Customizing Windows: Ad Disabling and Tailored Experience

Introduction

In the realm of Windows customization, users often seek ways to tailor their experience to suit personal preferences. This blog post explores a specific aspect of this customization - the modification of registry keys to disable ads in Windows and control tailored experiences.

Disabling Ads in Windows

What is it About?

Windows often displays ads and promotes certain apps to users. However, not everyone appreciates this feature. To gain more control over your Windows experience, you can disable specific apps’ promotional activities using Registry Keys.

### Where to Make the Change?

The changes are made in the Windows Registry, a database that stores low-level settings for the Windows operating system. Below are the keys associated with disabling ads and controlling tailored experiences:

Disable Ads:

*HKU\<SID-RID>\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\*AdvertisingInfo\Enabled

Tailored

Experiences Control: *HKU\<SID-RID>\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\**ContentDeliveryManager* : RotatingLockScreenEnabled RotatingLockScreenOverlayEnabled SoftLandingEnabled SystemPaneSuggestionsEnabled SubscribedContent-338387Enabled SubscribedContent-310093Enabled SubscribedContent-338393Enabled SubscribedContent-314563Enabled

Implementing Changes

RegEdit:

Open the Registry Editor by pressing Win + R, typing regedit, and hitting Enter. Navigate to the specified key path. Modify the values as needed.

PowerShell

# Disable Ads
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKU\S-1-5-21-685282480-2200850043-2854793132-1001\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AdvertisingInfo\' -Name 'Enabled' -Value 0

# Control Tailored Experiences (example for RotatingLockScreenEnabled)

Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKU\S-1-5-21-685282480-2200850043-2854793132-1001\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager\' -Name 'RotatingLockScreenEnabled' -Value 0

Python

import winreg

# Disable Ads

key_path_ads = r'S-1-5-21-685282480-2200850043-2854793132-1001\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AdvertisingInfo'
winreg.SetValueEx(winreg.HKEY_USERS, key_path_ads, 0, winreg.REG_DWORD, 0)

# Control Tailored Experiences (example for RotatingLockScreenEnabled)

key_path_tailored = r'S-1-5-21-685282480-2200850043-2854793132-1001\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager'
winreg.SetValueEx(winreg.HKEY_USERS, key_path_tailored, 'RotatingLockScreenEnabled', winreg.REG_DWORD, 0)

Potential Risks

While customization is a powerful tool, it’s essential to be cautious. Disabling certain features, especially those related to advertising, may impact the functionality of some Windows features. Always create a backup of your registry before making changes.