Windows 10 has a dedicated Privacy setting, which details almost everything that can be changed to make sure data is not being transferred to anywhere without your concern. Windows 10 comes with a pre-defined set of settings that you can change. The problem with Windows 10 Privacy setting is that there are too many steps to manage it. That’s where third-party privacy tweaker apps like Privatezilla earlier called Spydish comes into the picture.
Spydish goes open source as Privatezilla!
Privatezilla helps change Windows 10 Privacy Settings
Privatezilla is a portable application which displays a list of all available Windows 10 Privacy in simple words. That is crucial. Most of the privacy settings are not easy to understand, and if you can read them all in an understandable language, managing them becomes a lot easier.
Like our Ultimate Windows Tweaker, this application displays the most critical Windows 10 Privacy Policies and performs a quick check. Active policies are marked with the status “Configured” as in the Group Policy Editor. Privacy Policies which are not configured are displays, and users can change the status. The best part of this third party app is that it is easy to use and has no jargon to confuse users. You check against policy to make it active and uncheck if you want to disable it.
Once you launch the application, it displays a list of essential privacy policies on the left side. One the right, you get access to the Analyze button. It will go through all of them, and the ones which are essential and not configured are displayed. Those configured are marked with a green status.
The security settings here in this application are placed under different categories like Privacy, Cortana, Bloatware, App Permissions, Updates, Gaming, Windows Defender, Microsoft Edge and Security. You can disable any of these settings with a single click with this application.
Let’s learn a bit in detail about these categories.
- Privacy- Under the Privacy tab in PrivateZilla are mentioned the Telemetry settings, Advertising ID, WiFi Sense, Location tagging, Timeline feature, and automatic installation of apps etc.
- Cortana tab includes the settings to disable/uninstall Cortana and Bing in Windows Search
- Bloatware tab lets you remove all the built-in apps.
- App permissions tab lets you adjust if you want the apps to access your camera, microphone, contacts, calendar etc or not.
- Under Updates, you can disable the forced updates on Windows
- Gaming tab lets you disable the gaming bar features
- Windows Defender tab is to disable the SmartScreen feature for apps.
- From the Microsoft Edge tab, you can disable the Edge browser running in the background, and disable synchronization and auto-fill etc.
- Security tab lets you disable the password reveal button and also DRM in WMP.
All these categories basically list the Windows policies to enable or disable the features which can breach your security and privacy in some or the other way.
Select the settings and click on ANALYZE button to know what all settings are configured on your PC. If you want to disable the selected settings, click on Apply Selected. In case you want to get back to the default settings, click on the Revert Selected button and you are done. Privatezilla overall makes it all a lot easier and quicker. You can check all these settings and change them in just a few clicks.
Privatezilla also comes in a community package that offers from extra features like removal of some pre-installed apps, unpinning the Startmenu tiles, uninstalling OneDrive, disabling telemetry of third-party apps, removal of Windows Defender, and new automation templates.
You can download it here.
If you want to understand a bit more about the privacy policy, hover your mouse over it, and it will reveal more details about it.
The Revert Policies button will set everything to default i.e., settings with which Windows is shipped. Lastly, if you make any change using the checkboxes on the left side, use the Apply policies button to confirm.
Here is the list of status the app offers:
- Analyze Determines which policies and settings are enabled and configured on your system or not. NO system changes are done yet!
- Apply policies: This will enable all selected policies.
- Revert policies: This will restore the default Windows 10 policies.
- Status > Configured: This indicates your privacy is protected.
- Status > Not Configured: This indicates that the Windows 10 settings are in place.
Privatezilla is compatible with all versions of Windows 10 and actually helps you enhancing the privacy settings in your PC. Just a small warning that you may end-up disabling some of the apps or features in your PC if you are a beginner. If you are looking for a light-weight privacy policy application, Privatezilla scores very high on it, the policies are easy to understand, you can quickly revert back the changes, and even set back to default.
Download it from GitHub. Always a good idea to create a system restore point first!
Related: Change Windows 10 Privacy Settings and protect your privacy.
