Dorian from the Emea Networking Team again, blogging about a hot toppic called "Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 Telemetry Updates (Diagnostic Tracking)". In the latest time we have seen multiple service requests where customers are inquiring about how to turn this off.

This article does address the supported way of turning this off.

Background:
We have introduced this in Windows 10 and have back ported the functionality to other Operating systems as well, among them Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2. The functionality has been deployed with KB3022345. Since then KB 3022345 has been superseded by KB 3068708 and the later has been superseded by KB 3080149.

The Diagnostic Tracking Service downloads manifests and uploads data that helps Microsoft improve the OS and application experience on Windows. Diagnostic Tracking does not upload data until the customer explicitly opts-in to do so. There are different opt-in UIs for different manifests. Here is an Overview: Windows 10 and privacy

01.10.2015 Update

We do no longer recommend that the telemetry data should be stopped by disabling the service. The official recommendation has shifted from Stopping the Service towards the disabling of the Telemetry data collection in the Control Panel or PC Settings.

We have also published a public Technet Article describing how to Configure telemetry and other settings in your organization

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Manage your telemetry settings

You can manage your telemetry settings using the management tools you’re already using, such as Group Policy, MDM, or Windows Provisioning. You can also manually change your settings using Registry Editor. Setting your telemetry levels through a management policy overrides any device-level settings.

You can set your organization’s devices to use 1 of 4 telemetry levels:

• Security (only available on Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education, and Windows 10 IoT Core editions)

• Basic

• Enhanced

• Full

For more info about these telemetry levels, see Telemetry levels. In Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education, and Windows 10 IoT Core, the default telemetry level is Enhanced.

Use Group Policy to set the telemetry level

Use a Group Policy object to set your organization’s telemetry level.

1. From the Group Policy Management Console, go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Data Collection and Preview Builds.

2. Double-click Allow Telemetry.

3. In the Options box, select the level that you want to configure, and then click OK.

   

Use MDM to set the telemetry level

Use the Policy Configuration Service Provider (CSP) to apply the System/AllowTelemetry MDM policy, using one of these telemetry values:

• 0. Maps to the Security level.

• 1. Maps to the Basic level.

• 2. Maps to the Enhanced level.

• 3. Maps to the Full level.

Use Windows Provisioning to set the telemetry level

Use Windows Provisioning and the Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (Windows ICD) tool – part of the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) toolkit - to create a provisioning package and runtime setting that sets your organization’s telemetry level.

After you create the provisioning package, you can email it to your employees, put it on a network share, or integrate the package directly into a custom image using Windows ICD.

To use Windows ICD to integrate your package into a custom image

1. Open Windows ICD, and then click New provisioning package.

2. In the Name box, type a name for the provisioning package, and then click Next.

3. Click Common to all Windows editions > Next > Finish.

4. Go to Runtime settings > Policies > System > AllowTelemetry to configure the policies. You can set it to one of the following:

   • Disabled [Enterprise SKU Only]. Maps to the Security level.

   • Basic. Maps to the Basic level.

   • Full. Maps to the Enhanced level

   • Diagnostic. Maps to the Full level.

   

5. After you've added all of your settings to the provisioning package, click Export > Provisioning package.

6. On the Describe the provisioning package step, in the Owner box, click IT Admin > Next.

7. On the Select security details for the provisioning package step, if you want to protect the package with a password, select the Encrypt package check box. If you'd like to sign the package with a certificate, select the Sign package check box and select the certificate to use. Click Next.

8. On the Select where to save the provisioning package step, if you want to save it somewhere other than the Windows ICD project folder, choose a new location, and then click Next.

9. On the Build the provisioning package step, click Build.

Use Registry Editor to set the telemetry level

Use Registry Editor to manually set the registry level on each device in your organization, or write a script to edit the registry.

If a management policy already exists (from Group Policy, MDM, or Windows Provisioning), it will override this registry setting.

1. Open Registry Editor, and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\DataCollection.

2. Right-click DataCollection, click New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.

3. Type AllowTelemetry, and then press ENTER.

4. Double-click AllowTelemetry and set the value to one of the following levels, and the click OK.

   • 0. This setting maps to the Security level.

   • 1. This setting maps to the Basic level.

   • 2. This setting maps to the Enhanced level

   • 3. This setting maps to the Full level.

5. Click File > Export, and then save the file as a .reg file, such as C:\AllowTelemetry.reg. You can run this file from a script on each device in your organization.

Additional telemetry controls

There are a few more settings that you can turn off that may send telemetry information:

• To turn off Windows Update telemetry, you have two choices. Either turn off Windows Update, or set your devices to be managed by an on premises update server, such as Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).

• Turn off Windows Defender Cloud-based Protection and Automatic sample submission in Settings > Update & security > Windows Defender.

• Manage the Malicious Software Removal Tool in your organization. For more info, see Microsoft KB article 891716.

• Turn off Linguistic Data Collection in Settings > Privacy. At telemetry levels Enhanced and Full, Microsoft uses Linguistic Data Collection info to improve language model features such as autocomplete, spellcheck, suggestions, input pattern recognition, and dictionary. For more info, see the Get to know me setting in the Speech, inking, & typing section of this article and the Send Microsoft info about how I write to help us improve typing and writing in the future setting in the General section of this article.

  Note  

  Microsoft doesn't intentionally gather sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, usernames and passwords, email addresses, or other similarly sensitive information for Linguistic Data Collection. We guard against such events by using technologies to identify and remove sensitive information before linguistic data is sent from the user's device. If we determine that sensitive information has been inadvertently received, we delete the information.

   

How telemetry works

Windows uses telemetry information to analyze and fix software problems. It also helps Microsoft improve its software and provide updates that enhance the security and reliability of devices within your organization.

Telemetry levels

This section explains the different telemetry levels in Windows 10.

• Security. Information that’s required to help keep Windows secure, including info about telemetry client settings, the Malicious Software Removal Tool, and Windows Defender. This level is available only on Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education, and Windows 10 IoT Core.

• Basic. Basic device info, including: quality-related info, app compat, and info from the Security level.

• Enhanced Additional insights, including: how Windows and Windows apps are used, how they perform, advanced reliability info, and info from both the Basic and the Security levels.

• Full. All info necessary to identify and help to fix problems, plus info from the Security, Basic, and Enhanced levels.

As a diagram:

Security level

The Security level gathers only telemetry info that’s required to keep Windows devices secure. This level is only available on Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education, and Windows 10 IoT Core editions.

Security level info includes:

• Telemetry client settings. The telemetry client requests its settings file from Microsoft servers at regular intervals. This request includes operating system info, the device ID (used to identify what specific device is requesting settings), and the device class (for example, whether the device is a server or desktop).

• Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) MSRT requires to function, including: device info, such as IP address.

  Note  

  No MSRT information is included if MSRT is not used or if Windows Update is turned off.

   

• Windows Defender. Windows Defender requires some info to function, including: anti-malware signatures, diagnostic information, User Account control settings, Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) settings, and IP address. No Windows Defender info is included if a customer is using third-party anti-malware software or if Windows Defender has been turned off.

No user content, such as user files or communications, is gathered at the Security telemetry level, and we take steps to avoid gathering any information that directly identifies a company or user, such as name, email address, or account ID. However, in rare circumstances, MSRT information may unintentionally contain personal information. For instance, some malware may create entries in a computer’s registry that include information such as a username, causing it to be gathered. MSRT reporting is optional and can be turned off at any time.

To set the telemetry level to Security use a management policy (Group Policy or MDM) or by manually changing the setting in the registry. For more info, see the Manage your telemetry settings section of this article.

Basic level

The Basic level gathers a limited set of info that’s critical for understanding the device and its configuration. This level also includes the Security level info. This level helps to identify problems that can occur on a particular device hardware or software configuration. For example, it can help determine if crashes are more frequent on devices with a specific amount of memory or that are running a particular driver version.

Basic level info includes:

• Basic device info. Helps provide an understanding about the various types of devices in the Windows 10 ecosystem, including:

  • Device attributes, such as camera resolution and display type

  • Internet Explorer version

  • Battery attributes, such as capacity and type

  • Networking attributes, such as mobile operator network and IMEI number

  • Processor and memory attributes, such as number of cores, speed, and firmware

  • Operating system attributes, such as Windows edition and IsVirtualDevice

  • Storage attributes, such as number of drives and memory size

• Telemetry client quality metrics. Helps provide an understanding about how the telemetry client is functioning, including uploaded events, dropped events, and the last upload time.

• Quality-related information. Helps Microsoft develop a basic understanding of how a device and its operating system are performing. Some examples are the amount of time a connected standby device was able to fullsleep, the number of crashes or hangs, and application state change details, such as how much processor time and memory were used, and the total uptime for an app.

• App compat info. Helps provide understanding about which apps are installed on a device and to help identify potential compatibility problems.

  • General app info and app info for Internet Explorer add-ons. Includes a list of apps and Internet Explorer add-ons that are installed on a device and whether these apps will work after an upgrade. This app info includes the app name, publisher, version, and basic details about which files have been blocked from usage.

  • System info. Helps provide understanding about whether a device meets the minimum requirements to upgrade to the next version of the operating system. System information includes the amount of memory, as well as info about the processor and BIOS.

  • Accessory device info. Includes a list of accessory devices, such as printers or external storage devices, that are connected to Windows PCs and whether these devices will function after upgrading to a new version of the operating system.

  • Driver info. Includes specific driver usage that’s meant to help figure out whether apps and devices will function after upgrading to a new version of the operating system. This info can help to determine blocking issues and then help Microsoft and our partners apply fixes and improvements.

• Store. Provides info about how the Windows Store performs, including app downloads, installations, and updates. It also includes Windows Store launches, page views, suspend and resumes, and obtaining licenses.

Enhanced level

The Enhanced level gathers info about how Windows and apps are used and how they perform. This level also includes info from both the Basic and Security levels. This level helps to improve experiences by analyzing user interaction with the operating system and apps. Info from this level can be abstracted into patterns and trends that can help Microsoft determine future improvements.

Enhanced level info includes:

• Operating system events. Helps to gain insights into different areas of the operating system, including networking, Hyper-V, Cortana, and other components.

• Operating system app events. A set of events resulting from Microsoft apps that were downloaded from the Store or pre-installed with Windows, including Photos, Mail, and Microsoft Edge.

• Device-specific events. Contains info about events that are specific to certain devices, such as Surface Hub and Microsoft HoloLens. For example, Microsoft HoloLens sends Holographic Processing Unit (HPU)-related events.

If the telemetry client detects a problem that requires gathering more detailed instrumentation, then the telemetry client will only gather info about the events associated with the specific issue, for no more than 2 weeks. Also, if the operating system or an app crashes or hangs, Microsoft will gather the memory contents of the faulting process only at the time of the crash or hang.

Full level

The Full level gathers info necessary to identify and to help fix problems, following the approval process described below. This level also includes info from the Basic, Enhanced, and Security levels.

Additionally, at this level, devices opted in to the Windows Insider Program will send events that can show Microsoft how pre-release binaries and features are performing. All devices in the Windows Insider Program are automatically set to this level.

If a device experiences problems that are difficult to identify or repeat using Microsoft’s internal testing, additional info becomes necessary. This info can include any user content that might have triggered the problem and is gathered from a small sample of devices that have both opted into the Full telemetry level and have exhibited the problem.

However, before more info is gathered, Microsoft’s privacy governance team, including privacy and other subject matter experts, must approve the diagnostics request made by a Microsoft engineer. If the request is approved, Microsoft engineers can use the following capabilities to get the information:

• Ability to run a limited, pre-approved list of Microsoft certified diagnostic tools, such as msinfo32.exe, powercfg.exe, and dxdiag.exe.

• Ability to get and set registry keys.

• Ability to gather user content, such as documents, if they might have been the trigger for the issue.

How is telemetry information handled by Microsoft?

Collection

Information gathered by the telemetry client complies with Microsoft’s security and privacy policies, as well as international laws and regulations. Only those who can demonstrate a valid business need can access the telemetry info.

Data Transfer

All telemetry info is encrypted during transfer from the device to the Microsoft Data Management Service.

Microsoft Data Management Service

The Microsoft Data Management Service routes information to internal cloud storage, where it's compiled into business reports for analysis and research. Sensitive info is stored in a separate data store that’s locked down to a small subset of Microsoft employees in the Windows Devices Group. The privacy governance team permits access only to people with a valid business justification.

Usage

Information is used by teams within Microsoft to provide, improve, and personalize experiences, and for security, health, quality, and performance analysis.

An example of personalization is to create individually tailored in-product messages.

Microsoft doesn’t share organization-specific customer information with third parties, except at the customer’s direction or for the limited purposes described in the privacy statement. However, we do share business reports with partners that include aggregated, anonymous telemetry information. Decisions to share info are made by an internal team that includes privacy, legal, and data management professionals.

Retention

Microsoft believes in and practices information minimization, so we only gather the info we need, and we only store it for as long as it’s needed to provide a service or for analysis. Much of the info about how Windows and apps are functioning is deleted within 30 days. Other info may be retained longer, particularly if there is a regulatory requirement to do so. Info is typically gathered at a fractional sampling rate, which for some client services, can be as low as 1%.

Additional references in these two links.
Privacy Statement | Windows 10 and privacy

Microsoft is committed to your privacy, and it’s important to us to earn your trust and confidence. The above information is still work in progress and provided "as is". Please check the Microsoft Websites for News and Updates.

When you have a Bluetooth Mouse or Headset Devices which you add on

your Surface Pro 2 Devices, it can happen that something went wrong with the installation routine.

Or it is just not working. Ok, no problem, lets reinstall it .... Oops, when you go to PC Setting > Devices,

and try to remove the headset or mouse, you cannot remove the device because the remove button is

greyed out.  Try reconnecting the Device to the tablet results in the error

“Adding your device failed. Remove it from your PC first then try again.”

Ok, what now? Try the following:

Press Windows + X keys from keyboard and click Device Manager. Make sure that bluetooth driver is Enabled.

 You may need to display hidden device (ghosted) drivers in Windows 8.1 and remove it.

Go to Desktop mode, click “Libraries” in the taskbar, right-click on Computer, and select Properties.

In System control panel, click Advanced System Settings link from the left pane.

Click on “Environment Variables” button, click on “New” under the “User variables for <***theUsername***>” box,

setup devmgr_show_nonpresent_device for Variable Name and 1 for the Variable Value, and click OK.

Open Device Manager again, select View > Show hidden devices, and right-click on the hidden device and select Uninstall.

that should do the Trick

cheers

Jonny

After awhile, it stops working. To recover the Mouse and make it work again

you have to turn the power of the Arc Touch Mouse off and turn it on again. That helps for awhile, then it stops working again.

When the Arc Touch Mouse stops working you can see the light of the Arc Touch Mouse is still on.

In order to avoid this behavior you should follow the following steps:

Disable power setting from "device manger"-->"Bluetooth"-->"Marvel Avastar Bluetooth Radio Adaptor"-->"Power Management"-->Uncheck "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

I hope this helps

cheers

Jonny

You have successfully applied your Folder Redirection policy's to the Windows 7 SP1 Clients.  It was running for years without any problems and now it happened, the File Server has to be replaced due to age or performance or...

No matter what reason, what is the best way to move the User Shares to a new File Server, Disk on the LUN/SAN, without having the Data transferred over the wire from the Client, keep on reading and maybe you will have some Ideas.

Consider the following scenario:

• The Folder Redirection feature is enabled for the user to redirect his/her documents to a file server.
• You enable the Offline Files feature on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7.
• You change the destination file server location for the user’s redirected documents to a new location.
• Or if the new file server location represents a different physical storage location, you move the user’s data from the old file server location to the new file server location
• When the updated Folder Redirection policy applies to the user’s computer, you want the data that is already in the Offline Files cache to be renamed to reflect the new file server name without transferring the data from the old server location to the new server location through the client.

Step 1: Configure the Windows 7 SP1 Client as follows:

ImportantThis section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

In Registry Editor, locate the following registry subkey:

1. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
2. Under the Explorer registry subkey, click Edit, click New, click DWORD Value, type FolderRedirectionEnableCacheRename, and then press ENTER.
3. Set the decimal value of the FolderRedirectionEnableCacheRename registry entry to 1.
4. Exit Registry Editor.

make sure you have the most actual shell32.dll installed or at least the following Version:

Step 2: move the Data on the Server Side using robocopy in order to have also copied the metadata (do this on weekends or after hours)

Step 3: configure the Folder Redirection policy, or when variables are used, the User Object, with the new Path 

Step 4: Start the Windows 7 SP1 Client and Log on to the computer to receive the updated Group Policy settings. This may require that you to log on, log off, and then log on again because the Group Policy settings can be applied asynchronously to the user’s logon.

But pay attention:

this scenario is only to be used when you don't want to move the Data by the Windows 7 SP1 Client over the wire by the initial Logon Sync! So, make sure that you did not have enabled the following option in the Folder Redirection Policy:

move the contents of <Folder Name> to the new location.

These steps also apply when DFS is used! 

Additional Info:

make sure that you have the latest Components on the Client in use for the Folder Redirection and Offline Files feature:

List of currently available hotfixes for the Offline Files Feature in Windows 8 and Windows 7 SP1

https://blogs.technet.com/b/netro/archive/2013/01/10/list-of-currently-available-hotfixes-for-the-offline-files-feature-in-windows-7-sp1.aspx 

I hope this helps when you plan these Actions or when you have to do it fast due to an Server outage

cheers

Jonny

Dorian again here with another post regarding how to simply add the Country List in the 32 Bit Registry Hive on Windows 7 64 Bit Operation System. The list will be used by 32 Bit Applications that are installed on a 64 Bit OS. This should work on Windows 8 64 Bit OS as well.

If we open Control Panel -> Phone and Modem -> And define a New dialing Rule the following is happening:
-   for 64bit Application: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Telephony the Country List will appear as in the screenshot below.

-   for 32bit Application: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Telephony the Country List not created in the registry.

As a simple workaround you can safely copy the Country List also into the Wow6432Node area.

Dorian here from Microsoft Support with a blog about a hot topic. I need to blog about this since we have the Windows 8.1 Preview the fix for the Authenticated Proxy Problems our customers faced in Windows 8.

The official KB Article 2778122 said first "Microsoft is aware of these issues, and we are investigating possible solutions. More information will be provided here when it is available." Then we changed it and now you can read this statement "The issues that are discussed in this article are scheduled to be resolved in Windows 8.1."

Well.. in order to use a proxy server in Windows 8.1 Preview Edition with the Modern Apps or the Windows Store you need to set the proxy server here:
Charm \ Settings \ Change PC Settings \ Network \ Proxy

As an alternative for mass deployment, the settings from IE are picked up by this UI, so setting the proxy info via the IE GPO should work.

--

Reference:
----------------
Using authenticated proxy servers together with Windows 8
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2778122/en-us

Have a great day !
Dorian

if you wondered why you always get a Credential Prompt when connecting to a SharePoint Site using Basic Authentication, here is the explanation why.

consider the following scenario:

On a Windows 7 Client you map a Network Drive to a SharePoint site using the assistant:

 you will get the first credential Prompt after click on [Finish], which is expected.

even though you checked [Remember my Credentials], you will get prompted again for Credentials after you logged of from

your Computer or you restarted your computer and accessing the already mapped drive to this SharePoint Site.

This is by design !!

Because Basic Authentication is the least secure way to authenticate in the World wide web, this is a security Feature

In one of the next Windows Versions, Basic Authentication will be depreciated and not available anymore.

It is better to choose one of the following methods:

- ADFS 2.0

- SSO

- Certificate Based

- Windows Integrated

cheers

Jonny

This Blog Post lists the hotfixes that are currently available for users who are using the WebDAV Feature on Windows 7 SP1 & Windows 8 -based computers to access there

SharePoint Servers. From my experience, most of the Described Problems in over 90% of the posts are fixed with Hotfixes from the following KB Articles:

Windows 8

Slow performance when you connect to a WebDAV shared folder in Windows 8 or Window Server 2012

https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2782826

Internet Explorer stops responding when you try to save a file from a WebDAV folder

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2932722

Windows 7 SP1

Internet Explorer stops responding when you try to save a file from a WebDAV folder

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2932722

The WebClient service does not send cookies in Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2936341

You do not receive an error message when you try to copy an email message that contains invalid characters from Outlook to SharePoint in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2691785/en-US

 shell32.dll

 (no need to install when your installed Version is higher then this the one in this KB)

I will update this Blog on a regularly base and suggested to install the latest Versions of the involved components before you take hours & hours of troubleshooting. 

If the Problem still appears after you installed these fixes, than  go ahead with troubleshooting or involve Microsoft support to help you!

Additional 1

 I recommend you to also update the Networking components, you will find the List in the following KB Article which is also updated on a on a regularly base:

List of currently available hotfixes for the File Services technologies in Windows Server 2008 and in Windows Server 2008 R2

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2473205/EN-US

I hope I could save you a lot of time of troubleshooting

Jonny

Hi all,

This Blog Post is not updated anymore because we have now a KB Article which is also updated on a regularly base.

Current hotfixes for Windows 7 SP1 enterprise clients that have folder redirection enabled

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2820927

I hope I could save you a lot of time of troubleshooting

Jonny