins, defaults, and...

When I sat down for a quick 20-minute Windows 11 privacy audit, I found six settings that were quietly broader than they needed to be. None of them required advanced know-how, and that’s the point: Windows 11’s app permissions are easy to overlook precisely because they’re buried in plain sight...

Although Windows 11 remains the dominant desktop OS, its recent evolution has sharpened the case for a lighter, more private alternative like Linux Mint. For users frustrated by Copilot, telemetry, hardware gating, and a growing sense that Windows is becoming less about the desktop and more...

Microsoft’s recent marching toward an AI‑first Windows has been loud, fast, and — for many users — profoundly unwelcome, because it’s not just new features that are being added: it’s a sustained rewriting of who controls the PC. Over the last year Microsoft has pushed several changes into...

Paul Thurrott has quietly launched De-Enshittify Windows 11 on Leanpub and released a Leanpub launch video introducing the book’s thesis: Windows 11 is increasingly shaped by defaults, telemetry, and bundled behaviors that benefit the platform owner more than the user, and practical...

Windows 11’s current privacy story reads less like a single narrative and more like a scavenger hunt: settings and telemetry funnels are scattered across setup screens, the Settings app, built‑in apps, and cloud services — and the net effect is that users who want privacy must assemble it piece...

Windows 11 ships with more than a few convenience features — it also ships with built‑in telemetry, targeted recommendations, and advertising‑oriented behaviours that are enabled by default. Paul Thurrott’s “De‑Enshittify Windows 11” thesis is blunt: Microsoft’s defaults push users toward more...

Paul Thurrott’s early chapter on “De‑Enshittify Windows 11: Microsoft Edge” is blunt but necessary: Microsoft Edge is not just a browser you can ignore — it’s an infrastructural vector that shapes privacy, defaults, and the behavior of many Windows 11 components, and getting Edge configured (or...

Windows 11 ships with sensible defaults for many users, but a short, targeted set of tweaks can dramatically reduce distractions, tighten privacy, and reclaim system resources — without breaking functionality. What follows is a practical, evidence‑backed walkthrough of the most meaningful...

Windows 11 can—and by default does—know where your PC is. You can turn most of that tracking off, but doing so requires more than flipping a single toggle: understanding what Windows is using to determine location, how the operating system shares that data with apps and cloud services, and which...