Windows Telemetry & Browser Privacy Tools

Two single-file, dependency-free PowerShell 5.1 scripts:

Script	Scope
Manage-WindowsTelemetry.ps1	Windows 11 telemetry / diagnostic-data settings, services and scheduled tasks
Manage-BrowserPrivacy.ps1	Privacy / telemetry policies for Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Brave

Both share the same UX: a color-coded status view (Enabled = collecting, Disabled = hardened), interactive per-item toggling, one-shot -DisableAll / -EnableAll, -Report, and CSV export. Both are ASCII-only, BOM-free, module-free, and run in stock powershell.exe on Windows 11.

Disclaimer: Changing telemetry, service, task and browser-policy settings alters system behaviour. Review the scripts before running them, test on a non-production machine first, and consider a restore point. No warranty.

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1. Manage-WindowsTelemetry.ps1

Views and controls Windows 11 telemetry / diagnostic-data settings, services and scheduled tasks from one place.

Quick start

# View status only (read-only, safe anywhere)
.\Manage-WindowsTelemetry.ps1 -Report

# Interactive menu (run from an ELEVATED PowerShell to change HKLM/services/tasks)
.\Manage-WindowsTelemetry.ps1

# One-shot hardening: turn all telemetry OFF (keeps [SEC] SmartScreen ON)
.\Manage-WindowsTelemetry.ps1 -DisableAll

# ... also disable the SmartScreen reputation checks (see [SEC] note below)
.\Manage-WindowsTelemetry.ps1 -DisableAll -IncludeSecurity

# Restore Windows default behaviour: turn everything back ON
.\Manage-WindowsTelemetry.ps1 -EnableAll

# Export current status to CSV (exits after export)
.\Manage-WindowsTelemetry.ps1 -Csv .\telemetry-status.csv

# Report to screen AND CSV
.\Manage-WindowsTelemetry.ps1 -Report -Csv .\telemetry-status.csv

If script execution is blocked on your machine:

powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\Manage-WindowsTelemetry.ps1 -Report

Semantics

Term	Meaning
Enabled (yellow)	The telemetry / data-collection behaviour is ON
Enabled (default)	No override present; Windows out-of-box behaviour (ON)
Disabled (green)	The behaviour is OFF / hardened
Not present (gray)	Service or task does not exist on this system
* suffix	Requires Administrator to change (run elevated)

Two design rules worth knowing:

1. "Enable" restores the true Windows default. For policy-style registry values (where the Windows default is no value at all), enabling removes the policy value instead of writing one. This avoids leaving the machine in a "Some settings are managed by your organization" state after an enable/disable round trip.
2. Services are restored to their real default start types (DiagTrack = Automatic, dmwappushservice / WerSvc = Manual), not blanket Automatic.

Interactive menu commands

Command	Action
<n>	Toggle item n (Enabled <-> Disabled)
e <n> / d <n>	Enable / disable item n
E / D (uppercase)	Enable / disable ALL items (asks for YES confirmation; D keeps [SEC] items ON)
S	Disable the [SEC] SmartScreen features (requires typing DISABLE-SECURITY)
r	Refresh the view
c <path>	Export status to CSV
q	Quit

The menu is case-sensitive where it matters: a bare lowercase d/e will not trigger the ALL branches.

[SEC] items: Windows SmartScreen

Three controls check apps, files and URLs against Microsoft's cloud reputation service: SmartScreen for apps and files (shell), SmartScreen for Store apps, and Enhanced Phishing Protection. They are marked [SEC] because disabling them reduces protection against malware and phishing. The same guard rails as the browser tool apply: -DisableAll and menu D leave them ON; disabling requires -IncludeSecurity, the menu S command, or an individual item toggle. A red WARNING line appears in the status view whenever any [SEC] item is OFF.

What is covered

Registry settings reference

All values are REG_DWORD. "Hardened" is the value the tool writes when you disable an item. "Default" is Windows out-of-box behaviour: for most policy values that means the value is absent - which is why enabling an item usually removes the value rather than writing one.

Core telemetry

Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection

Value	Hardened	Explanation
AllowTelemetry	0	The master diagnostic-data level sent by the DiagTrack service. 0 = Security (honoured only on Enterprise/Education), 1 = Required, 3 = Optional (full). Default: absent = user's Settings choice applies.
DoNotShowFeedbackNotifications	1	Stops Windows asking for feedback via notifications ("How is your experience?"). Collection-adjacent rather than collection itself.
LimitDiagnosticLogCollection	1	Blocks the upload of additional diagnostic logs Microsoft can request on top of the normal telemetry stream.
DisableOneSettingsDownloads	1	Stops Windows fetching remote telemetry configuration ("OneSettings"). With this off, Microsoft cannot remotely adjust what diagnostic data is sampled.

Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\DataCollection

Value	Hardened	Explanation
AllowTelemetry	0	Older, non-Group-Policy location for the same setting; some components read this path, so the tool sets both.

Application compatibility (appraiser)

Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\AppCompat

Value	Hardened	Explanation
AITEnable	0	Application Impact Telemetry: usage/launch data about installed programs, gathered by the Compatibility Appraiser and sent to Microsoft to assess upgrade compatibility.
DisableInventory	1	Stops the Inventory Collector uploading a list of installed applications, devices and drivers.

Windows Error Reporting (successor to Dr. Watson)

Key / Value	Hardened	Explanation
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting -> Disabled	1	Turns off crash/hang report generation and submission machine-wide (non-policy location, same one the old serverweroptin flow used).
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting -> Disabled	1	Group Policy variant of the same switch; wins over the non-policy flag if both are set.
...Policies...\Windows Error Reporting -> DontSendAdditionalData	1	Blocks the second stage of WER: after the initial crash signature, Microsoft can request extra payloads (memory dumps, files). This stops those.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\Consent -> DefaultConsent	1	How much WER may send without asking: 1 = always ask first, 2 = send parameters only, 3 = parameters + safe data, 4 = send everything automatically. Hardened = always ask.

Customer Experience Improvement Program

Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SQMClient\Windows

Value	Hardened	Explanation
CEIPEnable	0	Opts the machine out of CEIP/SQM ("Software Quality Metrics") - anonymous usage statistics collected by older Windows components and the CEIP scheduled tasks.

Cloud content and suggestions

Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CloudContent

Value	Hardened	Explanation
DisableWindowsConsumerFeatures	1	Stops "consumer experiences": auto-installed sponsored/suggested Store apps, promotional tiles and app suggestions in Start.
DisableTailoredExperiencesWithDiagnosticData	1	Stops Microsoft using your diagnostic data to personalise tips, ads and recommendations shown inside Windows.

Activity history (Timeline)

Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System

Value	Hardened	Explanation
PublishUserActivities	0	Stops apps recording "activities" (documents opened, sites visited) into the local activity feed.
UploadUserActivities	0	Stops the activity feed being synced to the Microsoft cloud (cross-device timeline/resume).

Per-user privacy (HKCU - changeable without admin)

Key / Value	Hardened	Explanation
HKCU\...\CurrentVersion\AdvertisingInfo -> Enabled	0	Disables the per-user Advertising ID that apps use to correlate you across apps for ad targeting.
HKCU\...\CurrentVersion\Privacy -> TailoredExperiencesWithDiagnosticDataEnabled	0	User-level counterpart of Tailored Experiences: no diagnostic-data-driven tips/ads for this account.
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Siuf\Rules -> NumberOfSIUFInPeriod	0	Feedback frequency ("System Initiated User Feedback"). 0 = Windows never asks for feedback. Default: absent = automatic.
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InputPersonalization -> RestrictImplicitInkCollection	1	Blocks collection of handwriting/ink samples used to build your personal dictionary.
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InputPersonalization -> RestrictImplicitTextCollection	1	Same for typed text - stops typing history feeding personalization.
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Input\TIPC -> Enabled	0	The "Improve inking and typing" telemetry channel - samples of what you type/ink sent as diagnostic data.
HKCU\...\Speech_OneCore\Settings\OnlineSpeechPrivacy -> HasAccepted	0	Consent flag for cloud (online) speech recognition; 0 = voice audio is not sent to Microsoft speech services. Default is off until a user consents.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\TextInput -> AllowLinguisticDataCollection	0	Machine-wide policy blocking typing/inking samples (the policy behind TIPC). Requires admin, listed here as it belongs to the same feature.
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer -> DisableSearchBoxSuggestions	1	Removes Bing web search/suggestions from the Start menu and taskbar Search on Windows 11 - queries stay local.
HKCU\...\CurrentVersion\Search -> BingSearchEnabled	0	The Windows 10-era equivalent of the above; largely ignored by Windows 11 but kept for completeness.

Windows SmartScreen [SEC] - reputation checks

Key / Value	Hardened	Explanation
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System -> EnableSmartScreen	0	The shell "Check apps and files" feature: hashes/metadata of downloaded executables are checked against Microsoft's reputation service before they run.
HKCU\...\CurrentVersion\AppHost -> EnableWebContentEvaluation	0	SmartScreen URL checking for web content loaded inside Microsoft Store apps.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WTDS\Components -> ServiceEnabled	0	Enhanced Phishing Protection (Windows 11): warns when you type your Windows password into a suspicious site or store it insecurely.

Services

Service	Default start	Note
DiagTrack (Connected User Experiences and Telemetry)	Automatic	Primary telemetry service
dmwappushservice	Manual	Disabling can break provisioning-package / MDM enrolment
WerSvc (Windows Error Reporting)	Manual	Runs WER report submission

Scheduled tasks

• Application Experience: Compatibility Appraiser, ProgramDataUpdater, StartupAppTask
• CEIP: Consolidator, UsbCeip, Autochk\Proxy (kernel CEIP)
• Feedback (SIUF): DmClient, DmClientOnScenarioDownload
• Windows Error Reporting: QueueReporting
• DiskDiagnostic: DiskDiagnosticDataCollector

Known limitations

• Home/Pro diagnostic-data floor: AllowTelemetry = 0 (Security) is only fully honoured on Enterprise/Education/IoT SKUs. On Home/Pro, Windows treats 0 as 1 (Required), so a small baseline of required diagnostic data may still flow even when everything here shows Disabled.
• Some items are refreshed by Windows Update or feature updates; re-run -Report after major updates to verify state.
• BingSearchEnabled is a Windows 10-era value kept for completeness; the effective Windows 11 control is DisableSearchBoxSuggestions (also included).
• Changing WER/crash-reporting settings affects local crash-dump collection behaviour, which you may want during debugging.

CSV output columns

Name, Category, Type (Reg/Service/Task), State, AdminReq, Note

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2. Manage-BrowserPrivacy.ps1

Views and hardens privacy / telemetry-related policy settings for the browsers installed on the machine. Browsers are auto-detected (via App Paths registration); only installed ones are shown unless you pass -IncludeAll.

Quick start

# View status only (read-only)
.\Manage-BrowserPrivacy.ps1 -Report

# Interactive menu (ELEVATED PowerShell required to change anything)
.\Manage-BrowserPrivacy.ps1

# One-shot: harden every detected browser
.\Manage-BrowserPrivacy.ps1 -DisableAll

# Restore all browser defaults (removes the policy values)
.\Manage-BrowserPrivacy.ps1 -EnableAll

# Export status to CSV / include browsers that are not installed
.\Manage-BrowserPrivacy.ps1 -Csv .\browser-status.csv
.\Manage-BrowserPrivacy.ps1 -Report -IncludeAll

# Harden everything AND turn off the malicious-URL checks (see warning below)
.\Manage-BrowserPrivacy.ps1 -DisableAll -IncludeSecurity

The menu supports the same commands as the Windows tool, plus b <browser> to harden a single browser, B <browser> to restore a single browser's defaults (e.g. b Edge / B Edge), and S to disable the malicious-URL checks (see below).

Safe Browsing / SmartScreen (URL reputation) - read this

Some controls check the domain / IP / URL you visit against a cloud reputation service (Microsoft SmartScreen for Edge, Google Safe Browsing for Chrome/Brave). These are security features - they warn you off phishing and malware sites - but they work by sending URL/host data off the machine, so they are also a privacy consideration. They are marked [SEC] in the status view.

Because turning them off reduces protection, they are handled separately:

• -DisableAll and the menu D command leave [SEC] items ON. Bulk hardening will not silently disable your malware protection.
• To disable them you must be explicit:
  • CLI: -DisableAll -IncludeSecurity
  • Menu: the dedicated S command (requires typing DISABLE-SECURITY to confirm)
  • Or toggle the individual numbered item (that is always a deliberate act)
• The status view prints a red WARNING line whenever any [SEC] feature is currently OFF, so a hardened-too-far machine is obvious at a glance.

[SEC] controls covered: Edge SmartScreen (site/URL check, PUA blocking, DNS reputation lookups, typosquatting checker); Chrome & Brave Safe Browsing protection level (0 = off, disables URL reputation checks entirely).

Recommendation: leave these ON unless you have a specific reason (e.g. you route all traffic through a separate filtering DNS/proxy that already does this). They are the browser's main defence against phishing and drive-by malware.

How it works

All controls are policy DWORD values under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\... (the official enterprise policy locations each vendor documents). Because a browser's true default is no policy value at all, Enable always removes the value rather than writing one - so an enable/disable round trip leaves no permanent "managed" residue.

Two things to expect:

• Policies apply on the next browser start - restart the browser after changes.
• While hardened, browsers display a "Managed by your organization" notice on their settings pages. That is Chromium/Firefox correctly reporting that policies are active, not a malfunction; -EnableAll removes it again.

Registry settings reference

All values are REG_DWORD policies. "Hardened" is what the tool writes when you disable an item; enabling always removes the value (browser default = absent). Browsers pick up changes on next start.

Microsoft Edge

Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge

Value	Hardened	Explanation
DiagnosticData	0	Edge's own usage/crash telemetry level: 0 = off, 1 = required, 2 = optional (full). Separate from the Windows AllowTelemetry setting.
PersonalizationReportingEnabled	0	Stops Edge sending browsing history to Microsoft to personalise ads, news, search and shopping.
UserFeedbackAllowed	0	Removes the Send Feedback feature and its data uploads (screenshots, diagnostics attached to feedback).
SearchSuggestEnabled	0	Stops the address bar sending every keystroke to the search provider for live suggestions. Typed text stays local until you press Enter.
AddressBarMicrosoftSearchInBingProviderEnabled	0	Stops address-bar queries being sent to Microsoft Search in Bing (work/school results).
EdgeShoppingAssistantEnabled	0	Disables the shopping assistant (coupons, price comparison, cashback), which shares the pages you shop on with Microsoft.
ShowMicrosoftRewards	0	Hides Microsoft Rewards, which tracks Bing searches/purchases for points.
WebWidgetAllowed	0	Disables the Edge search bar widget (a persistent background process with web access).
SpotlightExperiencesAndRecommendationsEnabled	0	Disables Spotlight tips/recommendations delivered from Microsoft services.
ConfigureDoNotTrack	1	Hardened = Edge sends the "Do Not Track" (DNT) request header with all traffic. (Advisory only - sites may ignore it.)
ResolveNavigationErrorsUseWebService	0	Stops Edge using a Microsoft web service to diagnose connection problems (which reports the failing address).
AlternateErrorPagesEnabled	0	Stops Edge sending details of not-found/error pages to Microsoft to fetch suggestion pages.
NetworkPredictionOptions	2	Disables DNS prefetching / preconnecting to links the browser predicts you may visit (0 = predict always, 2 = never). Prediction leaks hostnames you never actually clicked.
SmartScreenEnabled [SEC]	0	Microsoft Defender SmartScreen: checks visited sites and downloads against Microsoft's reputation service. Disabling removes phishing/malware warnings.
SmartScreenPuaEnabled [SEC]	0	SmartScreen blocking of potentially unwanted applications (PUA) in downloads.
SmartScreenDnsRequestsEnabled [SEC]	0	Stops the DNS requests SmartScreen makes for site reputation lookups.
TyposquattingCheckerEnabled [SEC]	0	Disables warnings when you mistype a domain and land on a lookalike (typosquatted) site.

Google Chrome

Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome

Value	Hardened	Explanation
MetricsReportingEnabled	0	UMA metrics: anonymised usage statistics and crash reports sent to Google.
SearchSuggestEnabled	0	Stops the omnibox sending keystrokes to the search provider for live suggestions.
SafeBrowsingExtendedReportingEnabled	0	Stops the extra Safe Browsing reports (page contents, system info) sent to Google. Safe Browsing protection itself stays on.
SafeBrowsingProtectionLevel [SEC]	0	The Safe Browsing URL check itself: 0 = off (no URL reputation checks at all), 1 = standard, 2 = enhanced (more data to Google, more protection).
UrlKeyedAnonymizedDataCollectionEnabled	0	Stops URL-keyed data collection - the URLs of pages you visit sent to Google to improve services.
SpellCheckServiceEnabled	0	Disables the cloud spell checker, which sends typed text to Google. Local spell check keeps working.
AlternateErrorPagesEnabled	0	Stops error-page details being sent to Google for "did you mean" suggestions.
NetworkPredictionOptions	2	Same as Edge: disables predictive DNS prefetch/preconnect (0 = always, 2 = never).
FeedbackSurveysEnabled	0	Disables Google's in-browser Happiness Tracking Surveys.
PrivacySandboxPromptEnabled	0	Suppresses the Privacy Sandbox consent prompt; required for the three policies below to take effect.
PrivacySandboxAdTopicsEnabled	0	Disables the Topics API - Chrome deriving advertising interest categories from your browsing history.
PrivacySandboxSiteEnabledAdsEnabled	0	Disables site-suggested ads (Protected Audience / remarketing without third-party cookies).
PrivacySandboxAdMeasurementEnabled	0	Disables the Attribution Reporting API (ad click/conversion measurement).

Mozilla Firefox

Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox

Firefox policies are inverted ("Disable..."), so hardened = 1.

Value	Hardened	Explanation
DisableTelemetry	1	Stops Firefox usage, performance and technical telemetry to Mozilla.
DisableFirefoxStudies	1	Stops Shield/Nimbus studies - remote experiments and preference rollouts Mozilla can push to your browser.
DisableDefaultBrowserAgent	1	Removes the Default Browser Agent - a scheduled task that pings Mozilla daily with default-browser and OS info, even when Firefox is closed.
DisablePocket	1	Disables Pocket integration and its sponsored/recommended stories on the new-tab page.

Note: Firefox's Safe Browsing cannot be toggled from the registry (it lives in browser.safebrowsing.* preferences / policies.json), so it is deliberately not included here.

Brave

Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave

Brave sends comparatively little telemetry by default; these harden its bundled feature surface, each of which contacts Brave services.

Value	Hardened	Explanation
BraveRewardsDisabled	1	Disables Brave Rewards (BAT ads/attention tracking).
BraveWalletDisabled	1	Disables the built-in crypto wallet.
BraveVPNDisabled	1	Disables the Brave VPN feature and its account checks.
TorDisabled	1	Disables "Private window with Tor". (Feature-surface reduction; Tor itself is a privacy feature - leave enabled if you use it.)
SearchSuggestEnabled	0	Chromium policy honoured by Brave: stops keystroke-by-keystroke search suggestions.
SafeBrowsingProtectionLevel [SEC]	0	Same as Chrome: 0 disables URL reputation checks entirely.

General notes

• Under -DisableAll, Safe Browsing / SmartScreen ([SEC]) stay ON; full URL-check disabling requires -IncludeSecurity or the menu S command.
• DNS-over-HTTPS policies are intentionally not touched - DoH is a privacy gain in most settings and is better configured deliberately per network.

CSV output columns

Name, Browser, Installed, Policy, State, Note ([SEC] items are named as such in the Name column).

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Files

File	Purpose
Manage-WindowsTelemetry.ps1	Windows telemetry view + control
Manage-BrowserPrivacy.ps1	Browser privacy view + hardening
README.md	This file

Both CSV exports are useful for fleet auditing: run with -Csv on multiple machines and diff or aggregate the results.