Privacy and Security Enable or Disable App Diagnostics Access in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable letting apps access diagnostic info about other apps for your account or all users in Windows 11.

Apps in Windows are carefully isolated so that they don’t interfere with each other. However, there are scenarios where it’s useful for one app to see certain types of information about other running apps (for example, it’s useful for diagnostic tools to be able to get a list of running apps). This is especially useful during app development, or for apps like Task Manager that report simple information about running apps. Some people worry about an app getting information about any other apps, but the settings in Windows always give you control over which apps can get this kind of information about other running apps.

Only certain, very specific pieces of information are made available in app diagnostics, specifically:

• The name of each running app.
• The package name of each running app.
• The user name under whose account the app is running.
• Memory usage of the app, and other process-level information typically used during development.

Reference:

This only applies to apps from the Microsoft Store.

Desktop apps aren’t affected by the setting that lets apps access diagnostic info about your other apps. To allow or block desktop apps, use the settings in those applications.

You must be signed in as an administrator to have this option available.

1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on Privacy & security on the left side, and click/tap on App diagnostics on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3 Turn On (default) or Off App diagnostic access for what you want. (see screenshot below)

Turning off App diagnostic access will gray out and turn off Let apps access diagnostic info about your apps for all users.

4 You can now close Settings if you like.





1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on Privacy & security on the left side, and click/tap on App diagnostics on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3 Turn On (default) or Off Let apps access diagnostic info about your apps for what you want. (see screenshot below)

It is required to have App diagnostic access turned on to change the Let apps access diagnostic info about your apps setting.

4 You can now close Settings if you like.

You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.

The Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

All editions can use Option Four to configure the same policy.

1 Open the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc).

2 Navigate to the policy location below in the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor. (see screenshot below)



3 In the right pane of App Privacy in the Local Group Policy Editor, double click/tap on the Let Windows apps access diagnostic information about other apps policy to edit it. (see screenshot above)

4 Do step 5 (force enable), step 6 (disable), or step 7 (default) below for what you want.

This will prevent using Option One and Option Two.

This will prevent using Option One and Option Two.

This is the default setting to allow using Option One and Option Two.

8 You can now close the Local Group Policy Editor if you like.

You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.

1 Do step 2 (force enable), step 3 (disable), or step 4 (disable) below for what you want.

This will prevent using Option One and Option Two.

(Contents of REG file for reference)

This will prevent using Option One and Option Two.

(Contents of REG file for reference)

This is the default setting to allow using Option One and Option Two.

(Contents of REG file for reference)

5 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

6 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

7 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

8 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn Brink