In the past, we covered how to disable various types of ads in Windows 10. Today, I would like to offer you a summarized overview. After reading it, you will be able to disable all kind of ads in Windows 10 without using third party tools.
Here is the list of advertisements which the most recent version of Microsoft's operating system comes with. Let's see how to disable all ads in Windows 10.
Disable ads on the Lock screen
When the Spotlight feature is enabled, it may promote third party apps and products from the Store. While spotlight is supposed to download and cycle through beautiful images, this behavior can be unwanted. Here is how you can disable the promoted advertisements on the Lock screen.
- Open the Settings app.
- Go to the following page:
Personalization \ Lock Screen
- Under the Background option, you can either disable Windows Spotlight by selecting some other option like a "Picture" or a "Slideshow". This will disable Windows Spotlight and its ads completely:
- When the Lock screen background is set to Picture, you also need to switch off the option called "Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen":
Disable automatically installing suggested apps
With Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Windows 10 started to aggressively promote apps right inside the Start menu. Without the user even opening the Store, or asking for his or her permission, the operating system installs some apps like Candy Crush Soda Saga, Minecraft: Windows 10 edition, Flipboard, Twitter and many other apps.
To prevent Windows 10 from installing them, apply the following Registry tweak:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager] "SilentInstalledAppsEnabled"=dword:00000000
To learn about this tweak in detail, refer to the article: A tweak to turn off automatically installing suggested apps in Windows 10
Disable Ink app suggestions
With Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft has added a new feature to show suggestions about Ink and Pen apps. The operating system will show you recommendations about Pen and Ink apps compatible with the Ink hardware connected to your PC. The appropriate option was added to the operating system to show or hide them. If you need to disable Ink app suggestions in Windows 10, go to System -> Devices ->Pen & Windows Ink and disable the option "Show recommended app suggestions" in the right pane.
See the following article: How to disable Ink app suggestions in Windows 10
Disable ads in File Explorer
With Windows 10 build 14901, Microsoft has introduced a new feature in File Explorer. Now the application is able to show tips about changes in Windows 10 via a notification which appears directly on top of the app. The feature is called Sync Provider Notifications. It produces notifications as shown in the screenshot below:
To disable ads in File Explorer in Windows 10 (Sync Provider Notifications), do the following.
- Open File Explorer.
- Go to the View tab of the Ribbon and click the "Options" button.
- The Folder Options dialog will be opened. Go to the View tab there:
- Scroll down the Advanced settings list until you see the option "Show sync provider notifications". Untick it as shown below to disable notifications:
Alternatively, you can apply a Registry tweak as shown in the article: Disable Notifications in File Explorer in Windows 10 (Sync Provider Notifications).
Disable app suggestions (ads) in the Start menu
Windows 10 might show you "recommendations" to install or buy apps right inside the Start menu. They look like in-your-face advertising of an app or a promotional tile, appearing on the left side list of apps. Some of these apps may not be free but they are still shown. If you are not happy to see them, here is how you can disable the suggested apps.
Here is how those ads look like:
To disable this kind of ads in Windows 10, please refer to the article Disable app suggestions (ads) in Windows 10 Start Menu.
Disable Ads in the Share pane
As you may already know, a new Share UI is implemented in Windows 10 Creators Update. It is available in the operating system starting with build 14971. It is known that besides installed apps, the new Share flyout shows promotions from other apps in the Store. Here is how it looks:
If you are not happy to see them, right-click inside the Share pane on any of the suggested app icons. A small context menu will appear:
There, untick the item "Show app suggestions". This will disable suggested apps in the Share pane. See the following article: Disable Suggested Apps in Share Pane in Windows 10
Disable tips, tricks, and suggestions
Windows 10 can display suggestions, tips or tricks directly on the Desktop. They look like regular notification toasts. See the following screenshot:
To disable these tips, do the following.
- Open the Settings app.
- Go to System - Notifications & actions.
- On the right, disable the option "Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows".
Also, see the article Disable tips about Windows 10.
Disable Welcome Experience
If you are not happy to see it or if you wish to deploy Windows 10 on hundreds or thousands of PCs without seeing the Welcome page, is possible to disable it in Windows 10. Once you disable it, you won't see the Welcome Experience any more.
Open Settings and go to System - Notifications & actions.
Under the Notifications section, turn off the option "Show me the Windows welcome experience after updates and occasionally when I sign in to highlight what's new and suggested".
See the article Disable Welcome Page in Windows 10 (Welcome Experience)
Uninstall suggested apps which can show ads
The list of apps which can show ads include
- Age of Empires: Castle Siege
- Asphalt 8: Airborne
- Candy Crush Soda Saga
- FarmVille2: Country Escape
- Minecraft: Windows 10 edition
- Netflix
- Pandora
- World of Tanks: Blitz
- Get office
Depending your region, these apps may vary.
Go to Settings - Apps - Apps & Features.
Select the app you want to uninstall in the list on the right and click the "Uninstall" button.
Ads in Settings
Starting with Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, ads appear in the Settings app. Here is how it looks:
To disable them, refer to the following article:
How to Disable Ads in Settings in Windows 10
Also, the Settings app shows various tips, links to online tutorials and also videos for pages you open in recent Windows 10 versions.
To disable them, see the post
How to Disable Online Tips in Settings in Windows 10
Update. You can save your time and use Winaero Tweaker. Go to Behavior\Ads and Unwanted apps to disable ads and unwanted apps quickly.
You can download Winaero Tweaker here:
Update2. By user request, here is a tweak which disables most of the ads in Windows 10:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager] "SilentInstalledAppsEnabled"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager] "SystemPaneSuggestionsEnabled"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced] "ShowSyncProviderNotifications"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager] "SoftLandingEnabled"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager] "RotatingLockScreenEnabled"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager] "RotatingLockScreenOverlayEnabled"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager] "SubscribedContent-310093Enabled"=dword:00000000
You can download the ready-to-use Registry tweak from here:
The tweak will disable the following:
- Promoted apps.
- Start menu suggestions.
- Ads in File Explorer
- Tips about Windows.
- Windows Spotlight and ads on the Lock screen.
- Welcome Experience
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is there a registry file complied with all these?
Hmm, OK, I will do it.
Note: Some “ads” like Share pane app suggestions cannot be disabled with a Reg tweak.
The tweak is in the article.
Considering Windows 10 is ONE HUGE AD to allow Microsoft to data mine and sell YOU to interested parties, the BEST way to stop this is uninstall Windows 10 and install Linux.
Hmm, i will use linux if most apps that useful can run in linux
And games too
I’ve used Debian based distros back in 2009 (and Fedora) and i kinda liked it, but now the program ecosystem is kinda dead. Many great programs got discontinued and don’t work properly anymore. There’s also the massive problem of Linux distros not having good hardware support, tried many different ones but they all freeze randomly in my laptop (Pentium N3530 + 8gb ram + 500gb hdd + Nvidia Geforce 810M), so trying to use an OS that limits your hardware choices is bad in my book.
Some people might suggest Wine to run all those Windows-only programs, but compatibility is quite bad too.
At the end of the day, I’ll just stick to Windows 8.1 till all those hardware issues get fixed on the linux side
Let me get this straight, your suggesting moving from a monitored OS to a freely distributed OS that is not monitored for much of anything, and willing to do so because the disable ads process out weights security, knowledge and ease of use in regards to compatibility with everyday uses with support…..9.9 out 10 times, its the users inability to solve the problem of their own and not that of the OS or OS maker…..
Linux really Isn’t as wonderful as you make it out to be. The fact is Microsoft dominates the OS theater and most applications and games are designed to work with Windows. It has come a long way since It’s infancy and Windows 10 is rivaling Windows XP in it’s stability, at least for me it is. FWIW, I have used several Linux distros, they’re nothing special.
Shouldn’t the SilentInstalledAppsEnabled value be 0?
It should be zero, definitely. It is a typo. Thank you!
Sergey,
Thanks for all the good work you do. If you make a registry file, maybe you could post an article containing the link to the registry file + the manual instructions that remains after?
Each new feature update, an idea would be to have a list of 3 types of things to change:
1) settings that reverted to a previous default value you probably don’t want if you set it differently
2) settings you probably should change if you value your privacy above the rest and don’t care about the new apps, but just want an efficient traditional desktop
3) settings you probably should change for security, again if you value that more than the added bloated features that Microsoft is trying to sell you to profit from you.
Thank you , good job
Thanks for all the great work.
I am using Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB, and I have no crap like in Win 10 pro.
I don’t care about the bells and whistles like Cortana, X-box, One Drive, Edge, and others.
“multilanguages”
I deleted from it plenty of useless files, links, and crap i volumes and PC stopped giving me BSOD.
what I am looking is a software so I can watch in English for free TV from all around the world similar to Delta player.
https://www.deltamediaplayer.com/playercode/download/DeltaMediaPlayer-1.15.exe
Any idea?
Thank for the information. But man, Windows is getting to be a pain to use.
What i would like to know is how to fix the problem(s) created by the Fall Creators Updated or whatever it is.
The problem that all the Microsoft Store Icons(lnks) that used to be on the live tile bar from original install and all apps downloaded from the store that were pinned to the start bar have disappeared. I had a game played it every day that was in the most used list on the start bar, Gone with every other store app shortcut. So to play my game i have to type in cortana the first part of the game name then click on the search store button then when store opens have to click on games to show the game icon then click the play button. OR just tell me how to ungray the “pin to start” button in the store app for the apps i already have.. Thanks if you can
Yesterday I downloaded a windows 10 update. It removed my Windows 7 games from windows 10. Today I went to Winaero.com to try and reload windows 7 games, but I am not finding the exact page to do so, Can you help?
Here you go: Download
Hi Sergey. I run Windows 10 Build 17763 rs5. 180914-1434. Since the disastrous update from 1803 I think where the update was pulle due to a loss of data being experienced by users, I notice that since all subsequent releases, and updates, the keys on my task bars remain white and unreadable. For instance if you wish to install something, the wording decline in the decline box will be white but clearly readable, whereas the accept box will be totally white and unreadable. What could be the cause of this. I believe it has to do with the theme?
Please help
can not open my outlook
The latest Windows 10 update lost your Free Cell program. I’m 74 years old, and extremely “techno challenged”–was probably a medieval monk in a Scriptorium in a past life. I don’t know how to get it back! Your info is undoubtedly wonderful; however, I don’t understand it. Not only this, but can no longer access “games” from the start icon because it doesn’t go past “F” in the index, and I cannot find a way to “scroll down”. I really, REALLY miss XP!
Thank alot!
I have first hand experience removing/changing settings, particularly involving 3rd party apps. Only to find after a w10 update, everything reverts back to w10 defaults. Time spent setting up windows for my own personal use is for naught…wasted…Its an endless “rabbit hole.” Your app/software was no different.
On my test machine no matter how meticulous one may be configuring changes, your hard work and time spent will all disappear after every w10 update.
I will say your app works, easy to use, configure and its intuitive. I like how my w10 looks and feels after removing the bloat and crap. I simply refined myself to remove/hide within the windows environment…and removed Winaero. So sorry