Privacy Repairer

Privacy Repairer is a lightweight application that facilitates quick controls for enabling and disabling some Windows 10 features necessary for restoring user privacy. These focus on telemetry and diagnostics, the system, Windows Defender and Store Apps, Cortana, Start Menu, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, and Windows Media Player.

You don't have to go through a setup operation because Privacy Repairer is wrapped in a single executable file that can be saved anywhere on the disk and just double-clicked to bring up the main app window and configure settings. Just make sure that .NET Framework is enabled since it cannot work without this software framework.

As far as the interface is concerned, Privacy Repairer adopts a clean and intuitive window where all customization options are neatly structured in separate categories. They can be activated or deactivated by clicking a slide button.

For example, when it comes to telemetry and diagnostics, you can disable Windows Error Reporting (sends dumps of error information to Microsoft that may include sensitive data), the performance tracking tool (sends details about how you use your computer) and application telemetry (monitors usage of various Windows components by apps).

In case of system-related features, you can stop sending information about how you write, disable WifiSense, not share samples about your handwriting recognition with Microsoft, deactivate SmartScreen and automatic updates for root certificates, among others.

There are many other features listed in this application, and each one is accompanied by a description and level recommended by the developer, such as "Recommended", "Dangerous" or "For experts only". This level determines the impact on the computer that would be made by activating a certain feature. From the main menu, all recommended options can be enabled with one click. However, there is no setting for restoring everything to the way it was before using this tool.

Modifications were quickly applied after configuring Windows 10 settings in this utility. Worth noting is that users mustn't blindly disable everything listed here because this could lead to performance issues. Other than that, Privacy Repairer has a lot of features dedicated to Windows 10 privacy. Advanced users can also view the Task Scheduler path or registry key affected by each Windows 10 function.