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By default, a sneaky Windows service that’s constantly running on your PC watches your every move and sends the data it collects about your computer usage back to Microsoft.
Unfortunately, there are a couple of serious issues with this…
First of all, it’s an invasion of your privacy. Does Microsoft really need to know what you use your computer for? They say the info collected is used to help improve the Windows experience and other beneficial uses, but there’s no way to know if that’s really true.
Microsoft insists that the data collected from your PC is anonymized and therefore your privacy is respected, but past experiences have taught me to take claims like that with a grain a salt. You are certainly free to decide for yourself whether to believe them or not. I’m just stating my opinion here, but I choose to err on the side of caution when it comes to my privacy.
Next, all that data collection and transmission that’s taking place in the background can negatively affect the performance of your machine and use up a good chunk of your monthly Internet data allotment (if your Internet service plan has one).
Luckily, it’s very easy to disable the Windows service that’s responsible for much of this data collection and transmission that’s taking place should you choose to do so. The service in question is called “Connected User Experiences and Telemetry” and this video shows how to disable it.
Do you prefer following written instructions? If so, here you go…
Note: There are several ways to disable “Connected User Experiences and Telemetry” but the one that seems to work best over the long term is actually disabling it via the Services app. Here’s how:
1 – Click the Start button and type the word services, then select Services from the list of search results.
2 – Scroll down the list of services and double-click on Connected User Experiences and Telemetry, then click Properties.
3 – Change the “Startup type” setting to Disabled.
4 – In the “Service status” field, click Stop.
5 – Click OK and then close the Services app.
That’s all there is to it. That sneaky service is no longer collecting info about your computing activities and transmitting it back to Microsoft.