Background

Disabling Active Probing for Enhanced Privacy

Background

Microsoft Internet Connection Test (ICT) is a feature that periodically checks internet connectivity by sending probes to a predefined URL. While intended to facilitate troubleshooting, ICT can raise privacy concerns due to its automatic and repeated nature.

How to Disable Active Probing

There are several methods to disable ICT:

Option 1: Group Policy

Administrators with Group Policy access can navigate to Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Network > Network Connectivity Status Indicator. Disable the "Turn off active probing" setting.

Option 2: Registry Key

Users can disable ICT by modifying a registry key. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\DefaultMediaCost. Create a new DWORD value named "ActiveProbingEnabled" and set its value to 0.

Option 3: Disabling Connection Test URL

This method is the most straightforward but may not be applicable in all cases. If the connection test URL is known, it can be disabled by adding the following line to a firewall rule or hosts file:

127.0.0.1 

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