3 Methods to Prevent Apps from Getting Account Information

Summary :

Some installed applications on your computer have the access to your Microsoft account information, but you might want to disable the access for certain reasons. In this article, MiniTool Partition Wizard will show you how to prevent apps from getting account information on Windows in 3 different ways.

Some applications, especially certain Windows software, require access to your Microsoft account information to work properly. If you allow the access, the involved application will be able to use your account name, picture, and other information to ensure you a customized experience.

However, some users concern much about the privacy and they are not willing to allow apps to get the account information. If you have the same concerns, don’t worry. You can disable access to account info via Windows Settings, Registry Editor, or Group Policy Editor. Now, let’s check out these methods one by one.

Method 1: Via Windows Settings

The easiest way to disable account information access for apps is changing the privacy settings. Here’s how to do that.

Step 1: Right-click the Start button and choose Settings from the pop-up menu to open it.

Step 2: Choose Privacy category. In the left pane of the new page, scroll down to locate Account info and select it.

Step 3: In the right pane, toggle off the button under Allow apps to access your account info to prevent apps from getting account information.

Tip: If you just want disable the access of account info for a certain application, you can configure it under the Choose which apps can access your account info section.

Method 2: Via Local Group Policy Editor

Besides, you can also configure account information access in Local Group Policy Editor, a Windows built-in utility that can help you manage almost all your Windows settings. Just follow the steps below.

Note: If your Windows 10 is Home edition, this tool will be unavailable and you might need to jump to the next part to use Registry Editor as an alternative method.

Step 1: Press Windows + R to invoke Run window. Input gpedit.msc and press Enter to open Local Group Policy Editor.

Step 2: Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > App Privacy and then double-click Let Windows apps access account information to open the setting.

Step 3: In the new window, choose Enabled option, input the Package Family Name of apps you want to disable account information access for in the box under Force deny these specific apps. Then, click Apply and OK to save changes.

Tip: You can also choose to put user in control or force allow certain apps according to your own needs. Just input the Package Family Names in the corresponding box. If you want to disable the access for all apps, you can choose Disabled option directly and save changes.

To find the Package Family Name of an app, you need to right-click the Start button and choose Windows PowerShell (Admin) to open it. Then, input the command line Get-AppxPackage -Name “Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge” in the console and press Enter. You will see the desired item in the list.

Note: Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge in the command is the package name of the app. You can find it by executing Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Select Name, PackageFullName command in Window PowerShell. The package name you need is listed in the left Name column.

Unable to open Local Group Policy Editor in your Windows 10? This article is written to provide effective ways to fix this problem in different cases.

Method 3: Via Windows Registry Editor

If Local Group Policy Editor is not available on your Windows, you can make the same configuration in Windows Registry Editor instead. The steps might be a little more complicated, but here’s a detailed guide you can refer to.

Tip: Before you try this method, you had better back up your registry in advance to avoid damages due to improper operation.

Step 1: Invoke Run dialog, input regedit, and click OK to open Registry Editor.

Step 2: Navigate to the following path:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

Locate the AppPrivacy key under the Windows folder. If the key doesn’t exist, you need to right-click Windows and choose New > Key to create a key named AppPrivacy.

Step 3: Right-click the AppPrivacy key and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the DWORD as LetAppsAccessAccountInfo and open it to set its value data to 2 which means the force deny option of the mentioned setting in Local Group Policy Editor.

Tip: The value data 0 is for the user in control and 1 for force allow. You can change the value as your needs.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Position: Columnist

Amanda has been working as English editor for the MiniTool team since she was graduated from university. She enjoys sharing effective solutions and her own experience to help readers fix various issues with computers, dedicated to make their tech life easier and more enjoyable.

She has published many articles, covering fields of data recovery, partition management, disk backup, and etc. In order to provide more useful tips and information, she is still committed to expand her technical knowledge.

Originally published at https://www.partitionwizard.com on October 27, 2020.