What is Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry and How to Fix its High Disk Usage?

What is Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry and do I need it?

Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry (CompatTelRunner.exe) is a free service in Windows 10 that is designed to contain technical data about how the device and its related software are working and sends the data to Microsoft regularly for future system improvement and user experience enhancement.

This service is chosen by default when installing Windows 10 and is hardly noticed unless you find it occupies high CPU usage or disk usage in Task Manager, which can cause serious computer issues such as PC gets slow, the application fails to open or the system keeps crashing.

If you don't want to encounter these troubles, you can disagree to install this service in the beginning or disable it later. But if you have already been involved in Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry high CPU dilemma, don't worry, the following content will pull you out.

How do I fix high CPU Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry?

When you suffer from high disk usage or high CPU of the Telemetry program, here are six methods for you to solve this issue.

▶ Solution 1. Disable Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry

First of all, try to disable CompatTelRunner.exe on Windows 10 to fix the Compatibility Telemetry issue. There are three ways to disable it: Task Scheduler, Group Policy Editor, and Registry Editor. Let's see how to put them into use one by one.

Way 1. Disable CompatTelRunner.exe via Task Scheduler

Step 1. Click Start, type "Task Scheduler", and then press "Enter" to open Task Scheduler.

Step 2. Then go to Task Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows\Application Experience. 

Step 3. On the Application Experience folder, locate "Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser", right-click on it, select "Disable", and then confirm to complete the process.

Way 2. Disable Windows Compatibility Telemetry via Group Policy Editor

Step 1. Press the Windows logo key + R to open Run box, then type "gpedit.msc" and click "OK".

Step 2. Go to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Data Collection and Preview Builds.

Step 3. Double-click "Allow Telemetry", tick the "Disabled" option, and then click "OK".

Way 3. Disable Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry via Registry Editor

Step 1. Press the Windows + R keys, then type "regedit" in the search box and click "OK" to open Registry Editor.

Step 2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection.

Step 3. Right-click on "DataCollection", choose "New > DWORD (32-bit) Value", and name the new value “Allow Telemetry”.

Step 4. Then double-click "Allow Telemetry", set the Value date to 0, and click "OK".

Then, you can go to the Task Manager to check whether the Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry high disk usage Windows 10 issue persists. If this method is not working, please try the second solution.

▶ Solution 2. Change Diagnostic data to Basic

Aside from disabling Windows Compatibility Telemetry, changing diagnostic data to basic can also turn it off. It may be helpful to fix the high disk usage of CompatTelRunner.exe.

Step 1. Right-click the Start menu and choose the Settings option. Click "Privacy" > "Diagnostics & Feedback".

Step 2. Then, choose "Required diagnostic data" under the "Diagnostic data" section and switch off some other sections like "Improve inking and typing" and "Tailored experiences".

▶ Solution 3. Delete CompatTelRunner.exe

If the above two methods don't generate good results, you can directly delete CompatTelRunner.exe, which will stop Windows from collecting diagnostic data and sending it to Microsoft.

Step 1. Follow the path "C:\Windows\System32" in Windows File Explorer, and locate CompatTelRunner.

Step 2. Right-click CompatTelRunner, choose "Properties", go to the "Security" tab, and click the "Advanced" button.

Step 3. Click on the blue "Change" button next to the owner and click on the "Advanced" option in the small pop-out window. Then, click the "Find Now" button and locate your account under the "Search results" column. Next, click "OK".

Step 4. When you back to the "Advanced Security Settings" window, click "Apply" and then "OK" when a message box appears.

Step 5. Next, go back to the properties of the "CompatTelRunner.exe" file. Go to the "Security” tab > "Advanced" > "Select User from a list" > "Edit". On the new pop-up window, tick "Full Control" and click "OK". Then click "Apply" and "OK".

Step 6. Now, you have full control of your computer. Right-click the CompatTelRunner.exe file, and choose "Delete".

▶ Solution 4. Run SFC scan to repair corrupted system files

It's known that a corrupted system may result in various computer errors including the CompatTelRunner.exe high CPU problem. Thus, you can run the SFC command to scan and fix the damaged system files. Here is how to do it.

Step 1. Input "cmd" in the search bar, right-click "Command Prompt" and choose "Run as administrator".

Step 2. Type "sfc /scannow" in the Command Prompt window and press "Enter" to start finding and fixing corrupted system files.

Or you can run DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /restoreHealth command to perform a deeper scan and repair.

▶ Solution 5. Check and fix bad sectors on hard drive

The bad sectors on the hard drive may increase the burden of the CompatTelRunner.exe process. Thus, you can run a hard drive health checker to find and fix your bad sectors. AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a free all-in-one tool for health check, speed test, error repair, disk clone, and more.

Here is how to use this software to fix the Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry high CPU issue by repairing bad sectors.

Step 1. Download AOMEI Partition Assistant and launch it. On the main interface, right-click the partition that you want to check and click "Advanced", then select Check Partition.

Step 2. Select the way of checking errors to perform. Here we choose the last one "Check whether there is bad sector on the partition" and click "OK" to move on.

Step 3. Click "Start" button to begin the checking.

▶ Solution 6. Clean up system disk

Actually, a lot of temporary files and other junk files piled up on the system drive easily causes various issues including Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry high disk usage Windows 10. Aside from the Windows built-in Disk Cleanup tool, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is also a good choice for the removal of system junk files.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, and then click "All Tools" and "PC Cleaner".

Step 2. In the pop-up window, click "Start Scan" to scan for junk files.

Step 3. After the scan is completed, System Junk Files and Registry Junk Files will be listed. Depending on your needs, tick the options you want to clean, then click "Clean All" to begin the cleaning process.

FAQs

◉ Can I turn off Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry?

Although Windows doesn't advise you to do so, it offers you several ways to get it done. If Telemetry brings you some performance issues, you can end this service on Windows. 

◉ Is disabling telemetry safe?

Yes, it is. Disabling CompatTelRunner.exe does no harm to your computer. If you find high disk usage of Telemetry, slowing down your PC frequently, just disable it or even delete it.

Conclusion

This passage explains the meaning of CompatTelRunner.exe and covers six solutions to Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry high CPU or high disk usage problems. Hope at least one of them works for you.

If your computer still performs slowly after fixing the high Telemetry disk usage issue, you can try other ways such as moving folders from C drive to D drive, extending C drive, upgrading HDD to SSD, migrating OS to SSD, etc.