Telemetry and privacy
AllowTelemetry
The diagnostic data level, and why 0 does not mean off on Home and Pro
Last updated
Does setting AllowTelemetry to 0 disable Windows telemetry?
AllowTelemetry sets the diagnostic data level Windows sends to Microsoft. It accepts 0 through 3, but 0 -- the Security level -- is only honoured on Enterprise, Education and Server editions. On Home and Pro, setting 0 is treated as 1. This is documented behaviour and it is the reason so many privacy guides overstate what their registry tweak achieved.
Registry location and values
AllowTelemetry
- Location
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection- Value name
AllowTelemetry- Type
REG_DWORD- Default
- not present; the level is set by the out-of-box privacy choices
| Value | What it does |
|---|---|
0 — Security | Only data required to keep Windows secure. Honoured on Enterprise, Education, Server and IoT only. On Home and Pro it is treated as 1. |
1 — Required / Basic | The minimum on Home and Pro. |
2 — Enhanced | Deprecated in current Windows versions. |
3 — Optional / Full | The most data. |
What Windows actually does with this
The Connected User Experiences and Telemetry service collects diagnostic data at the configured level. The policy value caps the level; the edition determines the lowest cap that will be honoured.
What it affects
Volume and category of diagnostic data sent to Microsoft. Also affects what Windows Update and Microsoft support can diagnose about failures on your machine.
Is it worth changing?
Set it to 1 on Home or Pro and understand that this is the floor for those editions -- claims that a registry edit fully disables Windows telemetry on Home are not accurate. Setting 0 is harmless but does not do what it appears to. If you genuinely need the Security level, that requires an edition that supports it. As a performance tweak this is close to irrelevant: the service is not a meaningful consumer of CPU on a modern machine, and people set it for privacy reasons, which is a legitimate motivation on its own terms.
What can go wrong
Low. At level 0 on supported editions, some Windows Update and Store functionality is affected.
How to undo it
Delete the AllowTelemetry value, or set it to the level you want, then restart. Settings → Privacy & security → Diagnostics & feedback exposes the same choice.
Create a System Restore Point before editing the registry. Every setting on this page is reversible, but a restore point is the difference between undoing one change and reinstalling Windows.
Which Windows versions this applies to
Windows 10, Windows 11.
AllowTelemetry: common questions
Does disabling telemetry improve FPS?
No. The telemetry service is not a meaningful consumer of CPU or disk during gaming. Disable it for privacy reasons if you want to; do not expect frames.
Sources
Does JINSHI Tweaks change this?
This page documents settings that correspond to the following toggles in JINSHI PC Tweaks: Disable Telemetry, Disable Connected User Experiences, Disable Diagnostic Data Viewer, Disable Tailored Experiences, Disable Feedback Prompts.
The reference above is written to be usable without the product. Everything here can be applied by hand for free. What the application adds is that the change is applied in one pass, a System Restore Point is created first, and each toggle can be reversed individually.