Remove or Disable Office Telemetry Agent

Question

I have Office Professional Plus 2016 on Windows 10 Pro (personal computer).  I understand this version of office has "Telemetry", but it is not enabled by default.  I understand the use of the Telemetry feature in a business or corporate environment where IT has need of this data.  My question is, if this telemetry feature is not enabled (I have verified the telemetry is not set up in the registry or group policy) why is the "office telemetry agent login 2016" and the "office telemetry agent fallback 2016" enabled in the task scheduler and runs at logon?  I have Office Home & Student 2016 on another machine and these task are not there, nor is the associated telemetry file "msoia.exe.  Can I disable or delete the scheduled tasks?  Also, can I delete the telemetry file "msioa.exe" without causing issues with Office?  Or is there another way to disable or uninstall the telemetry feature?  I never will have a need for telemetry in a business environment.

Answer 1

You can delete msoia.exe as well as the other two telemetry files, one is a .dll and the other has telemetry in its name. delete all three. However Micrisift regularly replace them soi you will need to keep deleting them whenever they return.

BTW, telemetry is always enabled in Office, as it is in Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. So you need to disable it to maintain your privacy and protect you from unwanted junk or spam. I use a small program called SysHardener, but set it up carefully.

Answer 2

Hello Germain,

Well this sure has been a learning experience.  I think I have found my solution.  Here is what I know so far for Office Professional Plus installed on a personal non-work computer:

Office Professional Plus 2016 has built in telemetry which is allegedly disabled by default.  From my understanding, to enable it, one (or IT) has to employ the Telemetry Dashboard to set it up.  If telemetry is enabled, I understand it will generate ".etl" files which should be located in the C:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Telemetry directory or somewhere in a sub-directory under the "...\Office directory.  I do not have a telemetry directory at this location, nor are there any ".etl" file here or anywhere else on my system that are related to Office.  I also understand there would be registry entries regarding Office Telemetry and I also do not have these registry entries.

I noticed the telemetry tasks that are in my task scheduler are listed as authored by me and not Microsoft like the other Office tasks.  I still do not understand why these task are set to run telemetry if it is allegedly disabled by default.  I have disabled these tasks and have observed no impact on the operation or performance of Office.  This answers my question, "can I disable these tasks?"; YES.

My other question, "can I delete the "msoia.exe telemetry file?", probably not.  However, I found I can block this file via my PC firewall from accessing the network/web, thus preventing it from sending any telemetry.  So far, there has been no issues with Office with this firewall block.  Office can still check for and receive updates.  For those who may read this later, I use Norton Security to set the firewall block.  I'm sure all AV apps have firewall settings to allow or block programs.  So, I have in effect negated the msoia.exe telemetry file without deleting it.

At this time I consider this matter solved.  I still have concerns whether the next Office update may undo my efforts.  Only time will tell.  Should I observe any changes or side effects of my changes, I'll post back.

I want to thank you for your insight and pointing me in the right direction to find my solutions.

Best regards,

AMX&

Answer 3

Thanks for your input.  This answers my question safely "can I delete the msoia.exe file?".  I did not know about the other two files though. I also have found that every time MS updates Office, any disabled or deleted tasks are reinstalled and/or enabled.  I guess this holds true for deleted Office files. I have found just blocking the msoia.exe file in the firewall works best, in that I do not have to keep checking to see if MS has replaced files if deleted.  I'll check out SysHardener, TKS.

Answer 4

Regarding to your concerning about network restrictions and the impact on Office , you can also check:

Network requests in Office for Windows and Mobile

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/networ...

Office 365 URLs and IP address ranges

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/office...

Have a good one !!

Answer 5

Germain, I appreciate your response and insight.  As far as I can tell, I have no Office generated .etl files, nor can I find an other files that appear to be Office Log files.  The .etl files I found are all Windows files.  I am almost sure Office Telemetry is not enabled on my system, but am confused why it is set to run the "msoia.exe" in the Task Scheduler at log on if telemetry is allegedly disabled by default. It shows it has run successfully. I have now disabled it in the task scheduler with no apparent side effects.  I do not feel applying the suggested registry solution to disable Telemetry would benefit me since there have been no .etl files generated by Office.  I would have no way of knowing if the registry edit works.

I would think that the telemetry task schedule would be set when Telemetry is enabled using Telemetry Dashboard.  I'm just trying to understand if Office is actually phoning home or not.

I thank you for your response though.

AMX&