Increase Your Privacy by Turning off the Diagnostics Tracking Service in Windows 7 [1]
As posted previously [3], Microsoft recently introduced a new tracking service into Windows 7. Exactly what this tracking is watching is not completely clear. Although not everybody feels it is a privacy issue, there has been a lot of concern expressed. If you are one of those who would just as soon not be tracked by Microsoft, here is how to disable the service in Windows 7. (You will need administrative privileges.)
1. Open the Start Menu
2. In the search bar, enter “services.msc” (without quotes) to open the Services management console [4]. Alternatively, you can open the console by going to Administrative Tools->Services
3. In the Services console, scroll down the list of services until you find the entry “Diagnostics Tracking Service”. The graphic below shows an example of the console.
4. Double-click the entry and the properties dialog shown in the graphic below will open.
5. In the section marked Service status, click the button “Stop” and wait until the status changes to “Stopped”
6. In the section marked “Startup type”, open the dropdown menu and choose “Disabled”
7. Click “OK” and close the Services console.
Added: I should have pointed out that not everybody installed the Windows updates that created this service and not all systems will have it.
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This tips section is maintained by Vic Laurie [6]. Vic runs several websites with Windows how-to's, guides, and tutorials, including a site for learning about Windows and the Internet [7] and another with Windows 7 tips [8].
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