Skip to content

Turn off the advertising ID for every account — via Microsoft Learn

Group Policylow riskNeeds adminProEnterpriseEducationWindows 11Windows 10

The advertising ID lets apps recognise you across apps for ad personalisation. This policy switches it off for the whole PC and stops users turning it back on. It does not remove ads; it only stops apps using this shared ID.

Restart the computer

Group Policy

Open gpedit.msc (Pro, Enterprise and Education only) and go to:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > User Profiles > Turn off the advertising ID

Registry equivalent

Double-click a .reg file and confirm to merge it. Right-click → Edit first if you want to read it, which is always a good idea with any .reg file from the internet.

Apply

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Oddbyte.Me: Turn off the advertising ID for every account

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\AdvertisingInfo]
"DisabledByGroupPolicy"=dword:00000001

Undo

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Oddbyte.Me: undo Turn off the advertising ID for every account

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\AdvertisingInfo]
"DisabledByGroupPolicy"=-

Same thing from a command prompt

Run in an administrator Command Prompt or Terminal.

reg add "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\AdvertisingInfo" /v "DisabledByGroupPolicy" /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Undo:

reg delete "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\AdvertisingInfo" /v "DisabledByGroupPolicy" /f
Microsoft lists this policy for Pro, Enterprise and Education. When it is not configured, each user controls the advertising ID in Settings.

Sources

Source reviewed
2026-11-02
Link checked
2026-11-02
Tested hands-on
Not by Oddbyte.Me

Oddbyte.Me hasn't tried this on every Windows build, so keep the undo handy.

advertising idadsprivacygroup policy

More in Privacy, Ads & Clutter