- Aug 17, 2014
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W10Privacy 6.0.0.0
www.w10privacy.de
6.0.0.0 (August 13, 2026)
Hello everyone!W10Privacy has now been available for 11 years! To implement many of the requested enhancements over the years, the program has been completely rebuilt. New features from version 6 onwards include:
- Comprehensive search for terms within the settings or tooltips
- The ability to select and deselect desired settings in bulk is available per tab (please use with caution!).
- More informative messages about the status of certain program states
- The background colors can be selected from a color palette.
- Of course, several other useful configurable options have been added.
- Settings that can no longer be reliably deactivated (such as Defender) have been removed from the program.
- Uniform internal naming of settings (IDs) – previously these were sometimes named in English or German.
- Using the additional parameters "notasks" and "notelemetry", it is possible in CLI mode to exclude the processing of further areas.
- Updating and revising the DNS names underlying host and IP blocking
- Re-evaluation of the IP addresses used for IP blocking – this process will be repeated several times in the coming period and the addresses will be updated accordingly.
- Significant improvement in the (previously partly language-dependent) recognition of various settings (e.g. in the area of "tasks")
- Clearer display of settings per tab: These are displayed according to recommendation level, the need for administrative permissions, and finally alphabetically.
- Languages: The texts from the previous program version were largely retained. All missing texts for the various languages were translated fully automatically to ensure a consistent appearance.
- Overall much more user-friendly, e.g., you can switch between tabs using the mouse wheel.
- An important note regarding the settings of the "Telemetry" and "Firewall" tabs : These differ fundamentally between program versions 5 and 6 (different number of IP addresses, sometimes different names for the firewall rules, etc.). Therefore, if these settings are configured at all, it makes sense to first disable all settings in the "Telemetry" and "Firewall" tabs using program version 5 and then, if necessary, reconfigure the desired settings using program version 6. Removing the old entries is also possible directly in the Windows Firewall – simply remove all firewall rules labeled "W10Privacy" under "Advanced settings" in the "Outbound rules" section.
- I will translate the English instructions on the website in the coming days – it's not possible to implement everything simultaneously due to time constraints.
Basically, with the new program version, "no stone was left unturned." Therefore, previously generated configuration files are not compatible with the new version. However, settings stored in an old configuration file can be transferred. Details can be found in the instructions on the website – just a brief note: W10Privacy allows you to create a template file using " /template, " and the previously set settings from an existing configuration file can be transferred to this template using " /migrateconfig ." This only affects the settings of the various tabs and not the program settings themselves, such as font size.
The program has been intensively revised and tested over the past few weeks. At a certain point, however, I have to say that it's "enough for now." No matter how much you integrate, optimize, and test, it will never be possible to reproduce all potential use cases and problems. Therefore, please use this first version of W10Privacy version 6 with some caution. There might still be a few glitches here and there – so please let me know if that's the case. There's only one exception: virus detections "still don't interest me"– unfortunately, it's inevitable that Defender or other security solutions will flag the program and mistakenly identify it as a threat or malware. As already explained in detail in the "Virus?" section, this situation is beyond my control, and I don't plan to address it in the near future.
We're now entering the 12th year of W10Privacy's availability, and still no one has been able to prove that it contains a virus or anything else harmful – and that will remain 100% the case: The program's purpose is to set predefined preferences and nothing more!
For the time being, both program versions (versions 5 and 6) will be available for download in the download section.
W10Privacy - Privacy made easy
The by default highly questionable set options concerning privacy and data protection in Windows 10 brought me to the idea to develop this program. Microsoft generously enables everybody to change the concerning settings, but hides them in countless menus, where a normal user does not want to...
www.w10privacy.de
