Privacy of your data and browsing history is of utmost importance for the PC and laptop users, and thus, many Windows users may want to disable their activity history in their Windows 11 PC. The Activity History feature in Windows 11 stores all the information of the apps you run, the services you use, the files and folders you open and the websites you browse everyday.
In addition, when you login to your PC using your Microsoft account, your activity history syncs across other devices. While this is useful for users who want to have access to the same activity history on the other devices too, this can lead to privacy issues for others. Some users would rather prefer to keep their activity history turned off to prevent their data being shared publicly.
However, with the addition of some new features and changes in Settings in the Windows 11, not everyone is comfortable using the OS and won’t know how to disable the activity history to keep their data private. Therefore, in this post, we will guide with how to turn off the activity history in Windows 11 through some quick changes in the Settings. Let’s see how..
How to Turn Off Activity History in Windows 11 through the Settings App
This method will help you restrict Windows 11 to save your activity history going forward, by disabling the activity history. Here’s how:
Step 1: Right-click on Start (Windows icon) and select Settings.
Step 2: This will open the Settings app.
In the Settings window, select Privacy & Security option on the left side.
Step 3: Now, go to the right side of the window and under the Windows permissions section, click on Activity history.
Step 4: In the Activity history page, uncheck the box next to Store my activity history on this device.
While this will restrict Windows 11 to store your past activities on your PC, this does not ensure that your tracking and other activities are not stored somewhere. For instance, some of your browsing history is saved in the browser and in the temporary files location in Windows. You can also disable these by turning off the tracking browser.
How to Clear Activity History in Windows Immediately
This method will help you clear the Windows activity history with immediate effect. Let’s see how:
Step 1: Press the Win + I keys together on your PC to launch the Settings app.
Step 2: In the Settings window, on the left side of the pane, click on Privacy & Security.
Step 3: Next navigate to the right side of the window, scroll down and under the Windows permissions section, click to open Activity history.
Step 4: Now, in the next screen, on the right side, scroll down and under the Clear activity history section, press the Clear button.
This will clear all the Windows activity history on your Windows 11 PC.
*Note – If you are signed with your Microsoft account and your activity history is set to be shared across devices, this will clear your activity history across all devices.