How to revert changes made to Windows 10 by "Destroy Windows Spying" (DWS_Lite.exe)

I've found a tool that claimed is able to ban Microsoft Windows 10 from keylogging, Anonymous telemetry, and Spying on my personal information. It's called Destroy Windows Spying (DWS_Lite.exe). After running this freeware, I noticed undesired changes to my computer, including:

• Disabled Cortana


• Disabled Windows Defender



• Disabled Windows Web Search


• Disabled Password Reveal Button


• Disabled Location Services

And many others I can't recall. I tried registry tweaks available online to enable Cortana, but it didn't help. I see a gray Cortana switch button, showing the message:

"Cortana is disabled by company policy"

How to fix Cortana? Or if possible, totally revert changes made to my system?

Answer

After thorough research, I've found a list of changes made by DWS:

Delete Keylogger and Telemetry:

• Disables and deletes some of Diagnostics and Windows Media push services.


• Disables Cortana from registry, by Computer Policy.


• Disables Windows Telemetry from registry.


• Disables Diagnostics from registry.


• Disables Inclusion of MRT in Windows Update from registry.

Add spy domains in hosts file, and block in Windows Firewall:

• Blocks Microsoft telemetry URLs from hosts file.


• Blocks Microsoft telemetry IP ranges from firewall.


• Blocks Microsoft telemetry IP ranges from routing table.

Disable Private Settings:

• Disbales Cortana from registry, by User Policy.


• Disables Camera on LockScreen from registry.



• Disables Biometrics from registry.


• Disables Bing Search from registry.


• Disables Web Search from registry.


• Disables Password Reveal Button from registry.


• Disables Sensors from registry.


• Disables Location Services from registry.

Disable Windows Defender:

• Disables Windows Defender from registry.


• Disables Automatic Malware Sample Submission from registry.


• Disables Malware Reporting from registry.


• Disables Smart Screen Filter from registry.

Set Default Windows Photo Viewer:

• Self-descriptive I guess!

Disable Spy Tasks:

• Disables Diagnostics from task scheduler.


• Disables Media Center Discovery from task scheduler.


• Disables Office Telemetry from task scheduler.


• Disables Customer Experince from task scheduler.



• Disables WinSAT Maintenance from task scheduler.

This script reverts all the changes to their default settings.

Note: It doesn't reinstall removed metro apps!

Disclaimer: This method is tested and working. However, there's a chance that I didn't mentioned all the changes, and maybe I missed some registry keys. Please be warned that it reverts affected settings to Out-of-Box state, so if you changed some of those, you may need to re-enable/configure them. !Do it at your ownrisk!

Download as script:

DWS_Neutralizer.cmd (Note: Run as admin)

Download as archive:
DWS_Neutralizer.zip (Note: Extract, then run as admin)

Based on: DWS (Final) Last Updated: 2015-12-29