I maintain one baremetal Windows install that gets fairly regular use. It's on a major OEM business class workstation with a legit Windows 10 pro license.
Recently, I had to wipe and reset and goddamn do they try and trick you into choosing all the worst spyware settings AND even if you successfully duck and weave past them, they'll just cheat and enable them, or reinstall shit like co-pilot during an update.
They just made me sign into that shitty M365 app to install a legit subscription of Office, and on the next reboot, it converted the local user account into an online user account.
Make no mistake, Recall is going to be enabled by hook, or by crook, for the vast majority of Windows 11 users in due time. No matter how many times they disable it, or opt out.
As a reminder this was the go-to play for Facebook when they were caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Default it off until nobody's looking and change it slightly so it was named 'differently' and on it went again.
I don't even care if it's opt-in. I don't want dormant malware on my PC either.
To be clear. I actually like Windows 11. I don't care about the general telemetry, though I disabled the typing data crap. Most of the things in the last few months about ads in Windows, about blocking apps, etc have been overblown and aren't actually big problems in isolation. Even this is a little overblown right now as it requires an NPU which the vast majority of systems don't have. But, this is just so tone-deaf and an obviously terrible idea that it needs to be put down hard.
They'll always play right on or just over the line to see when/how people push back. They knew what they were doing, they started at a 9 intentionally so that people push back to and live with a 7
Opt-in but you get an annoying full screen popup every boot, like for the windows11 upgrade. It's only a matter of time, til they sell AI recall features as Win12 and then beg you to upgrade for free, pretty please!
There is no way I'm going to use a machine where they can turn on something remotely through a update or some other fashion. I probably won't even have a 11 vm at home now. I'll keep the 10 vm for its minor uses until it can no longer do the few things I use it for but that is it for me. Remove that garbage or lose more of us macroshaft.
I feel like not wanting to do the work for certain Steam games is what keeps me on windows for my personal use (work makes the decision on my work machine).
I know it’s possible, I just don’t want to do the work
I've been researching wine and proton for Linux. Fuck windows! The only reason I still use it is for gaming but if wine works as advertised I'll be switching to Linux.
Yeah I don’t know what to do with this. I’m about to start to start wfh and handle a lot of data that cannot be shared and comes with big fines for mishandling. I have to have office, mainly excel. Is Apple my only option? I know Linux exists, but I’m not a power user, I struggle with my printer.
"We won't turn it on and will never use it to spy on you" says government backed surveillance monopoly know for sneaking spyware into products and making it impossible to remove.
Ok, I'm gonna be perfectly honest, Microsoft recall, copilot, hello... I don't know what any of these things are. And I'm pretty sure I like it that way.
I do use Windows every day, (windows 10 and 7), but I haven't heard any reason to ever upgrade from these. All these "services" do not seem like a "value add" to me.
Today, Microsoft announced it is addressing a recent backlash around Windows Recall, its controversial forthcoming AI-powered search service that works by taking a snapshot of your PC every 5 seconds.
Recently, it was discovered that the feature stores data unencrypted on the device.
The company says it will ensure Windows Recall data is safe by employing "just-in-time" protection, which ensures the data is only decrypted when the user authenticates into the app with Windows Hello.
Additionally, Microsoft says it will make Windows Recall an opt-in experience, meaning it won't be enabled by default on Copilot+ PCs.
Microsoft also says it's making further security improvements to Windows Recall.
It will now require Windows Hello (via facial recognition and/or fingerprint) to be set up on the system and require the user to be present in front of the screen to access Recall data.
The original article contains 232 words, the summary contains 141 words. Saved 39%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Not only is Recall a huge security risk, but I genuinely don't get the point of it (other than just being a way for Microsoft to get ad data). Like, 'remember what you last did on your computer!' like uh yeah it's called having a memory. Like unless you literally have severe memory problems (where using a computer is probably the least of your concerns) this is pointless.