What telemetry services actually run on Windows and how much they cost

Windows sends usage data to Microsoft via a set of background services. These services consume CPU, disk, and network resources even when you're gaming. Here's exactly what runs and what it costs.

DiagTrack (Connected User Experiences and Telemetry)

The main telemetry service. Collects app usage, crash data, and system information. Uploads periodically in the background. Can spike disk I/O when writing logs.

sc config DiagTrack start= disabled
net stop DiagTrack

dmwappushservice

Routing service for WAP push messages and device management. Often cited as telemetry — more accurately it's a management channel. Low resource usage but no gaming benefit.

Windows Error Reporting (WER)

Collects crash dumps and sends them to Microsoft. Crash dump writing can spike disk I/O significantly right after a game crash. If you're not debugging your own software, there's no benefit.

sc config WerSvc start= disabled

Scheduled telemetry tasks

Windows has scheduled tasks that run telemetry collection at intervals:

• Microsoft\Windows\Application Experience\Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser
• Microsoft\Windows\Customer Experience Improvement Program\Consolidator
• Microsoft\Windows\Customer Experience Improvement Program\UsbCeip

Disable-ScheduledTask -TaskPath "\Microsoft\Windows\Application Experience\" -TaskName "Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser"

Performance cost

In isolation, each service uses minimal resources. Combined during a gaming session when all are active simultaneously: 2-5% CPU overhead is realistic on mid-range hardware.

IzanagiOP disables all of these as part of the Safe Optimizations pack. https://terweb.lt/