These Privacy Settings Can Make Windows 11 Far Less Annoying To Use

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Out of the box, Windows 11 feels like a bit of a broken mess. In many ways, it feels like a bloated ad for itself and a random selection of other products rather than a functional OS. Luckily, however, just a handful of quick tweaks can completely transform it into a much more streamlined, accessible, and faster version of the default installation. It’s mostly just a matter of stripping away the AI features you never asked for, promotions, and resource-hogging background services.

Between Copilot, Bing search integration, OneDrive prompts, telemetry, and app promotions, the base Windows 11 experience feels more like a marketing platform for Microsoft’s products than a clean desktop environment. To strip it down to fighting trim, you’ll want to disable Copilot (where possible), turn off the ads and lock-screen promotions, slash some unnecessary startup apps, and reduce the aforementioned telemetry. The result is a faster, cleaner Windows desktop that doesn’t feel as much like a desperate cashier trying to upsell you.

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The first problem you’ll likely want to address is the Copilot homunculus that haunts every new Windows installation in the AI era. Copilot isn’t just a drag on performance – it also introduces some privacy issues, due to the way it runs in the background and monitors your activity. Note that while the Copilot app can be uninstalled, some Copilot integrations are burrowed deep into other Windows apps like Notepad.

To remove the Copilot app, the simplest approach is to just type Copilot into the search bar. When it pops up in the results, just right-click on it and then click on the Uninstall option. You’ll also likely see Microsoft 365 Copilot pop up in the same results page, and you can uninstall that simultaneously as well. You can also disable AI features in Notepad by clicking the gear icon, scrolling down and turning off the Writing tools.

Copilot has another invasive feature that collects your usage data across various Microsoft products like Bing, Edge, MSN, and more. The worst part is that it not only affects your Windows PC, but all the devices where you use Microsoft products. To disable it, open Copilot in a browser and sign in to your Microsoft account. Now, go to Settings and disable Microsoft usage data and click Delete all memory.

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Startup apps are a great place to begin cleaning up background processes. While there are some good free apps that actually improve Windows 11, there’s lots of default bloat. You can view everything launching at startup by typing Task Manager into the search bar. The speedometer-looking icon on the left will display all the apps that launch at startup. Go through and right-click anything that you don’t use or don’t need running every time you turn on your PC, and click Disable. OneDrive, Edge, and Xbox-related stuff are prime targets if you’re not frequently using them.

Another good way to free up resources is to shut down all the tracking and ad personalization software Windows runs by default. Go to Privacy and security (just punch it into the search bar), then Recommendations and offers and disable Personalized offers and any other setting that’s not valuable to you. Next, find your way over to Diagnostics and feedback, also under Privacy and security, and toggle off intrusive settings like Send optional diagnostic data. You can also delete your diagnostic data from here.

Last but not least, hit the Windows key + R and type services.msc. Scroll down to Connected User Experiences and Telemetry, right-click and choose Properties, then switch Startup type to Disabled. This will somewhat prevent Windows from automatically collecting info like device specs, installed apps, error reports, update details, and other system or usage signals, and from sending that data to Microsoft, which further drains resources and bandwidth.