Can I remove Windows 10 Timeline's nudge to "see more days in timeline"

Question

For users who haven't signed in with a Microsoft account and given Microsoft access to their computer activity, the Windows 10 task view contains a message right below the currently open applications:

Naturally, because this is Windows 10, there's no way to dismiss this nudge except by giving up and letting Microsoft harvest your computer activity for fun and profit. This irritates me immensely.

My question is, can any of you lovely individuals help me make this go away? Is there a registry edit I can make? It's hard to just avoid task view, as I have a 2-in-1 laptop and task view is the easiest way to switch windows in tablet mode, as well as the only way I know to manage multiple desktops.

I'm trying to figure this out also, and haven't been able to so far. — shawnwall, Aug 28 '19 at 13:07

score 23 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 01 '19 at 14:19

23

On Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education, you can use Group Policy to disable the option to upload activity, and this seems to dismiss the nudge. Here are the steps:

Click Start, search for gpedit, and click the top result Group Policy Editor
Browse to the path Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\OS Policies
Double-click the Allow upload of User Activities policy
In the pop-up window, select the Disabled option, then click Apply and OK

The nudge in Task View should then no longer appear.

I found this as part of the instructions in https://pureinfotech.com/disable-timeline-windows-10/.

answered Sep 01 '19 at 14:19

lincb

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Seems like this is on the right track. Is there any way for me to do this given that I have none of those versions? I just have the bog-standard Windows 10 that came with my new laptop. – Empiromancer Sep 03 '19 at 22:15
@Empiromancer - This simply modifies the UploadUserActivities key. The author confirmed the registry key applied to Windows Home. – Ramhound Jun 29 '21 at 23:59

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 07 '19 at 05:29

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Following on lincb's answer, you can set the registry key corresponding to that group policy at:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System]
"UploadUserActivities"=dword:00000000

That is, at that path in the registry, add the 32-bit DWORD

UploadUserActivities

and set its value to 0.

answered Oct 07 '19 at 05:29

Harry Gindi

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@Ramhound Sorry, I am not able to check either, but it's worth a shot. For what it's worth, it seems like it will work since it's been covered on some websites. – Harry Gindi Oct 07 '19 at 11:34
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This registry key works for me on Windows 10 Home (1909). – moneytoo Nov 28 '19 at 22:15

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 29 '21 at 19:36

If you don't care to have the Timeline at all, you can disable this message and the timeline together by unchecking Store my activity history on this device in the Activity History settings. (Search for Activity history privacy settings in the start menu)

Can I remove Windows 10 Timeline's nudge to "see more days in timeline"

3 Answers3