How to delete CompatTelRunner.exe permanently

In this short article I'll show you how to remove this official Microsoft virus from your computer.

C:\Windows\System32\CompatTelRunner.exe is an executable that collects telemetry from your PC and sends it to Microsoft. This file runs even if you disable all telemetry, since the basic telemetry is "required". It wouldn't be that much of an issue if it didn't consume so much CPU out of nowhere. This can lead to disruptions in times when you don't want it to activate, such as when recording a song, or perfoming a CPU sensitive task. There is no normal way to disable it, so a "hack" is used to do this.

If you tried to rename it or delete it, you would have noticed that it just keeps coming back to life like a zombie seemingly randomly. To make it stay dead, I've written a simple oneliner that you can use to permanently delete this. Open up PowerShell as administrator and paste this in:

$a = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "cmd.exe" -Argument "/C taskkill /F /im CompatTelRunner.exe & del C:\Windows\System32\CompatTelRunner.exe";$t = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -AtLogon;$t.Repetition = (New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Once -At "12am" -RepetitionInterval (New-TimeSpan -Minutes 30)).repetition;$s = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -AllowStartIfOnBatteries -DontStopIfGoingOnBatteries;$r = Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "DeleteCompatTelRunner" -Trigger $t -Action $a -User "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller" -Settings $s;Start-ScheduledTask "DeleteCompatTelRunner"

This creates a scheduled task that runs everytime you login and additionally every 30 minutes after. The task kills CompatTelRunner.exe if it is currently running and deletes the file. This is to make sure it stays dead for good. Don't worry, you won't harm your computer by deleting this file, it's not essential. If it were, it might be time to consider switching OS. There is a possibility that CompatTelRunner.exe will run during those 30 minutes of downtime, but that should be quite rare. This task does not affect performance in any way. To undo this, simply delete the task in task scheduler, then wait for a Windows update, it should come back on its own.

Readable source code:

$a = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "cmd.exe" -Argument "/C taskkill /F /im CompatTelRunner.exe & del C:\Windows\System32\CompatTelRunner.exe"
$t = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -AtLogon
$t.Repetition = (New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Once -At "12am" -RepetitionInterval (New-TimeSpan -Minutes 30)).repetition
$s = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -AllowStartIfOnBatteries -DontStopIfGoingOnBatteries
$r = Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "DeleteCompatTelRunner" -Trigger $t -Action $a -User "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller" -Settings $s
Start-ScheduledTask "DeleteCompatTelRunner"

Published on 23.03.2026