If you set up Windows 10 with default settings, the location tracking is turned on. If you don’t like it or not using the location-based services, you can disable it. Follow these steps to disable location tracking services in Windows 10.
Windows 10 uses your location for a wide range of things. Some of those include but not limited to tracking your device via Find My Device feature, to share location data with apps for specific purposes, show relevant store information, to download location-specific updates likes system language and keyboard layout, etc.
Though location services are useful for laptop devices, for desktops, letting the location services running in the background is not that useful. In those cases, you can easily stop Windows 10 from tracking your location.
Important: Completely disabling location service will cause Find my Device feature to not work. Without Find my Device feature, you might not be able to track your device in case you lost it. If you travel with your laptop then keeping the Location Services turned on and enabling Find my Device feature is very helpful.
Disable Location Tracking in Windows 10
Windows 10 has a dedicated section called Privacy which lets you configure a wide range of privacy settings. Location services are no different. In fact, it has a dedicated page in the privacy settings page where you can either select which apps can use your location data or disable location tracking system-wide.
1. Open the PC Settings app by pressing the keyboard shortcut Win + I.
2. In the PC Settings app, go to “Privacy” page. Here, click on the “Location” tab appearing on the left sidebar.
3. On the right panel, click on the “Change” button under “Allow access to location on this device” section. Next, toggle the switch to “Off” position under in the flyout menu.
That is it. You’ve disabled location tracking in Windows 10.
(Alternative) Restrict Apps from Accessing Your Location
If you’d like to keep the location tracking enabled but don’t want apps to access your location then you can just restrict the apps without completely disabling the location service. This is particularly useful if you are using Find my Device feature.
1. To do that, open the PC Settings app by searching for it in the start menu.
2. Next, go to the “Privacy -> Location” page. On the right-panel, toggle the switch under “Allow apps to access your location” to “Off” position.
Restrict Specific Apps Only:
3. If you want to restrict only specific apps and allow some other then make sure the “Allow apps to access your location” option is turned on and then scroll down to see the apps that have access to your location.
4. Toggle the switches to “Off” position for apps you want to restrict and you are done.
It is that simple to restrict or disable location tracking in Windows 10. Comment below if you need any helps or facing any problems with the above steps.
