How to Disable Telemetry in Windows 11 (and See What Still Phones Home)

To disable telemetry in Windows 11, start with Settings ▸ Privacy & security ▸ Diagnostics & feedback and turn off optional diagnostic data. That's the supported switch, and on Home and Pro it's as far as Settings goes: a baseline of required diagnostic data always stays on. Below are the steps in Settings, the Group Policy option for Pro, and a DNS-level layer that also catches the telemetry Office and your other apps send, which no Windows setting touches.

What Windows 11 telemetry actually is

Microsoft calls it diagnostic data. It comes in two tiers:

• Required diagnostic data: basic device, configuration and reliability information Windows uses to keep itself updated and working. On Home and Pro this can't be turned off in Settings.
• Optional diagnostic data: more detail about how you use Windows and apps, plus enhanced error reporting. This is the part you can switch off.

Separate from diagnostic data are the related privacy settings, like the advertising ID and "tailored experiences", that decide how that data is used. You'll want those off too.

How to disable telemetry in Windows 11 using Settings

1. Open Settings (Windows key + I) and go to Privacy & security.
2. Under Windows permissions, open Diagnostics & feedback.
3. Expand Diagnostic data and turn Send optional diagnostic data off.
4. Turn off Improve inking and typing and Tailored experiences.
5. Under Delete diagnostic data, click Delete to remove what's already been collected for this device.
6. Set Feedback frequency to Never if you don't want feedback prompts.
7. Back in Privacy & security ▸ General, turn off Let apps show me personalized ads by using my advertising ID and the other options there you don't want.

If you want to see what Windows sends, turn on View diagnostic data on the same page and use the Diagnostic Data Viewer.

Disable Windows telemetry with Group Policy (Pro and above)

Windows 11 Pro includes the Group Policy Editor:

1. Press Windows key + R, type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
2. Go to Computer Configuration ▸ Administrative Templates ▸ Windows Components ▸ Data Collection and Preview Builds.
3. Open Allow Diagnostic Data (called Allow Telemetry on older builds), set it to Enabled, and pick the lowest level offered.

On Pro, the lowest effective level is required diagnostic data. Only Enterprise and Education editions honour the Diagnostic data off option. Guides that promise a registry tweak to "turn telemetry off completely" on Home are, at best, setting the same value Windows then treats as required.

What about the telemetry service and Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry?

You'll see advice to disable the Connected User Experiences and Telemetry service, or the scheduled task behind Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry (CompatTelRunner.exe). Both are possible, but they're blunt: updates and feature changes can re-enable them, and some features rely on them. If CompatTelRunner.exe is chewing CPU, lowering diagnostic data in Settings is the gentler fix.

The part Windows settings don't cover: every other app

Everything above controls Windows. It doesn't touch Office, your browser, chat apps, game launchers or the dozens of other programs that send their own usage data. Each has its own setting, if it has one at all.

That's where DNS-level blocking helps. Telemetry has to reach a server, and reaching a server starts with a DNS lookup. Block the known telemetry domains at that step and the report never leaves, whichever app tried to send it. Our guide to DNS ad blocking explains the mechanism.

Block telemetry domains with AdBolish

1. Install AdBolish and click Restart as administrator, approving the Windows prompt, so it filters every app on the PC. (Rights don't carry over, so repeat this after each Windows sign-in.)
2. Open Settings ▸ Protection ▸ What to block and switch on Device & app telemetry. It blocks usage reporting built into Windows, Office, phones, smart TVs and TikTok. It's off by default because it may affect some vendor features, so turn it on knowingly.
3. Use your PC normally for a while.

See what's phoning home

The useful part is watching it. Open the Realtime log and each blocked request appears live with the Domain, the App that asked, the Network, the Category and the Matched rule. The Privacy button narrows the log to trackers and telemetry, All apps narrows it to one program, and Filter by domain or network… searches it. On Overview, Blocked per app ranks which programs tried to reach blocked domains most.

Both need AdBolish running as administrator, because that's what lets Windows say which program asked. The log is held in memory only and is gone when AdBolish closes; allowed lookups are never recorded at all.

If blocking breaks something you need, every row in Realtime has an Allow menu: allow the domain, the whole network, or that domain for that app only.

Be realistic about what this achieves

• No method stops all Windows telemetry on Home or Pro. Settings reduce it; DNS blocking stops known domains; neither is a guarantee.
• Blocklists catch known domains. A vendor that changes endpoints can slip through until the lists catch up (AdBolish's update daily).
• Some features may change. That's the trade the telemetry list warns about.

The sensible setup is all three: optional diagnostic data off in Settings, Group Policy on Pro if you want it, and a DNS-level filter for everything that isn't Windows. If you go the DNS route, read what secure DNS is too, since a browser using its own encrypted DNS skips the filter.

AdBolish blocks known telemetry, ad and tracker domains for every app on your Windows PC, and shows you which app asked. It's free, runs on your machine, and never sends the domains you visit to us.