Disable App Access To Account Info In Windows 10

In Windows 10, your user account information is part of the Privacy data which can be controlled with the Settings application. The user can revoke or grant access permissions for apps and users to this data. Recent Windows 10 builds can be configured to allow or deny apps access to their name, picture, and other account info for all your installed apps and the operating system itself. Only if allowed, the OS and installed apps will be able to use your user account information.

Starting with Windows 10 build 17063, the OS has got a number of new options under Privacy. These include the ability to control usage permissions for your Library/data folders, microphone, calendar, and more. One of the new options allows managing access permissions for account info. The user can revoke access completely for certain apps or the entire OS.

When you disable account info access for the entire operating system, it will be automatically disabled for all apps as well. When enabled, it will allow users to disable account info access permissions for individual apps.

In modern Windows versions, you usually have a number of system accounts for various services and internal Windows tasks, plus a hidden Administrator account and your personal account.  For every user account, Windows 10 will create a separate user profile. A user profile is a set of files and folders to store all the personal preferences, app settings, documents and other data. Every user account has an associated user profile. Usually, it is stored in the folder C:\Users\Username and includes a number of subfolders like Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc along with hidden folders like AppData which store the settings for various Windows features and installed apps.

Store apps can use your user name, picture, and other account details. You can manage app access to this information by following the steps below.

To disable access to account info in Windows 10, do the following.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to Privacy - Account info.
3. On the right, click on the button Change under Allow access to account info on this device.
4. In the next dialog, turn off the toggle option.

This will disable access to your account info in Windows 10 for the operating system and apps. Windows 10 won't be able to use it any more. None of your installed apps will be able to process this information.

Instead, you might want customize app access permissions for individual apps.

Disable app access to Account Info in Windows 10

Note: This assumes that you've enabled access to your account info using the option described above in the account info section. So, users will be able to disable or enable account info access for the installed apps.

There is a special toggle option which allows quickly disabling or enabling account info access for all apps at once. Unlike the option described above, it won't block the operating system from using your account information.

To disable app access to account info in Windows 10, do the following.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to Privacy - Account info.
3. On the right, disable the toggle switch under Allows apps to access your account info. When access is allowed for the operating system as described above, all apps get access permissions by default.
4. In the list below, you can control account info access for certain apps individually. Every listed app has its own toggle option which you can enable or disable.

You are done.

Articles of interest:

• How to View App Permissions in Windows 10
• How to Change Account Picture in Windows 10
• How to create a local account in Windows 10
• How to Replace Default User Account Picture in Windows 10

That's it.