Hosts file to stop Windows from spying on you

Modern versions of Windows collect a huge amount of telemetry on you. But running older versions of Windows puts you at greater security risk, and running another OS may or may not always be feasible. So for those instances, it’s possible to use a hosts file to stop Windows from spying on you.

How to edit your Windows hosts file

Windows stores its hosts file in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc. This file is what your network stack uses to resolve domain names before reaching out to the nameservers. Or in less technical terms, the file lets you redirect Internet addresses to someplace other than their official address.

To edit the file, open an administrative command prompt by pressing your Windows key, typing cmd, and then selecting run as administrator from the options that appear to the right.

Then type the command notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and hit enter. Scroll to the end of the file. Paste the preformatted text (the text in monospace) from the section below into Notepad, then save the file and exit.

Contents of the Windows hosts file to stop spying

Here are the contents to paste into the file. Paste in the following 12 lines:

127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost
127.0.0.1 data.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 msftconnecttest.com
127.0.0.1 azureedge.net
127.0.0.1 activity.windows.com
127.0.0.1 bingapis.com
127.0.0.1 msedge.net
127.0.0.1 assets.msn.com
127.0.0.1 scorecardresearch.com
127.0.0.1 edge.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 data.msn.com

Why Microsoft spies on you

Selling operating systems isn’t as profitable as it used to be. Theoretically, Microsoft can make more money collecting data on your behavior, profiling you, and then using that data to sell you stuff, or sell that profile to data brokers. Or, at the very least, it provides a constant revenue stream rather than just a $100 sale every three or four years.

The data companies infer from behavior isn’t perfect, but you can infer more from what news articles a person reads, what web sites they visit, and how they use their computer than we could in the old days, when all advertisers knew was what city you lived in and what magazines you subscribe to.

But if you don’t like the idea of being manipulated, this two-minute trick with the hosts file puts an end to Windows spying on you.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.