TLDR:
Windows 11 v24H2 and beyond will have Recall installed on every system. Attempting to remove Recall will now break some file explorer features such as tabs.
YT Video (5min)
screw Microsoft…i hope people will consider to switch to Linux
how the fuck do you even begin making recall a dependency for explorer?
I can’t say how. But I can guess why.
“Sorry, can’t remove it. It’s a system dependency”
Good thing I don’t use Tabs.
Windows Debloat Tool:
https://github.com/LeDragoX/Win-Debloat-Tools
I run this on any new Win install. I also suggest Portmaster so you know where your data is going.
However, if you can, it is really worth switching to Linux. Linux is built as a tool by the people using the tool. Windows is making a product. Enough said.
If people would like to “try Linux before you buy,” check out DistroSea. It spins up a virtual machine of whatever distro and flavour you choose to try.
There are a surprising and growing number of Linux compatible tools. Software is usually why people have a hard time switching. If you’re dependent on Photoshop/Adobe, check out:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve
Gamers should check out:
This site shows how well games run on Proton (compatibility tool) and people offer solutions to get them running if there’s any snags.
DaVinci Resolve is not a replacement for Photoshop/Adobe as a whole, but it is a decent replacement for Adobe products AfterEffects and Premier.
For Photoshop alternatives, I’d start with GIMP for photo editing or Krita for illustration and digital painting.
I’m still on Windows because my drawing app of choice is Clip Studio Paint, which has no Linux version. I’ve read and watched several guides to getting CSP running on Linux, but it still scares me off.
But this Recall thing is so insidious to me… I might try to get it working on Linux anyway.
Just want to weigh in on Resolve. I was able to get the free version running on Mint, but the free version can’t do H.264. I then bought Resolve Studio, but activating the license did not work so I ended up on Windows for video editing.
I also had to switch back to Windows for Affinity, as I have been using Photoshop for years and I have yet to find another piece of software (excluding Affinity) I can move at speed in.
Once I get the content creation off Windows, I can probably leave it behind for good.
For years… well pretty much since I had a PC, I had a Windows partition. Why? Well because I (sadly) paid for the damn thing (damn OEM deals). Plus, I admit, sometimes they were things that only ran on Windows.
For few years now though, everything, literally, from the latest tech gadget to playing games to VR, works on Linux.
Few weeks ago I deleted the Windows partition. I didn’t have to. I didn’t boot on it for months. It didn’t affect me.
Still, I now feel … safer, more relaxed, coherent.
When I see shit like that, I feel even better!
That’s my situation, except I haven’t deleted my partition yet, mostly because it sits on a separate physical disk. Maybe one day…
Sadly Windows is still required for a lot of cad softwares.
BricsCAD has a native Linux client
I havent found anything I can’t do with freecad and blender.
Freecad is OK but it wouldn’t even be considered in a commercial setting like I’m working in. I work with Catia, Solidworks and Polyworks. None on those run on Linux.
VR works on Linux? Thru Steamvr?
Depends on the headset, they don’t all work on Linux unfortunately.
It was mostly working 2 years ago when I tried it last. I just had some weird frame dropping issues at the time that I can only imagine were fixed by now. This post is making me want to try VR again on my linux install
SteamVR and ALVR are the only ones that I’ve gotten to work, no dice on standalone DCS though which was the whole reason I bought the damn headset a couple years ago
I tried running the standalone, ran some script from Lutris but ended up with a broken wine config. Hopefully we can at least get that working without VR at some point.
It’s the chicken and the egg problem, and most companies choose to be the chicken
The best windows debloater is delete system32 and install Linux,.
Even Windows exes work on Linux now. It took me some time and learning but I got Wine to work with some program from my walkie talkie’s manufacturer and it involves serial programming over USB.
So… how does this exist in corporate environments where PCI DSS is necessary? Is the government also going to have to deal with fallout from this?
I wonder if there will ever be a point where legislation dictates features from an os vendor… we lost control of our hardware when they started forcing updates. I’m sure someone will hack a DLL or something to allow explorer to run but kill this component… But should we really need to hack our systems to protect ourselves from spying?
Inb4 Linux - I ran Slackware in the early 90s, and my server still runs a deb based distro… but when I want to play Forza, I’m pretty limited with my choices, etc.
From my understanding, you can prevent Recall from running just fine, you only can’t remove it.
OS level malware. I suspect it will be turned on in an update a few years down the road. And then MS will be caught, say “whoops my bad!” And pay a 100 million dollar fine after their new valuation on the stock market of 5 trillion dollars.
Microsoft: We’re going to arbitrarily require TPM and SecureBoot and say that makes Windows 11 more secure even though that’s a feature of your motherboard, not our operating system.
Also Microsoft: In Windows 11 the file explorer program depends on a program that periodically sends us screenshots of your screen.
So secure!
I’ve been wondering this too. Will there be a way for company policy admins to somehow remove this fully? I work in an industry that deals with very sensitive and private information - no way in hell this would ever even remotely be allowed or pass any audits. Even just existing but being disabled could be problematic.
But big companies aside, how will this impact small companies who have no real in house IT? The potential for it to be capturing and storing stuff like, as you say anything required by PCI compliance, could turn into a nightmare. We also know this will inevitably be hacked or used by spyware somehow, someday, too no matter how secure they say it may be. So now a bad actor can recall an entire day work and data capture from a worker?
Wondering the same here. I work in an extremely regulated industry as well. We have MS as a strategic partner but haven’t even deployed win 11 yet.
That said we have a deal to use co-pilot and also chatGPT. Both in a unique version that is compliant with company policies. Co-pilot integration into teams is not quite recall level but similar, think video transcripts, meeting and chat summaries, etc. I have no clue how this works practically but I assume there are some strict contracts regarding training data and data usage in place.
As much as I would love this to kick MS in the backside, it won’t. The public at large has no idea what this is or why it’s bad and evil. They will buy a computer, it will come with Windows, and they’ll use it like they always have. Companies and Govts will gripe initially, but give in because their ancient VB enterprise apps only run on Windows.
So, I just bought a new laptop. It came with Windows 11. But anyways, I’m writing this comment from a freshly installed Bazzite Linux OS.
No judgement here; but it always bothers me when a laptop only comes with Windows preinstalled, when 1) it makes the device more expensive, and 2) I don’t need it.
This is one of the reason I like Framework laptops. Not only are they user serviceable/repairable, but they also don’t force you to pay extra for a Windows license. Hell, they even sell motherboard upgrades if you want to turn you older Framework laptop into the newest one.
Funny you say that, I’ve been looking into getting one recently. They seem great.
Ahahaha, holly fucking shit.
They literally added some OS in their spyware.
Glad I moved away from Windows on all my personal computers. Fedora with Plasma is so similar to Windows and so much better. If my non-tech partner can use it, then anyone can.
Only problem is that Windows is better at resizing content on high resolution (4K) monitors. And ordering multiple monitors on the login screen doesn’t always work right, but it’s fine once logged in. And it takes a bit more to set up than preinstalled Windows that’s on most computers when you buy them. But if it was preinstalled and set up already for the hardware like Windows usually is, it would be way better for nearly everyone.
I’m not sure how it works for KDE and sddm but on gdm it is possible to copy the monitors.xml config file to a certain directory to fix that. After doing so, the login and lock screen settings are synced between the desktop environment and display manager. Not sure how to do it for sddm but I’m sure there’s a way, maybe a script with the correct xrandr commands could solve that.
Edit: monitors.xml, not x11.conf
Yeah, that works sometimes, but the way to fix it seems to change every time I have had to do it. And I have been using Wayland lately and haven’t found a good way to do it that works with the latest versions.
I was curious about this and found this KDE forum post that might help. Looks like you don’t even need a script.
Microsoft has been the single most effective marketing asset for GNU/Linux distributions in recent years.
Tbf in recent decades.
Even tho googled-android should have been even more so, but the hardware licence fuchshittery is a huge obstacle.
So true. I got fed up with all this Recall and AI BS and recently replaced Win 11 (which I upgraded to by accident) with PopOS. No issues so far and PopOS is much faster than Windows.
Well Valve was doing too well with the steam deck in that area so they had to trump them, second place is just the first loser.
Valve is holding the carrot, Microsoft the stick.
PC gamer for a lot of my life. My old Win8.1 system is slowly dieing and I can play less and less games…win 11 has made me decide to leave the hobby. I may grab a Steamdeck, but I think I am done with PC gaming (and consoles are just shit PCs now). I have a Linux work PC, but I am not bothering with making a gaming Linux rig when I can just go the Steamdeck route.
Just want to add that most games just work on Linux now. Valve has done some amazing work on this front. The Steam deck, or really any gaming PC with Steam, are perfectly good gaming boxes. Check out Proton DB if you want game-specific info.
Steam Deck is great, 10/10, would recommend, but you could also just load Linux on your old system and keep using it.
I can better justify taking the out presented and using the Steamdeck for my fix. It will be cathartic lol
Just popping in to mention that Bazzite can be put on your win8 machine and it will prob run games better than win does. in case you don’t know, Bazzite is installable on PC’s where steamOS isn’t yet and it’s as close to SteamOS as they can get.
I have a SD docked and plugged into a TV with a controller at home. It works great, I swore off Win PC’s about when win8 came out, so I haven’t used it in a long time except for work, and every day I’m glad I upgraded to Linux.
absolutely. I had tried Linux on various machines long ago but was one of the people that was put off by older distro’s learning curves - I’m now daily driving Linux on both my laptop and desktop and the main push for the switch is microsoft fucking around with settings, installing candy crush after updates (on a paid OS), adding more and more dumb, unsolicited, privacy invading AI bullshit with every feature update, and running like shit on a perfectly adequate machine.
Modern Linux, with flatpak support? I haven’t looked back once - had to help a friend fix something on a win11 desktop recently and was reminded of every reason I made the switch. Even if I had to jump in the terminal every day like long ago, it would still be worth it to not have bing, copilot, and edge rammed down my throat, whether I want them or not.
Windows is getting so shitty that completely non-technical users are tired of it… as soon as somewhat open minded users start to experiment and realise that Linux feature and UX parity has been achieved - I hope microsoft fucking collapses and we can all finally walk into the sunlight that open source OSes and software represent.
Not effective enough, it seems.
So, iirc, recall was a copilot+ PC “feature”. Will this recall integration be the case on “normal” x86 PCs as well?
I moved all my personal stuff over to linux
Windowsabout a year and a half ago. Unfortunately, there’s still a few things in my life that requires windows…Edit: I can’t type, apparently
I hope every SWE looks at this and remembers how not to conduct oneself.
I doubt it’s the engineers who are demanding that this atrocity exist.
The issue is that people who find an issue with it and don’t want to do it will get told off by management. Then management just replaces them with someone who is willing to do it (for job safety, or simply because they don’t care)
Thats just how big tech is
And it’s why I, as a self-respecting SWE, refuse to apply to big tech jobs. Yeah, I could get paid a lot more, but it’s not worth it for the work culture. My current org seems to respect my opinions and values, and that’s worth a lot more than money.
Good for you! I’m still waiting for the day the tech world unionizes and push back on the recent horrendous decisions
There’s some moral responsibility though. When it comes to privacy though, the majority is too naive
Yes and no. In a perfect world, people would be able to uphold their ethics. Unfortunately, in the real world, people don’t have that luxury. A job is their lifeline to basic necessities, and sacrificing their job might mean going to debt for many. Especially if you are young and without many options due to the lower level pullback in the tech sphere.
100%
/s just in case
