How to Block Targeted Ads in Windows 10 Version 1809

[nir]

Disable your advertising ID in the October update

Ads in Windows 10 have become a pretty common thing, as they often fueled the criticism against Microsoft and the operating system since its debut in July 2015.

While users call them ads, Microsoft has never used this term to describe the unwanted content showing up occasionally on Windows 10.

In the Microsoft Store and apps on Windows 10, ads are pushed to your device based on a unique advertising ID, which is automatically generated when you install the operating system and sign in with an account.

This advertising ID uses data collected from your system like the apps you install, to provide more relevant ads on your system.

“App developers (and the advertising networks they work with) can associate personal data they collect about you with your advertising ID and use that personal data to provide more relevant advertising and other personalized experiences across their apps,” Microsoft explains.

In Windows 10, users are allowed to disable the advertising ID and block these targeted ads, but it’s worth emphasizing that this method won’t prevent ads from showing up on your computer.

What it does, however, is stop this data collection, so instead of ads that are specifically tailored to your account, what you’re going to see are generic ads that may often be irrelevant.

There are two ways to disable the advertising ID in Windows 10 version 1809, and I’m going to detail both of them below.

First and foremost, you can turn off the advertising ID right from the Settings app on your Windows 10 computer. To do this, you need to launch Settings and navigate to the following location:

Settings > Privacy > General

In the right side of the screen, there’s an option called Let apps use advertising ID to make ads more interesting to you based on your app activity. Make sure it is disabled, so your advertising ID would no longer be used for targeted ads.

If you want to return to the original configuration and get ads that make more sense for you, just follow the steps above and enable this option.

The second method is available for systems running Windows 10 Pro and involves enabling a dedicated policy that’s available in the Group Policy Editor.

First of all, launch the Group Policy Editor by typing gpedit.msc in the Start menu or press Windows key + R > gpedit.msc. An administrator account is required for this method because otherwise you’re not allowed to change the default settings of policies.

Next, you need to navigate to the following path in the Group Policy Editor:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > User Profile

In the right pane, there’s a policy called Turn off the advertising ID. Double-click it to change its status.

“This policy setting turns off the advertising ID, preventing apps from using the ID for experiences across apps. If you enable this policy setting, the advertising ID is turned off. Apps can't use the ID for experiences across apps,” the policy description reads.

By default, this policy is set to Not Configured, and as you could easily figure out by simply reading its name, what you need to do is switch it to Enabled.

You can return to the original configuration at any point in the future by simply following the same steps but switch the policy to Not Configured or Disabled.

In addition to working flawlessly on Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809), both of these methods are available for the previous Windows 10 versions, but also for Windows 8.1 and Windows RT.

Source