XP-AntiSpy comback for Windows 10

Microsoft's Windows XP operating system was not universally loved when it came first out as it was criticized by part of its user base for phone home functionality and other invasive features.

While those pale in comparison to Windows 10, the criticism brought along with it a first batch of privacy tools aimed at disabling spy-features in the operating system.

One popular choice back then was XP-Antispy, a program first released in 2011 that provided users with direct options to change or even turn off many of the invasive features of the Windows XP operating system.

Those tweaks were not new and the main feat of programs like XP-AntiSpy was to make them available in an easy to use environment.

The developer of XP-Antispy, after years of inactivity, released a first beta version of XP-AntiSpy today to address privacy-related issues in Microsoft's new operating system Windows 10.

The program has been released as a beta version that is currently only available in German. It is likely however that the final version will be bi-lingual just like previous versions of the program.

XP-AntiSpy combines universal tweaks that work in most versions of Windows with tweaks that are exclusive to Windows 10.

If you have used a tweaking tool before to improve privacy on Windows 10 machines, you know most if not all of them already:

1. Turn off "diagnostic and data usage" collection.
2. Disable the unique advertising ID.
3. Disable the collection of handwriting patterns and typing history.
4. Change the Feedback Frequency to "never".
5. Disable Biometry.
6. Disable Web Search integration in Search.
7. Disable Localization Service.
8. Disable Sensors.
9. Disable Wi-Fi Sense.
10. Disable pre-loading of websites in Microsoft Edge.
11. Disable Windows Update P2P functionality.
12. Disable the Inventory Collector.
13. Do not let Microsoft collect information to give you suggestions, ideas, reminders or alerts.

The Windows-10 specific features address several of the big privacy issues in Windows 10 but they are nowhere near complete. If you compare the selection of XP-AntiSpy with those of W10 Privacy for instance, you will notice that the latter supports dozens of additional tweaks that XP-AntiSpy does not support.

XP-AntiSpy ships with the list of universal tweaks on the other hand which you can use to configure Windows 10 to your liking.

The program suggests to backup the current profile on start for recovery. You find it under profile in the program interface. There you find other profiles that you can switch to with a click, but it is generally recommended to go through the listing one by one to make sure you make only wanted changes to Windows.

Closing Words

The return of XP-AntiSpy is a pleasant surprise but it needs work done to stand on its own against existing privacy programs for Windows 10. It needs to support additional tweaks for feature parity with other tweak programs, and at least an English version as well to appeal to a world-wide audience.

Now You: Which tweaking/privacy tool is your favorite right now?