Since the launch of Windows 10 in 2015, one of the most criticized aspects of this operating system is privacy. Specifically the absence of it. During the installation of the operating system we can configure some options, and then, from the Configuration panel, we can configure some more. But we are far from having complete control over the privacy of the operating system. And this is what leads some developers to create programs to fill this gap, as is the case with Spydish.
Spydish is a totally free and open source program designed to allow us to configure Windows 10 privacy very easily and, in addition, securely. This program integrates the main privacy group policies of the operating system and allows us to activate or deactivate them according to our needs.
In total, this program integrates more than 50 privacy policies , and each of them can be activated or deactivated with a single click.
Dangers of modifying Windows privacy policies
The problem with most of these programs is that they usually make changes to the files or internal configurations of the operating system, which ultimately results in all kinds of problems. Especially when installing Windows updates.
Spydish is a somewhat different program. Instead of making internal changes to the operating system, what this program does is read the configuration of the privacy policies of the operating system and, from there, apply the necessary changes.
In this way, we can know at all times what the value of each of the settings is and, in addition, revert the changes very easily to their default data with a single click. In this way we make sure that we do not have problems and, in addition, if something does not work, we can easily return to its previous state by simply running this program.
Of course, for security, we recommend creating a Windows restore point. Although we do not need it, it is better to have it at hand.
Spydish privacy options
When we open the program, the first thing we will see will be a simple interface divided mainly into two sections. On the left we will find the list with all the group policies that the program offers us, and on the right a table where we can see their status.
The first thing we must do is select the “Analyze” option so that the program analyzes our computer and checks the current status of each of the policies.
As we can see, we will find policies marked as ” Not configured “, which means that they are deactivated, and others as “Configured”, which implies that they would already be working.
The use of the program does not hide any mystery. If we place the mouse over each of the options, a brief description will appear about what the selected policy does.
Thus, what we must do is review all the privacy options of the program and select all the ones that we want to activate. When we finish, we can re-analyze to know its status.
We just have to click on ” Apply policies ” to activate all those policies and make them start working.
Now we can re-analyze the state of the policies and we will see that they appear green, that is, that they are activated.
In case of regret, this program allows us to restore the default values of all these policies. To do this, we will click on the ” Revert Policies ” button to reverse the status of the marked policies. Automatically they will return to their original state. And in the whole process no Windows file will have been modified, so we will have no problems when using or updating Windows 10.
Download Spydish
Spydish is a completely free and open source program, so we can download the latest version available at no cost from the following link to GitHub .
Of course, we must take into account that this program is still in beta phase. This means that it may have errors and there may be privacy options that have not yet been implemented. Therefore, it is important that, if we use this program, we keep it updated.
Other alternatives
Spydish is a program developed by mirinsoft to make Windows privacy settings as easy as possible. However, this implies that some functions and features that we can find in other similar programs are not available.
This same developer has another similar program, SharpApp, which gives us much more control over the configuration of the operating system. In addition to having configuration options for privacy, this program offers us much more advanced sections to have even more control over the PC. A great alternative for users who want to always go further and have their OS mastered
Another alternative to control the privacy of Windows 10 is PrivateWin10. This program is similar to the previous one and allows us, through a much simpler interface, to make non-aggressive changes to the configuration of the operating system.
