Troubleshoot Analyse Windows Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer

Let’s do a deep-dive into Troubleshoot Analyse Windows Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer. The Windows Telemetry troubleshooting is explained in this post.

Telemetry data is the basis for solutions like Windows analytics. Telemetry data includes hardware, updates, application up-time, crashes, etc. Let’s Analyse Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer.

We will find out how does Diagnostic Data Viewer works in this post? How to troubleshoot Windows Telemetry data report. How to reverse engineer the data transferred to Microsoft using Windows 11 or Windows 10 Telemetry service.

Immediately see the diagnostic data that Microsoft collects from Windows and Office on your device in real-time, exactly how it appears when sent.

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If you’ve chosen Required for your privacy settings, see that Microsoft collects only the data required to help keep your device up-to-date and secure.

If you’ve opted into Optional, see that Microsoft collects diagnostic data from your device that helps improve Microsoft products and services to everyone with a better experience.

Introduction – Troubleshoot Analyse Windows Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer

Last year I wrote a blog on Telemetry. This area has gone through a lot of transformations and improved a lot. As we know, Desktop analytics will soon replace Windows analytics, which adds a lot more new features. 

For more details on Desktop Analytics, refer to Anoops post. Before enabling Telemetry, customers want to understand what data is sent from the computer to Microsoft. Microsoft published documentation on privacy, compliance, and data types collected.

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But still, a common question from the customers is, “Is there a log on my computer which shows what Microsoft collects data”?. The answer to this is “Yes,” This is possible using the Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer app.

What is Windows diagnostic data?

Windows diagnostic data is technical data sent from Windows devices about the device, OS, and other software performance. Microsoft uses this data to improve the Windows 10 or Windows 11 build and dependent components.

What is the Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer app?

Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer is a tool to review diagnostic data collected from your devices and sent to Microsoft. This tool will help increase trust and confidence for those who want to know what data is transmitted in Telemetry.

This tool can also be used with PowerShell commands. This tool works on Windows 10 1803 and above (and Windows 11).

How to Enable and use Diagnostic Telemetry Data?

There are different ways to enable Telemetry like SCCM, Intune, GPO, Script, etc. For more details, refer here.

In this post, I will be allowing the Telemetry to manually to the full, as shown below; Windows will then send the full diagnostic data to Microso in this scenario.

To enable data viewing, Navigate to Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics & Feedback. Scroll down to the Diagnostic Data Viewer section and turn the switch “On.”

Troubleshoot Analyse Windows Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer
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Where is Windows Telemetry Data Stored?

Telemetry data is stored in a hidden folder %programdata%\Microsoft\Diagnostics. The data in this folder is encrypted. Hence we cannot see any raw data to analyze without any tool.

Troubleshoot Analyse Windows Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer
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How to View/Analyse Telemetry Data?

So let’s install the tool “Windows Diagnostic Data viewer.” This tool is available in the Windows store.

After installation, you can click the “Diagnostic Data Viewer” button. Or launch the “Diagnostic Data Viewer” shortcut that appears in your Start menu.

Diagnostic data viewer app from store -  Analyse Telemetry data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer
Analyze Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer Troubleshoot Analyse Windows Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer 4

Diagnostic Data Viewer Overview

Let’s go through different options in the Diagnostic Data Viewer app. Click on “About your data” for an overview and top applications sending data.

Diagnostic Data Viewer overview -  Analyse Telemetry data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer
Analyze Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer Troubleshoot Analyse Windows Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer 5
  • Navigate below to understand the different categories of diagnostics data. And no of the events were captured in each category.
  • Click on the top right corner to export this view or data to CSV.

Event categories include:

Troubleshoot Analyse Windows Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer using event logs from Windows 11 or 10 devices.

  • Browsing history
  • Device Connectivity and Configuration
  • Inking Typing and Speech Utterance
  • Product and Service Performance
  • Product and Service Usage
  • Software Setup and Inventory
Diagnostic Data Viewer data by category -  Analyse Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer
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JSON Data – Troubleshoot Analyse Windows Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer

To understand more details about these events, navigate to “view diagnostics data.”

Refer to this link to understand the data types and events collected by diagnostics data. Then use the search feature to check whether a particular data type is getting collected or not.

On the right side, the data is displayed in JSON format. It will also show the category of the information it belongs to. Microsoft uses this event data to understand how the device and app performance.

Diagnostic Data events -  Analyse Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer
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View Problem Reports with Windows 11 Telemetry Data

Next, ‘let’s select the “View problem reports” tab. Here you will see problem reports from the system like host process or service hung, etc. We can also check whether this problem report has been sent to Microsoft.

Diagnostic Data problem reports -  Analyse Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer
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Storage Size Capacity for Windows 11 Telemetry Data

By default, diagnostic data can consume a max of 1 GB of Hard disk and 30 days retention period. But you can change the default value if required.

Diagnostic Data storage size -  Analyse Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer
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Conclusion – Troubleshoot Analyse Windows Telemetry Data using Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer

I think at this stage, this tool needs a lot more capabilities. Let’s see whether Microsoft will bring more features in upcoming versions.

Overall, this tool is interesting from the analysis and troubleshooting point of view. When we encounter any errors or performance issues, we can refer to this tool for some guidance. We may find some information in other logs or event viewers.

But I think this tool will be a single pane to view all analytics data from the local computerEachch Telemetry Levit also helps to understand how much data is sent to Microsoft. This will help to decide for those who are concerned about privacy.

Resources

  • Define Windows 10 Upgrade Readiness Architecture with SCCM – Part 1
  • How to integrate Windows 10 Upgrade Readiness with SCCM – Part 2
  • Configure Telemetry for Upgrade Analytics/Readiness with Intune & SCCM – Part 3

Author

Vimal has more than ten years of experience in SCCM device management solutions. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like Microsoft Intune, ConfigMgr (SCCM), OS Deployment, and Patch Management. He writes about the technologies like SCCM, Windows 10, Microsoft Intune, and MDT.

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