How to Completely Disable ‘Activity History’ via Group Policy in Windows 11

Activity History is a feature in Windows 11 that meticulously tracks the applications you use, the files you open, and the websites you browse. It uses this data to populate the “Recommended” section in the Start menu and, if synced via a Microsoft account, allows you to resume tasks across multiple devices. However, from a strict privacy and enterprise security standpoint, maintaining a detailed, timestamped log of every action performed on an endpoint is a severe liability. If an endpoint is compromised, an attacker (or a malicious insider) can instantly query the Activity History to map out exactly what sensitive files the user was working on, providing a perfect roadmap for data exfiltration.

This guide explains how to completely disable Activity History system-wide using the Group Policy Editor in Windows 11, ensuring a zero-log workflow.

Disable Activity History via Group Policy

To enforce a strict block that prevents the OS from logging actions and explicitly stops the publishing of those actions to the Microsoft Graph, we must deploy an administrative template. Note that this requires Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education editions.

1. Log into Windows 11 with an Administrator account.
2. Press the Windows Key + R to open the Run dialogue box.
3. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter to launch the Local Group Policy Editor.
4. In the left-hand navigation pane, strictly follow this exact path:

   Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > OS Policies

5. In the right-hand pane, locate the policy named Enables Activity Feed.
6. Double-click the policy to open its configuration window.
7. Select the radio button next to Disabled.
8. Click Apply, then click OK.
9. (Optional but highly recommended) In the exact same right-hand pane, also locate and Disable the policies named Allow publishing of User Activities and Allow upload of User Activities to ensure absolute data isolation.

Verify the Privacy Lockdown

To enforce the change immediately across the system, open an elevated Command Prompt and execute gpupdate /force.

To verify the restriction is active, open the main Windows Settings app (Win+I). Navigate to Privacy & security > Activity history. You will see that the toggle switch for “Store my activity history on this device” is completely greyed out and locked in the Off position. At the top of the menu, a banner in red text will state “Some of these settings are hidden or managed by your organization,” confirming that the endpoint is successfully secured against local behavioural logging.