DoNotSpy11 is a privacy configuration utility for Windows 10 and Windows 11. It brings together controls for Windows, Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Office, including settings that would otherwise require visiting several applications or less accessible configuration areas. The changes affect particular services, permissions and interface features, so the available choices depend on the software and Windows components on the computer.
Windows privacy
DoNotSpy11 separates app access from Windows' own data collection. Its app controls can disable access to resources such as the camera, microphone, location, contacts and calendar. The user can select which kinds of access to restrict. Other controls address background applications, voice activation and apps taking screenshots.
For Windows itself, the program offers telemetry controls and separate limits on diagnostic log and dump collection. Activity history has its own settings for the activity feed, publishing activities and uploading them. Clipboard history and synchronization are also separate: keeping copied items on the computer and sharing them across devices are different functions, and DoNotSpy11 provides controls for each.
Online speech recognition, handwriting data sharing and settings synchronization can be disabled individually.
Windows AI
The Windows AI category distinguishes features from their visible entry points. DoNotSpy11 includes controls for Copilot and its taskbar button, along with Recall snapshots and Click to Do. A button setting concerns the taskbar entry, while a feature setting targets the feature itself.
The AI controls also cover Notepad's AI features and Paint's Cocreator, Image Creator and Generative Fill. App access to text and image generation has a separate control.
Advertising
DoNotSpy11 can disable and reset the Windows advertising ID, as well as turn off advertising in File Explorer and suggested content in Settings. These controls address both the identifier used for advertising and the places where Windows presents recommendations.
Start menu controls extend this to recommendations, account notifications and lists of recently opened files or applications. Hiding a recent-file list changes what the Start menu displays.
Windows Search
Search has separate options for web search, cloud search and highlights. Turning off an online search component changes what Windows Search can retrieve; the highlights control affects the additional content displayed in the search interface.
Edge policies
For the current Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, DoNotSpy11 offers policies for telemetry, data synchronization and personalization of advertising, search and news. New-tab content has separate controls for Microsoft News, quick links and top sites. Search suggestions and shopping can also be disabled.
Edge's AI controls include writing assistance, Copilot, Copilot's access to browser context and AI-enhanced history search. Another setting prevents websites from querying which payment methods are available. DoNotSpy11 applies these choices as browser policies; disabling a tweak removes its policy so the browser's default behavior can apply.
Office services
Office settings distinguish connected experiences that analyze content from those that download online content, alongside a control for connected experiences as a whole. This provides a choice between disabling a particular class of online operation and disabling the broader group of services.
DoNotSpy11 also separates Office telemetry agent logging from uploads. Additional controls cover logging in Word and Outlook, feedback, and the option to include screenshots or attachments with feedback. AI training, OneNote text prediction and Visio research and translation features have their own settings, allowing those functions to be changed independently of the reporting controls.
Update controls
Windows updates, automatic driver updates and Microsoft Store updates each have a separate setting. Windows Update sharing is another choice, so DoNotSpy11 can change update delivery behavior independently of whether automatic updates are enabled.
The Defender category includes cloud protection and sample submission, as well as an option to enable Exploit Guard network protection. Turning off cloud protection disables that protection component; the sample submission setting controls the sending of samples separately.
Privacy profiles
DoNotSpy11 provides a way to undo all settings and uses Windows System Restore for recovery.
Free and Pro provide the same privacy settings. Pro adds saving and loading profiles for use on multiple computers, so a chosen configuration can be reused. It also shows changed settings at startup, giving the user a way to identify changes when opening the program again.
