How to Turn On or Off Location Services in Windows 10
Some apps need to know when you’re in a specific location to work correctly. For instance, if you’ve asked an app to remind you to buy bread when you’re in the grocery store, the app will need to know when you’re in the store. To give you maps to get you where you’re going, or to show you lists of shops or restaurants near you, many apps and services request location information from your device. That’s what the Windows 10 location service does: tells your apps and services where you are or where you’ve been, so that you can get info more relevant to you.
How the location settings work
The device location setting enables certain Windows features such as auto-setting the time zone or Find my device to function properly. When the device location setting is enabled, the Microsoft location service will use a combination of global positioning service (GPS), nearby wireless access points, cell towers, and your IP address to determine your device’s location. Depending on the capabilities of your device, your device’s location can be determined with varying degrees of accuracy and may in some cases be determined precisely.
If you have enabled the device location setting, your device sends de-identified location information (including wireless access point information, cellular tower information, and precise GPS location if available) to Microsoft after removing all personally identifiable information at the device. This de-identified copy of location information is used to improve Microsoft location services and, in some instances, shared with our location service provider partners, currently HERE, to improve the location services of the provider.
Additionally, you can allow apps to use your device’s location and location history to deliver location-aware services as precisely as your device supports. If you grant a specific app access to your device’s location on the settings page, that app will have access to precise location information. Otherwise the location information provided to the app has lower accuracy. When your location is used by a location-aware app or Windows service or feature, your location information and recent location history are stored on your device.
If you are signed in with your Microsoft account and location history has been enabled, your last known location information is also saved to the cloud, where it is available across your devices to other apps or services that use your Microsoft account. If you are signed in with your Microsoft account and your device cannot reliably determine your current location on its own (such as when you are in a building or basement), apps or services can use your last known location from your location history that is stored in the cloud if it is available.
There are some exceptions to how your device’s location can be determined that are not directly managed by the location settings.
Desktop apps are a specific type of app that won’t ask for separate permission to discover your device location information and won’t appear in the list that allows you to choose apps that can use your location. What are desktop apps? They’re usually downloaded from the internet or installed with some type of media (such as a CD, DVD, or USB storage device). They’re launched using an .EXE or .DLL file, and they typically run on your device, unlike web-based apps (which run in the cloud). See also: Windows 10 desktop apps and privacy | Microsoft Support
Even when you’ve turned off the device location setting, some third-party apps and services could use other technologies (such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular modem, etc.) to determine your device’s location with varying degrees of accuracy. Microsoft requires third-party software developers that develop apps for our Microsoft Store or develop apps using Microsoft tools to respect the Windows location settings unless you’ve provided any legally required consent to have the third-party developer determine your location. However, to further reduce the risk that an app or service can determine your location when the Windows device location setting is off, you should only install apps and services from trusted sources. For more comprehensive protection of your location, you could consider disabling radio-based components of your device such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular modem, and GPS components, which might be used by an app to determine your precise location. However, doing so will also impair other experiences such as calling (including emergency calling), messaging, internet connectivity, and connecting to peripheral devices like your headphones. Please read the privacy policies of the apps and services you’ve installed to learn more about how they use your device’s location.
To facilitate getting help in an emergency, whenever you make an emergency call, Windows will attempt to determine and share your precise location, regardless of your location settings. In addition, your mobile operator will have access to your device’s location if your device has a SIM card or is otherwise using a cellular service.
For more information, see: Windows 10 location service and privacy | Microsoft Support
Starting with Windows 10 build 17115, Windows 10 has gotten a new privacy screen settings layout.
Starting with Windows 10 build 19541, Microsoft has updated the notification area icon for when an app is using your location.
This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off the location services for your device (PC), account, and apps in Windows 10.
If one or more apps are currently using your device location through the Windows location service, you’ll see the Location icon in the notification area of your taskbar. The location in-use notification won’t be shown for geofencing.
If you use Cortana, then Cortana will need access to your device location and location history to work properly, so the Windows location service must be turned on for your device, user account, and the Search app.
The Geolocation Service will need to be enabled and running to be able to turn on the Location service.
Starting with Windows 10 build 19582.1000, the Set time zone automatically toggle will now be greyed out if location has been disabled.
Contents
- Option One: To Turn On or Off Location Service for your Account and Apps in Action Center
- Option Two: To Turn On or Off Location for this Device in Settings
- Option Three: To Turn On or Off Location Service for your Account and Apps in Settings
- Option Four: To Turn On or Off Location Service for your Account and Apps using a REG file
- Option Five: To Turn On or Off Location for this Device using a REG file
- Option Six: To Turn On or Off Location for this Device during Windows Setup
EXAMPLE: Notification area icon for when an app is using your location
Location must be turned on for the device by an administrator using Option Two or Option Five before you will be able to do this option.
1 Open the Action Center (Win+A).
2 Click/tap on the Location quick action button to toggle location services on or off for what you want. (see screenshot below)
You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to do this option.
1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Privacy icon.
2 Do step 3 (on) or step 4 (off) below for what you want.
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on Location on the left side, click/tap on the Change button under Location for this device is off on the right side, turn on location access for this device, and go to step 5 below. (see screenshot below)
A) Click/tap on Location on the left side, click/tap on the Change button under Location on this device is on on the right side, turn off location access for this device, and go to step 5 below. (see screenshot below)
5 When finished, you can close Settings if you like.
Location must be turned on for the device by an administrator using Option Two or Option Five before you will be able to do this option.
1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Privacy icon.
2 Do step 3 (on) or step 4 (off) below for what you want.
A) Click/tap on Location on the left side, and turn on Allow apps to access your location on the right side. (see screenshot below)
This is the default setting.
B) Under Choose which apps can access your precise location, turn on or off apps you want, and go to step 5 below. (see screenshot below)
A) Click/tap on Location on the left side, turn off Allow apps to access your location on the right side, and go to step 5 below. (see screenshot below)
5 When finished, you can close Settings if you like.
Location must be turned on for the device by an administrator using Option Two or Option Five before you will be able to do this option.
The downloadable .reg files below will modify the string value in the registry key below.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CapabilityAccessManager\ConsentStore\location
Value sting value
Deny = Off
Allow = On
2 Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you would like to do.
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_On_Location_service_for_your_account_and_apps.reg
Download
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_Off_Location_service_for_your_account_and_apps.reg
Download
4] Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
7 If you like, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to do this option.
The downloadable .reg files below will modify the string value in the registry key below.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CapabilityAccessManager\ConsentStore\location
Value sting value
Deny = Off
Allow = On
1 Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you would like to do.
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_on_Location_for_this_device.reg
Download
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_off_Location_for_this_device.reg
Download
4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
7 If you like, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
1 When you get to Choose privacy settings for your device during Windows Setup while doing a clean install of Windows 10, you can turn on (default) or off the Location privacy setting for what you want. (see screenshots below)
That's it,
Shawn Brink
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Turn On or Off Location Services in Windows 10
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New #1
Shawn,
Odd... even turned on it shows as Search an not Cortana, like you said in the other thread. I thought maybe it was because you had her off(I should know better a true computer geek like you:) would probably be using her).
That with Cortana, I found out when I reregistered all the store apps using Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"} to fix a problem with Calendar constantly crashing upon opening and Mail giving Error code 0x80070032 when syncing Hotmail(doesn't happen with gmail), anyhow it did fix Calendar but not mail(I'll be doing a clean install in the near future to clean up the Windows 8.1 cruft, so I'm not too worried about it).
It had turned all location stuff off, so Cortana stopped working, and it took a while to figure out what was happening. So I recommend if someone is having problems with apps that can be accessed over multiple devices check your location settings as a part of your troubleshooting.
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New #2
Anyone know the relevant registry keys for it that aren't the group policy restriction type? I assume the device location is under HKLM and location for apps is per user under HKCU.
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New #3
Hello Pk King X11,
I have added OPTION FOUR to the tutorial for a .reg file option. :)
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1...a.html#option4
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New #4
Thank you, I tried the registry changing "download" and it apparently worked. I will now wait and see what happens.
I appreciate your assistance
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New #7
Hello! I have a big problem. Please guide me: the location of my device is offed and the change botton doesn't work and cortana doesn't work too. What should I do?
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New #8
Hello Sara, and welcome to Ten Forums. :)
It sounds like you have stopped and disabled the GeoLocation Service (lfsvc) service that would cause this.
From: Windows 10 Enterprise release notes - known issues)After disabling the Geolocation Service by changing startup type to Disabled, attempts to re-enable it will fail with an error message. As the Geolocation Service can no longer be started, Geolocation will remain disabled on the device and prevent location based functionality from working. To work around this issue, manually delete the following regkey using regedit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lfsvc\TriggerInfo\3.
You can download and merge the .reg file below and approve to automatically delete this registry key for you.
Delete_registry_key.reg
Afterwards, enable and start the GeoLocation Service (lfsvc) service. You should now be able to turn on location for your device.
Services - Start, Stop, and Disable in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
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New #9
Here are the group policy admin template locations translated as run commands. They also add the "Some settings are managed by your organization" message on the Settings page, which is ok in my case.
REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\LocationAndSensors" /v "DisableLocation" /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
REG ADD "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\LocationAndSensors" /v "DisableLocation" /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
Turn On or Off Location Services in Windows 10
How to Turn On or Off Location Services in Windows 10Published by Shawn BrinkCategory: General Tips
20 Dec 2023
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