I recently upgraded my “unsupported” PC to Windows 11 and was immediately bombarded with banner alerts, ads, and news stating that I would prefer not to be force-fed by my system operating. Windows 11 doesn’t really offer a pleasant experience out of the box, but you can tweak a few settings to fix most of its issues.
You might be tempted to use a third-party tool to disable all invasive Microsoft tracking with just one click. While this may seem like the easier method than following this guide, I don’t recommend it: it’s hard to know what kinds of changes these tools make under the hood, and if something goes wrong, it will be difficult to troubleshoot the problem, because these apps usually change dozens of settings in one go.
Remove Start Menu Ads
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If you hate the Windows 11 Start menu, you can replace it entirely. However, if you are willing to accept it, you can at least remove ads from the Start menu. To do this, go to the Windows 11 Settings menu. Then go to Personalization > Start and disable the following options:
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View recommendations for tips, shortcuts, new apps, and more
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View recently added apps
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Show recently opened items in Start, jump lists, and File Explorer
These options will give you more control over the Start menu and prevent random files and apps from appearing there. Next, remove ads pretending to be pinned apps. To do this, open the Start menu and right-click the icon of the app you’ll never use, like LinkedIn or Instagram, then select Uninstall Or Remove from start.
Prevent junk files from appearing on the lock screen
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It’s unfortunate that Microsoft doesn’t want you to enjoy a clean and beautiful lock screen. Yes, the company also used this space to show you advertisements. You can resolve this issue by going to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen. Click the drop-down menu next to Personalize your lock screen and select Picture Or Slideshow. A new option will appear below the photo picker, titled Get fun facts, tips, tricks and more on your lock screen. Disable this option to prevent promotional content from appearing there.
Hide OneDrive ads
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Microsoft loves asking you to sign up for OneDrive. To also stop these ads, go to Settings > System > Notifications and turn off alerts OneDrive. Then open File Explorer and click on the three points icon in the toolbar. Select Possibilitiesfollowed by See tongue. Now scroll down and disable Show sync provider notifications.
Block unwanted notifications
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Speaking of spam alerts, you should also take a moment to turn off unwanted notifications. Go to Settings > System > Notifications and turn off notifications for each app that spams you. Some applications do not appear in this list; In such cases, you will need to open this app and disable alerts from its notification settings.
Stop Microsoft from collecting your data to serve ads
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By default, Microsoft collects your data to show you ads. Put an end to this by going to Settings > Privacy & Security > General and disable everything on the page.
Turn off ads based on your device usage
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Windows 11 tracks your device usage as another way to serve you ads. Go to Settings > Personalization > Device usage and disable each setting on this page to stop them.
Fix Taskbar Annoyances
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If you don’t want to use Microsoft’s Copilot AI or see news widgets in the taskbar, you can hide them. Go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar and disable the following options:
This will give you a cleaner taskbar with just the Start button and the apps you have pinned. If you prefer to have the weather on the taskbar, you can enable task view from the settings mentioned above. Its icon will appear in the lower left corner of the screen. Click on it and hide the widgets manually until only the weather widget remains (and any others you actually want).
Prevent the collection of diagnostic data for ads
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Finally, you can prevent Microsoft from collecting diagnostic data for ads. To do this, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Diagnostics & Feedback and deactivate Tailor-made experiences. For good measure, you should also disable Send optional diagnostic data.