How to Stop Microsoft Tracking

KEEP MICROSOFT FROM TRACKING YOUR COMPUTER USE…

Bring Up Spybot Web Page:  www.safer-networking.org/spybotanti-beacon

Go To:  “Safer-Network Download Section”

Download the Latest Version of “Spybot Anti-Beacon (Installer) [As of Oct 2015 ver 1.5.0.35]

Follow the Installation Instructions [Do Not Change any Checked Boxes]

Spybot Anti-Beacon is a free 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.

Anti-Beacon is provided free of charge. It was created to address the privacy concerns of users of Windows 10 who do not wish to have information about their PC usage sent to Microsoft.

There are two buttons at the bottom-right of the screen.  Simply click “Immunize” and the program will immediately disable any known tracking features included by Microsoft in the operating system.  After installing and running “Immunize”, when you reboot the system (only for the first time), be prepared to wait quite a while before the computer completes the reboot.

If any issues occur with your PC while using Anti-Beacon, undoing the changes made can be done by clicking the “Undo” button next to the “Immunize” button.  This will re-enable all tracking services.

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Of course, at any time you may Turn-On (enable) any services you need by going to the “Settings” section in Windows and Choose “Privacy”.  Open each section of the Menu where you can Turn-on your specific services.

Remember that Microsoft’s Windows 10 does ask anymore if you wish to update your Windows. So each time Microsoft automatically updates your system, please run the Anti-Beacon program.

Make sure that Microsoft has not Turned-On any services that you previously Turned-Off.

Notice the “P2P” option where you could download a Windows update once, then use that machine to spread the update to all the PCs on your local network.  That is great, but, unfortunately the settings for the new P2P option default to sharing with other computers over the Internet (outside) your local network.  This eats into your upload bandwidth, plus slows down your network connection.  Make sure this one is blocked.