Windows Privacy Dashboard – Windows Privacy Management

Windows Privacy Dashboard (WPD) is a free privacy management software for the Windows operating system. With the help of the WPD program, the user can increase the level of privacy of his computer, disable surveillance by Microsoft.

It’s no secret to many users that Microsoft collects telemetry: various diagnostic information about a computer and then sends it to remote servers. This is especially noticeable in the Windows 10 operating system.

Content:

1. Windows Privacy Dashboard Features
2. Setting up privacy in Windows Privacy Dashboard
3. IP blocker in Windows Privacy Dashboard
4. Uninstall Windows apps in Windows Privacy Dashboard
5. Article Conclusions
6. Windows Privacy Dashboard – Windows Privacy Management (video)

Microsoft needs this data to improve the system: improve the operation of applications and components, fix problems that arise. The data, according to the representatives of the company, is collected in an anonymized form.

Under the license agreement, Microsoft has the right to collect data about the operation of the PC without the knowledge and consent of the user. Because of this, the privacy of the user may suffer.

When transferring information to Microsoft, the following negative aspects are observed:

• Confidentiality and privacy of the user suffers.
• When transferring a significant amount of data, a large amount of traffic is used.
• During tracking and telemetry collection, computer resources are consumed, and this affects its performance.

The user has the ability to limit the amount of information transmitted in the settings of the Windows 10 operating system. This is not at all easy to do for an unprepared user.

Therefore, to solve the problem, you can use third-party software, with which you can independently choose the Windows privacy settings according to your requirements.

Windows Privacy Dashboard Features

The free Windows Privacy Dashboard program is designed to manage and configure privacy features in the Windows operating system. This is a privacy control panel on a PC that uses the Windows API in its work. WPD supports command line arguments.

The Windows Privacy Dashboard program was created by Russian and Belarusian developers. The application supports the Russian interface language.

Key features of the Windows Privacy Dashboard:

• Privacy management – setting up a privacy policy, services, tasks, and other settings that are responsible for collecting information.
• IP Blocker – blocking the IP addresses of telemetry collection servers in the firewall according to the rules of the @crazy-max user from the GitHub repository.
• AppX Uninstaller – Remove unnecessary built-in Windows applications.

Windows Privacy Dashboard manages privacy and privacy settings, blocks IP addresses, prevents the collection and sending of data, the program can remove unnecessary applications from the Microsoft Store (Microsoft Store). All changes to operating system settings are made from one place.

Windows Privacy Dashboard works on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016 operating systems. For the program to work, the .NET Framework 4.5 or higher component must be installed on the computer, which can be downloaded from the official Microsoft website, and then install in the OS.

Windows Privacy Dashboard is portable (portable), the application does not need to be installed on the computer. Windows Privacy Dashboard can be downloaded from the official website of the application developers.

Windows Privacy Dashboard download

After downloading to a PC, unpack the archive with the program. The Windows Privacy Dashboard itself is located in the “latest” folder. For ease of use, rename the “latest” folder to “Windows Privacy Dashboard” or “WPD”.

Before using Windows Privacy Dashboard on a computer, create a system restore point . If changing the operating system settings does not suit you, you can return to the previous Windows settings.

Setting up privacy in Windows Privacy Dashboard

Launch the Windows Privacy Dashboard to change the privacy settings of the Windows operating system:

1. Open the program folder, and then right-click on the “WPD” file.
2. Select “Run as administrator” from the context menu.
3. After collecting the necessary information about the system, the Windows Privacy Dashboard program window will open on the Desktop.

In the central area of ​​the program window there are three buttons for jumping to certain sections of the application, according to the functionality:

• Privacy – Manage your privacy settings.
• Blocker – blocking Windows telemetry IP addresses.
• Apps – Remove apps from the Microsoft Store.

In the upper right corner there are two buttons: to create a Windows restore point and to get information about the current privacy settings.

Click on the “Privacy” button. The “WPD.app” window will display privacy options divided into two groups: “Basic privacy settings” and “Advanced privacy settings”.

The basic settings include the following groups:

• Local Group Policy – Configure local group policy settings.
• Services – Disable Windows services.
• Scheduler – disable execution of tasks in the Task Scheduler.

Changing the basic settings will not affect the operation of the system and programs.

To go to advanced options, click on the “Advanced” button.

Here are options to change other privacy settings:

• Local Group Policy.
• Application privacy.
• Services.
• Other.

Changing these settings may disrupt programs and some system functions. Pay attention to app privacy permissions. Disabling some options may prevent access to the computer’s microphone or camera.

Opposite each option is a description of the parameter’s functions, which can be seen after clicking on the question mark.

To disable a setting, move the button’s slider to the “Disabled” position.

At the very bottom of the program window are the buttons “Disable all” or leave the settings “Default”.

IP blocker in Windows Privacy Dashboard

To switch to other functions of the WPD program, return to the main window or click on one of the buttons on the sidebar.

The Blocker section uses two blocking methods:

• Windows Firewall.
• Windows Filtering Platform.

IP address filtering rules provided by a third-party resource will not work if both blocking methods are disabled. You must enable one of the options provided.

In this section, you can turn off telemetry, block apps from Microsoft, or block Windows updates.

To start blocking, click on one of the buttons:

• Telemetry – disable Windows telemetry.
• Extra – blocking third-party Microsoft applications: Skype, OneDrive, etc.
• Updates – blocking IP addresses of Windows update servers.

To get a list of IP addresses, click on the “Copy rules” button, and then save the list in a text editor, such as Notepad.

Uninstall Windows apps in Windows Privacy Dashboard

From the “Applications” section, you can remove built-in, pre-installed Windows applications, applications from the Microsoft Store, extensions from the Microsoft Edge browser.

You may also be interested in:

• Ashampoo AntiSpy for Windows 10
• O&O ShutUp10 to disable snooping in Windows 10
• Remove Windows 10 Spying Features to remove spies in Windows 10

Select the application you don’t need, and then click on the “Remove Selected” or “Remove All” button.

The program removes applications without the ability to restore deleted software in the Windows Privacy Dashboard interface. You can restore deleted apps on your PC yourself by downloading them from the Microsoft Store (Windows Store).

Article Conclusions

In the Windows operating system, data is sent from the computer to Microsoft servers without the knowledge of the user. Because of this, the privacy of the PC user may suffer. The user can change the system’s privacy settings in the free Windows Privacy Dashboard (WPD) program, block telemetry collection, disable surveillance, or remove built-in Windows applications.