From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

Windows 10 has its location service, but I'm wondering why enable it.
It was disabled, I tried enabling it, but it doesn't help finding my
location. As a test, and after enabling location, I went to Google Maps
and entered a restaurant some 10 miles away. When I clicked on
Directions to specify start and end locations, there was a circle icon
to "Use your location". Clicked on that, and got a prompt "Google Maps
wants to use your location". In permissions, location is set to Ask. I
click "Just this time", but the starting point was way way off from
where I am.

Because my location was so far off, I have to wonder just how Microsoft
finds my location other than IP geolocation which doesn't require a site
to use Windows location services. This is on a desktop PC. No cellular
radio to connect to a tower. No GPS radio. Just how is Windows
location going to determine my location? Doesn't seem it has anything
with which to determine my location other than by IP geolocation.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-location-service-and-privacy-3a8eee0a-5b0b-dc07-eede-2a5ca1c49088

Timezone. Really? That's going to track my location? A dozen a-bombs
could land in the same timezone and never hit me.

Find my device. Start -> Settings -> Update & Security -> Find my
device. Other than IP geolocation, how is that going to work on desktop
PC with no cellular or GPS radios?

With location and find my device enabled, I go to:

https://account.microsoft.com/devices

which says "Unknown - Location data isn't available".

GPS. No GPS radio in my desktop PC.

Nearby wireless access points. I have some wifi devices connected to my
wifi cable modem, but not my desktop PC.

Cell towers. It's a desktop PC, not a smartphone.

IP address. Yep, they can use that, but it highly inaccurate. What a
site would see is the WAN-side IP address specified by my ISP's DHCP
server for the cable modem which uses a NAT router. With Windows
location disabled, my IP address is still known. When I use several IP geolocation sites, each gives a different location resulting in a span
of about a 15-mile radius, or an area of 706 square miles.

Some folks are paranoid about revealing their location to web sites that
want it for a service they provide, or to track them. However, for a
desktop PC, there is no difference when Windows location is enabled, or
not.

Seems superfluous to waste CPU cycles on a feature that is ineffective,
so I disabled it again.
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

On Tue, 1/13/2026 7:53 AM, VanguardLH wrote:

Windows 10 has its location service, but I'm wondering why enable it.
It was disabled, I tried enabling it, but it doesn't help finding my location. As a test, and after enabling location, I went to Google Maps
and entered a restaurant some 10 miles away. When I clicked on
Directions to specify start and end locations, there was a circle icon
to "Use your location". Clicked on that, and got a prompt "Google Maps
wants to use your location". In permissions, location is set to Ask. I click "Just this time", but the starting point was way way off from
where I am.

Because my location was so far off, I have to wonder just how Microsoft
finds my location other than IP geolocation which doesn't require a site
to use Windows location services. This is on a desktop PC. No cellular radio to connect to a tower. No GPS radio. Just how is Windows
location going to determine my location? Doesn't seem it has anything
with which to determine my location other than by IP geolocation.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-location-service-and-privacy-3a8eee0a-5b0b-dc07-eede-2a5ca1c49088

Timezone. Really? That's going to track my location? A dozen a-bombs
could land in the same timezone and never hit me.

Find my device. Start -> Settings -> Update & Security -> Find my
device. Other than IP geolocation, how is that going to work on desktop
PC with no cellular or GPS radios?

With location and find my device enabled, I go to:

https://account.microsoft.com/devices

which says "Unknown - Location data isn't available".

GPS. No GPS radio in my desktop PC.

Nearby wireless access points. I have some wifi devices connected to my
wifi cable modem, but not my desktop PC.

Cell towers. It's a desktop PC, not a smartphone.

IP address. Yep, they can use that, but it highly inaccurate. What a
site would see is the WAN-side IP address specified by my ISP's DHCP
server for the cable modem which uses a NAT router. With Windows
location disabled, my IP address is still known. When I use several IP geolocation sites, each gives a different location resulting in a span
of about a 15-mile radius, or an area of 706 square miles.

Some folks are paranoid about revealing their location to web sites that
want it for a service they provide, or to track them. However, for a
desktop PC, there is no difference when Windows location is enabled, or
not.

Seems superfluous to waste CPU cycles on a feature that is ineffective,
so I disabled it again.

There was a paper some years ago, where measuring time of flight from
a large number of test nodes, can narrow your location to around
two city blocks.

You can also start doing Bing searches for Joes Pizza, or start
reading articles off your city hall website, or use the bus schedule
service at your bus company, and you might (gradually) find they
have narrowed your location. This is one reason they try to snag
as many URLs as they can to vortex.microsoft.com , for location reasons.

Turn on News and Interests and check the Weather widget. It should
display that it knows where you are. That uses a different location implementation than the generic service used by/for apps.

And sure, if a GPS is plugged into the computer, Microsoft will read
out one of the NMEA messages to get a precise location. This is why
my GPS has only been plugged in on Win7 and Linux. I only intended the
GPS to be used for the time service.

Paul
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

VanguardLH <V@nguard.lh> wrote:
[...]

Because my location was so far off, I have to wonder just how Microsoft
finds my location other than IP geolocation which doesn't require a site
to use Windows location services. This is on a desktop PC. No cellular radio to connect to a tower. No GPS radio. Just how is Windows
location going to determine my location? Doesn't seem it has anything
with which to determine my location other than by IP geolocation.

AFAIK, Windows Location service exists so *any* program/'app' can try
to determine your location, i.e. not just web browsers,

And, as you've found, it can only do what is possible by the - mostly hardware - features of your system. Contrary to populat belief, even Microsoft/Windows can not do the impossible! :-)

So indeed, if your system doesn't have GPS, Wi-Fi, mobile connection,
etc, Windows location service can do only IP geolocation, with all its
inherent limits.

FWIW, for my Wi-Fi connected system with only a local account (i.e. no location data sent to/from a Microsoft Account) and Location services On
and On for the app, the Weather app (mentioned by Paul) can not come up
with *any* location. Good!

[...]
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

For a desktop, it doesn't.

On 2026/1/13 12:53:20, VanguardLH wrote:

[]

to use Windows location services. This is on a desktop PC. No cellular radio to connect to a tower. No GPS radio. Just how is Windows
location going to determine my location? Doesn't seem it has anything
with which to determine my location other than by IP geolocation.

[]
I've occasionally had it deduce my location from, I presume, my ISP -
which has sometimes been tens of miles from where I am, more commonly
hundreds.

I've once or twice had something come reasonably close, which is
startling; I guess that was based on a recent search or similar. But
that's rare.

Hang on, I'll just put "where am I" into Google. It says Laceby,
Grimsby. Grimsby is near Hull on the north-ish east coast of England;
I'm in mid-Kent, some hundreds of miles to the south.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()ALIS-Ch++(p)Ar++T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

The makers may make
and the users may use,
but the fixers must fix
with but minimal clues
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
[...]

Hang on, I'll just put "where am I" into Google. It says Laceby,
Grimsby. Grimsby is near Hull on the north-ish east coast of England;
I'm in mid-Kent, some hundreds of miles to the south.

That Google search returned many sites with 'where am I' kinds of
services, but most were cookie-unfriendly (no 'reject all' choice and
many (tens of) switches were on by default, so too much trouble to turn
them all off).

Google *itself* reported my location somewhat accurately, (a few
hundred metres off) which is understandable, because 1) I do have
location services on on my (Android) smartphone and 2) now on my laptop
at home, I'm logged into the same Google Account as the one on my phone.

So *Google* knows my location (because I allowed it on my phone), but *Microsoft/Windows* has no clue. And that's the way it should be! :-)
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