Microsoft Recall is now an explorer.exe dependency
youtube.com
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)
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)
This is absolutely insane
My condolences to all Windows 11 users.
It's becoming common knowledge that:
[Level1Techs] Microsoft Is KILLING Windows | ft. Steve @GamersNexus
I guess I just have to keep Windows 10 with a custom group policy that disables all updates either forever or until I learn Linux.
Linux gaming is getting to the point that I could consider the switch, but I hear scary stories about Nvidia drivers.
I had no issues with Nvidia. PopOs has support for Nvidia on install....I used it and it worked
I had minor issues when I first installed, but I worked them all out.
Install and give it a week. Seven days. If you can't get it all figured out by then head back to windows. If you can figure it out, you probably won't go back.
I have a GTX 1080 and I've been gaming on Linux for over a year now. No issues. Only thing that you cant do is some of the new generation window managers (wayland) but even that is working well in the nvidia drivers that arent on stable yet. In any case, the previous generations window managers work great and if wayland doesnt work properly for you, you can just as easily do without it.
Point is, its worth it to make the switch. I set my partner up with Linux Mint when their machine didnt qualify for windows updates anymore and they've had no problems, games and all. And they would never touch the command line.
Would recommend
Yep same with PoPOS. Great little distro. It's been my daily driver for years now.
hey GTX1080 user! Have you been able to get any games running with RTX? I picked mine up used a while back, and I kinda stopped PC gaming ages ago, but it'd be nice to use these features if I could. I haven't been able to get RTX Portal or RTX Quake 2 to work right via Steam, so i figured the card/drivers just can't handle it and I should just play vanilla DOOM instead.
My understanding is the 1080 predated the RTX stuff by a generation, even when I was on Windows I don't think the Nvidia drivers for the 1080 supported RTX well, if at all
Correct.
I still have a 1080Ti in one machine and it definitely does not support RTX of any stripe, on any OS.
Nvidia drivers are mostly OK now.
EndeavourOS (Arch-based) works fantastic with latest Nvidia drivers, for me
I use Garuda and NVIDIA gives me no troubles
Running EndeavourOS with Nvidia on Wayland for some months now. Prior to 555 it was a bit janky at times. Since then, and now with 560, the only issue I'm having is related to sleep/hibernation mode. Game wise everything runs fine.
If you have a new NVIDIA GPU (Turing+), you can use the new open kernel module. If you have older ones, I guess you're stuck with the proprietary or bad unofficial open source ones. The open kernel module works good and gets the job done. No need to be afraid of it. I get over 1000fps in (optimized) minecraft with shaders. I couldn't do that in windows.
Which GPU do you have? I'm looking for an upgrade and those framerates make me drool.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile
Turing +, not tuner +
done
It may have been the case in the past but Ive used both the GTX 680 and RTX 3060 on Fedora with no issue whatsoever. I have veen using the nvidia peoprietary drivers and they work well.
You can run Windows in virtual machine, you know.
It would be the best if you could have dedicated GPU for it, to be able to run games with nearly 100% performance.
I've had no significant driver issues with Mint and a 2080, myself. I switched back in February, and most things -- games included -- just work. The few that didn't, were easy to fix with some searching on stackoverflow and reddit (about the only thing that site is good for now).
if an idiot like me can do it, so can you.
Worst thing is you may have to learn downgrade commands on PopOS if a game breaks with driver updates.
I guess it depends on what you do, but as an awerage user - not really much to learn in terms of Linux. No special knowledge needed to use it like a normal person. I had to reformat some drives so Linux can use them and learning about Heroic games launcher, Lutris and Bottles to run non-steam games and windows software amd learn about compatibility layer built into Steam.
Otherwise it just works. Using Linux Mint. Didn't boot to Windows pretty much since I installed it - there was no need.
As others have already pointed out Nvidia drivers aren't that bad. The only game I've had issues with is Star Wars Outlaws, but I think that has more to do with the game itself than Nvidia drivers (It's not exactly a stable experience on Windows either).
The only big thing holding Linux gaming back is anti-cheat, but that's mostly because AAA developers don't want to allow anti-cheat on Linux. It's worth checking out if your favorite online game can be played on Linux.
Microsoft has been the single most effective marketing asset for GNU/Linux distributions in recent years.
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.
Tbf in recent decades.
Even tho googled-android should have been even more so, but the hardware licence fuckshittery 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
I'm so fucking glad I switched to Linux this year.
Thank goodness for Linux.
After all the fud and opposition they've pushed against it over the years. It's nice to see them finally do things to help it.
Quick edit to add that it couldn't come at a better time now that there are companies like system 76 out there. Making Linux compatible systems that ship with Linux that you can actually recommend to someone who is a novice to pick up. They may be on a more expensive side. But what's your privacy worth?
Owned a system 76 unit years ago. Was lacking in the QC area.
Their laptops are built on third party chassis. I have their keyboard and that thing is SOLID. I expect their desktops (that are custom made) are also quite solid.
Laptops... I'd lean frame.work if you know your way around a Linux installer. That said, there are rumors that system76 is working on a custom laptop chassis (still, framework is hard to beat for modularity).
Edit: while not specifically QC related... I suspect the things that aren't really custom built for them might not get the same level of care/might be more on their supplier depending on the issue.
IIRC Framework can preinstall fedora for you since it's officially supported. I use Fedora on an AMD Framework 13 and its been very smooth. Even the fingerprint sensor works.
EDIT: They will not install linux for unfortunately but it is still supported
Also have their keyboard and its amazing. I'll be doing the same, System76 Desktop and Framework Laptop for my next upgrades.
I build my own desktops, but they do sell their case individually. I'll definitely be considering that for my next upgrade.
I have a Gazelle12 from 2018 and it's chassis is dogshit, but when I did my research before purchasing I saw a lot of reviews. They all pointed out that the case was made of flimsy plastic, so I was aware ahead of time of that potential problem. The Oryx Pro was the next Model up for several hundreds more, though. Ultimately, I am happy with my laptop even if I have to disassemble it just to repair the chassis with epoxy periodically. It's 6 years later and the specs are still more than adequate for 99% of my needs, except for my specific intel processor which isn't supported by Win11. I consider that a feature as oppose to a problem. The software bloat and planned obsolessence through slowdowns of software on Windows based computers are things I do not miss one bit.
They have since changed their model lineup and I bet the build quality on the other models today aee much better then the Gazelle of 2018.
I switched to a Framework 13 after having a system76 Darter Pro, and it's a whole other league. Incredibly well-built, feels great, runs great, flashy as hell, even the fingerprint reader works out of the box with Fedora KDE.
I'm sudoing in the terminal with my fingers! It's magic! And it just works!
Also, I managed to drop it in the most stupid way so it bent the whole case, and I could get it fixed for 200 EUR, one day shipping and 20 minutes of work by myself, and that was a full casing swap, so bottom assembly plus keyboard assembly, whole case but the mobo and the stuff on it.
This is what having a laptop should work like. That's what they took from you.
Switched a few months ago and glad I did
Okay, this might be a non-issue: https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil/issues/2697#issuecomment-2403792309
Edit: of course, the big problem here is that it's still present (even disabled) and hence malware could turn it back on without you realising. Ugh.
A lot of unpopular "features" and behaviors used to have DISM, policy, or registry workarounds. And MS seems to love to kill those workarounds during later updates.
If MS isn't letting people uninstall it, there's a reason for it, and I'd be willing to bet that users will one day find that it has been magically re-enabled by an update.
There will 100% be a policy to disable it. Microsoft may shit on their retail users, but there's no way they'd force it on their enterprise clients. It's a security and compliance nightmare and they know it.
Problem is disabling it will likely be locked behind the Enterprise edition.
Kind of like the "Recommended" section in the Start menu. There is actually a way to disable that entirely...if you have an Enterprise license. There is no way to do it on any other version.
I said it was back when they took Group Policy out of the Home edition: the long term goal is to make truly controlling Windows a premium feature that only corporations can afford, and you see that with the slow elimination of many of those settings.
So how can users band together to buy enterprise licenses from each other?
đ¤ and control
Malware could also reinstall it to be fair, or just create screenshots on its own.
Still smells fishy that Explorer has it as a dependency, "disabled" or not.
Recall is malware, at least according to Malwarebytes!
To be fair, not everyone would say that, and the only reason you would call it an "anti-feature" is if you had an accurate understanding of the issues.
how the fuck could they have possibly done things in a way that makes explorer tabs depend on recall?
if they canât even separate out recall from the rest of the operating system then i have absolutely no faith it will be secure.
It's so you can't rip Recall out without ruining Explorer, and possibly other things
Internet explorer did similar things, try to remove it and the OS would just crash.
Edit: just remembered it also had direct memory access to make it faster (well, less slow) which was so insanely unsecure on so many levels.
A browser, which is like the prime attack vector for malware and other nasty stuff, having direct memory access is so hilarious in hindsight
These days you try to sandbox everything as much as possible in the browser since the internet is like the least trusted environment there is
Except the OS in this case lol
WHAT?!! That's a special level of wbject disregard for security.
It's very clearly an intentional move to keep it installed.
it was vastly easier to install linux mint than it is to figure out registry editing or whatever the fuck i'd need to avoid this
Nah, mate, Linux is hard, you need to know what a Wayland is. In comparison, Windows is very simple and lightweight, you only have to run a dozen Powershell scripts and edit the registry weekly to get rid of ads.
"Do I look like I know what a Wayland is?"
Had me in the first half, not gonna lie.. "Windows is very simple and lightweight" đ
And some Windows update would "accidentally" undo that anyways.
This is where some Windows shill says "you only need to fix it once!" as if this is your only computer ever, and the only problem you need to fix. And then Windows changes it back to their default in next year's update.
And as if it's entirely reasonable for the maker of your OS to intentionally work against your ability to control your own hardware and what runs on it.
The difference between Linux and Windows is on Linux you're working with the operating system to make modifications and taking advantage of its vast resources (extensive wikis on major distos, terminal auto completion with fish and zsh, preconfigured defaults when installing through the package manager, etc). Meanwhile on Windows you're actively working against the system in order to disable unwanted features like AI and telemetry.
(Also I would recommend looking into Debian, the software may be a tad bit old but its the most stable distribution)
Happy Debian daily driver here. I would never ever recommend raw Debian to a garden variety would-be Linux convert.
If you think something like Debian is something a Linux illiterate can just pick up and start using proficiently, you're severely out of touch with how most computer users actually think about their machines. If you even so much as know the name of your file explorer program, you're in a completely different league.
Debian prides itself on being a lean, no bloat, and stable environment made only of truly free software (with the ability to opt-in to nonfree software). To people like us, that's a clean, blank canvas on a rock-solid, reliable foundation that won't enshittify. But to most people, it's an austere, outdated, and unfashionable wasteland full of flaky, ugly tooling.
Debian can be polished to any standard one likes, but you're expected to do it yourself. Most people just aren't in the game to play it like that. Debian saddles questions of choice almost no one is asking, or frankly, even knew was a question that was ask*-able*. Mandatory customizeability is a flaw, not a feature.
I am absolutely team "just steer them to Mint". All the goodness of Debian snuck into their OS like medicine in a kid's dessert, wrapped up in something they might actually find palatable. Debian itself can be saved for when, or shall I say if, the user eventually goes poking under the hood to discover how the machine actually ticks.
Debian is probably one of the worst choices for someone looking to try Linux, especially for gaming.
Nothing better than setting everything up only to find you can't install some new thing because your xyz is too old
I was on Debian Sid for a year or 2 and gaming was working perfectly until I did an update that uninstalled my GUI and WiFi drivers. I'm on Mint now and it's been smooth sailing so far
Debian is always my first choice, but I'm not playing the newest stuff (Far Cry 5/7D2D/Ark/etc), while it hasn't been 'smooth sailing', I haven't found anything that just refuses to play.
Debian just looking out for their users making sure they don't waste time playing vidya.
Anyone whos new to gaming on Linux is probably using the Steam Flatpak, also stability is more important for newer users then a few utilities that power users (like myself) enjoy.
I absolutely love Linux mint. I use it daily for dev work, but Iâd also install it on my motherâs old laptop so she could keep using Facebook on it or whatever.
Same. First distro that was actually painless 10 years ago, and I haven't looked back.
I've been very impressed by the out-of-the-box experience with Pop!_OS. My Steam games work, and I have Elder Scrolls Online running through Lutris.
So far, everything just works.
I have to admit that one does look really good too.
I have a couple of old windows machines at home, so eventually (maybe as a winter project) Iâll need to decide if I want to try some other distros long term.
Welcome to Linux Mint mate!
Maybe Cinnamon mate!
yes thank you!
I thought Cinnamon and Mate were different things... /s
For the people who doesn't get it (I notice your /s, so you do get it): It's has a hidden joke. Mate can also mean "friend". So "Welcome to Linux Mint mate!" can mean two things at the same time. Hence my reply: "Maybe Cinnamon mate!", where "Cinnamon" refers to "Linux Mint Cinnamon", but mate just refers to friend/buddy. But Mate can also mean MATE, a classic desktop environment for Linux Mint.
Oh haha, didn't realise that pun was intended... But yeah thats right :)
What the actual fuck, microsoft?
"We're entitled to everything to do, every scrap of data, everything you create, so we can feed our AI to make even more money, because you are
making the mistake ofusing our product. If someone does hack our systems and steals all your data, who fucking cares? You aren't me. I still get paid."-Microsuck execs.
đ¤ Marketing for the marketing god! Data for the data throne!
Warhammer was close, but the grim dark was way off
grim
darkdankI'm just waiting for the grimdrip. I need new styles.
Can't wait for those plasteel chinos.
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 (I use it on Linux too!)
https://safing.io/
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.
https://distrosea.com/
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:
https://www.protondb.com/
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.
I have always felt that GIMP was the ultimate software Camel. As in, designed by a committee to include everything and the kitchen sink without any coherent UI/UX.
Itâs the software industryâs 1965 Lada masquerading as a 2024 model.
If it wasnât for Paint.NET still missing vectorized/sprite-based text (it instantly rasterizes text the moment focus leaves it), I donât think I could ever use GIMP.
You're certainly not wrong about GIMP having horrible UI/UX. Big reason I don't use it either.
I love Krita!! I put my specialty software into a virtual machine, aka the shame box. You can disable networking for it. đ
I've been a LONG time user of Adobe, grew up with PhotoDeluxe and pre-suite Photoshop and used every version of Cretive Suite since my parents ran a graphic design business. I made all my high school essays in InDesign CS4. Suffice to say, growing bitter over proprietary software in the last few years has been painful but I'm doing my best to move to only FOSS.
There was a point in time I tried replacing Premiere with DaVinci Resolve, but I quickly noticed it was oriented for color correction, and some of its features for composition were locked behind Fusion. These days, if you can believe it, I do all my video editing in Blender. It's still got a long way to go, but since v4 the VSE has gotten really good. I'd like to try kdenlive when I finish migrating to Linux, but on Windows it basically doesn't support GPU encoding which is a dealbreaker for me.
Adobe Fresco is replaced quite well by Krita. It has a learning curve but is far more powerful as a result. I'm still learning but I'm impressed.
I don't really like Scribus, but I don't really have a need for software like InDesign, so I haven't had to worry about it.
I've used Inkscape way back just because it was portable when Illustrator wasn't. It was pretty minimal back then but I can see it's grown greatly in depth. The workflow is enough to be disruptive, but not too badly to work through I think.
And finally the titan, Photoshop. It's such a massive and ubiquitous software that it simply cannot be replaced by any single program. At least since I moved to drawing in Fresco I don't use PS for that, but again Krita is a fine replacement. Pixel art in PS is very normal too, but that's replaced quite nicely by Aseprite, it's more capable in that space and still quite easy to use if you don't know its features. It's the photo editing and general purpose image editing that's the real challenge. I keep hoping that version 3 of GIMP will magically fix its problems, but in the meantime it's frustratingly clear that it's built by software engineers, not artists, but it's often made out that it's everybody else's burden to forget everything they know and start from scratch to learn its special workflow. There's an interesting patch someone made called PhotoGIMP that's supposed to improve that, but I haven't spent enough time with it to really say. Currently my only alternative is Photopea. It works great right now, but I don't like that it's a web app and not FOSS. I really hope I can eventually find an alternative that I can finally be comfortable with.
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.
And that's exactly how it feels to non-programmers or not-enthusiasts jus trying to exist.
And those devs (not all but more or less most) will troubleshoot and gear it towards how they see fit with less newbie testing.
Ahahaha, holly fucking shit.
They literally added some OS in their spyware.
Welp. Time to buy a NAS to back up all my stuff and rebuild this pc with Linux.
NAS is just a Linux machine with fancy storage.
(I know thats technically not an accurate statement but Im standing by it, I know what I said)
But for a one-time backup of one pc you just need a disk tbh - and even that one can be the single one in your current pc if you are able to make a partition for either backup or for Linux.
Like, space permitting, just carve our a partition & transfer there what you would to NAS (or external disk drive, or an additional drive connected to the pc).
If space is a bit tighter just carve out the few gigs needed to install Linux on that (nowdays for most users "it's fine"). Then must boot into Linux & use the rest is the drive as is.
Ofc if you have full disc encryption, raid etc this solutions are slightly more complicated.
I wanted to but a NAS system anyways to do house backups and stuff.
And this system is RAIDed so getting everything on to the NAS will be easiest and start the process of setting up backups for the home.
Yes, another lost soul coming home to the self-hosted community!!
May I PSA/strongly suggest going FOSS early on?
(So not getting a closed software NAS)
Good luck on your journey!
I remember them doing this with Internet Explorer back in the 90s.
"We can't remove this thing we don't want to remove! Look! It's hastily integrated with the OS! We can't remove it ever!"
yep exactly my thoughts. IE couldn't be ripped off a Windows computer at all
It still canât.. Hidden somewhere deep in windows, there is still a IE, believe me.
At very least there's an OCX for InteractiveHtmlView or some stuff. It's how South Korean banks apps run. I think even the EU-specific "unbundled IE" versions still have that ActiveX / OLE control registered, though it might be crippled.
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!
VR works on Linux? Thru Steamvr?
Depends on the headset, they don't all work on Linux unfortunately.
Yes, I even play VR Windows games on Linux., the latest one released just weeks ago being Subside.
I'm using a Valve Index but with ALVR even standalone HMDs, e.g. (sadly from Meta) the cheap Quests line. You can find a lot more details on https://lvra.gitlab.io
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
Sadly Windows is still required for a lot of cad softwares.
BricsCAD has a native Linux client
Put it in a shame box (VM). This is how I run my specialty software.
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.
Yea about a year ago I switched entirely over to Linux. I am a system engineer so I have to deal with windows at work all the time but on my computer, I feel calm. Like I don't have to worry about my operating system. Windows is getting in the way more than it's helping 99% of the time now.
That's my situation, except I haven't deleted my partition yet, mostly because it sits on a separate physical disk. Maybe one dayâŚ
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.
Explorer has had so many dependencies attached to it that if even one of them sneezes, the entire desktop environment crashes and has to restart.
Actually insane when you think about it. Why the hell is a file explorer the root process of the desktop??????
I've only ever forced stopped thunar once and it was because I was messing with some thumbnail settings. Naturally the rest of my system worked as normal, as well as the other thunar windows open lol.
Looking at you microsoft store rdp manager. Crashing explorer when I dare to leave something in the clipboard.
There is a setting somewhere IIRC (or at least there was) where you can separate file browser processes from the "main" explorer.exe process so you can kill individual Explorer windows but not the whole environment.
Yes. It is (or at least it was, don't know about Windows 11) in the Folder Settings.
I had to kill nautilus a few times back in the day and nothing but the background remained until I restarted nautilus. But ymmv
But but muh Linux is better.
Though to be fair, Linux has had some great developments!
Looks like I picked the right year to switch to Linux on my primary pc.
Switching to Free Software is kind of like planting a tree: the best time was years ago (because you'd be over the learning curve). The second-best time is now.
That said, it's getting so much better every year. It's already ahead of Windows in user-friendlyness IMO, but every year I'm amazed by how much cooler it gets.
The only thing I can say is that on Linux, you get excited by the thought of updating your system. It's like a Christmas feeling instead of a Monday one.
Agree. And as someone who planted that tree 25 years ago, the shade sure is nice year after year.
Same here.
I'm using Arch btw
I made the jump last year. There will be ups and downs but I don't plan on using another OS on my computers ever.
I won't upgrade past 10 anyways and if I can't run 10, back to Linux I go.
You've got until late 2025 before 10 stops receiving security updates. I would not stay long after that.
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.
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.
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.
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"
It's the Microsoft way
Easy. For example: You could take something stupid like the controller for the background colour, move it into the recall.exe and have the file explorer reference the function inside the recall.exe. So whenever someone deletes the recall.exe the file explorer will crash because it can't find how to set it's background.
It's complete bullshit, but it would work. ÂŻâ \â _â (â ăâ )â _â /â ÂŻ
screw Microsoft..i hope people will consider to switch to Linux
I have a long term project to migrate my machines, and the introduction of recall pressured me to move faster, but I still have some hurdles to overcome that just require a time sink on my part.
I'm on win10. I use win11 at work and I'm fine with it but there's no way in hell recall is going on my home machine and equally no way in hell I'm getting a computer just to get win 11. Im fine using Linux. I will definitely do that before put with with this bs
Yay am dualbooting linux with windows 10 but man I love the flexibility of linux.
I love winutil. Makes debloating windows a lot easier.
Does it remove recall?
Installs Debian.
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.
I didn't have much choice. Where I am imports are heavily restricted and the market is not very keen on alternatives anyways. I already had a slim number of options to begin with. Importing a linux first brand, a used thinkpad or a fancy framework as is the fashion on the first world would've cost me about three times what I paid for the model I got, and I already got it with a bit of overcharge. Just on port fees, taxes, etc. Trust me, I did my research and this was the best performance and compatibility with linux for money I could get where I am. Windows 11 license cost is not even a factor, we just don't get a choice to not factor it in the price.
MIT license:
It looks nice, and has extra features like tabs, tagging 7zip/archive management, cloud drives, git integration, comparing file hashes, etc.
The only issue I had was performance, it took a long time to start each time. I'm planning on trying it again sometime later
Whoa. I wonder if explorer can be ripped out entirely and replace with this
explorer.exeis still used for desktop and probably other stuff as well, so it might not be possible without using 3rd party shell replacement and not many exist.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.
Iâm 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 Iâm sure thereâs 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 donât even need a script.
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
Wow this doesn't affect me at all thank fully
Who is fully?
Didnt they try this same shit with IE decades ago until they were forced to decouple it from explorer?
As much as I would love this to kick MS in the backside, it wonât. The public at large has no idea what this is or why itâs bad and evil. They will buy a computer, it will come with Windows, and theyâll 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.
Fuuuuuck....well....my laptop was my last windows device. It came with 11 installed, and the only reason I keep using 11 is because I have had no success in running my DAW in wine. Guess it's time to give it a go again....
If DAW means Digital Audio Workstation, have you tried Ardour?
I've been using Fruityloops for over 20 years. I've tried loads of stuff, but my workflow is pretty stuck in the FL ecosystem. I haven't tried Ardour yet, definitely willing to give it a go, but when I'm in the mood to punch something out really quick, I already know all the keybinds, how things interact etc etc. I've started using Sunvox a bit. It's a modular synth/tracker runs one everything shy of an actual potato....I think doom is the only thing I know about that runs on more systems than Sunvox. But it's painful when I want to just diddle something quick that's stuck in my head.
Depending on how long ago that was, you may have a much better experience. Linux now has a new audio subsystem that is low latency, and generally just works out of the box with DAW's now.
FL studio is known to work well in wine, but third party VSTs can be hit or miss.
FL studio has "worked well in wine" for ages now, I've never managed to get it properly functioning. Like I said, I'll give it another try, not willing to have recall running on my machines.
Fl does work with wine, I have used versions of it in the past quite flawlessly. There is an easy one click installer in the bottles interface for FL, give it a try!
EDIT: I say prior versions because I have since switched to bitwig, such a cool process flow!
Might be a stupid question but this requires a NPU right? I told some fellas about it and there response was something like does not matter because they have older hardware so it can't run anyway. So what happens to win 11 PCs with no NPU?
AFAIK Windows 11 requires TPM 2.0, which in and of itself limits hardware ('cos who cares about ewaste, right?), but am unaware of anything hardware-specific for "AI".
From https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/retrace-your-steps-with-recall-aa03f8a0-a78b-4b3e-b0a1-2eb8ac48701c
That links to https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/copilot-plus-pcs#faq1
So what happens when a win 11 PC with no NPU gets updated to the version of windows with recall and recall is installed? Does it just sit dormant like it's deactivated because there are tons of win 11 PC that have no NPU.
I assume that's what happens, but you know what happens when you do that!
It probably does, like Cortana after they deactivated the servers.
You couldn't remove it for a good while, so there was a gap where it would be stuck there.
I wonder where the exhaust fumes come from for the turbocharger. How many cylinders do you think the engine of an average Copilot+ PC have? How much extra torque can they get out of it?
Fuck idiotic marketing, words have meaning.
So just the Surface thingies?
There's Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung laptops too: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/copilot-plus-pcs
So they're expanding... still seems to be not all that much hardware support, weird that they're pushing it so soon.
Recall was the headline feature for Copilot+ PCs.
When a wave of ARM powered Windows laptops, and now a few desktops launched, they were all Copilot+ for whatever reason. They all marketed the NPU, but struggled to really say what the NPU unlocked that you couldn't do with a CPU or GPU. Other marketing gimmicks were a better background blur and an AI drawing assistant in I think paint. I think you could also do "AI stuff" in photos, but don't think that was local.
Honestly, I think everyone missed the punchline on ARM. The promise is lower heat and greater battery life. There was no need to bundle that with AI gimmicks. But clearly a PM thought so and now they're trying to save face. Really taking advantage of ARM and pushing for battery life, by optimizing the kernal and changing what happens in standby, would probably be a bigger engineering lift.
/Thoughts from a rando who bought an ARM powered Windows laptop and generally likes it but has never touched the NPU enabled stuff
But how else are you gonna bring down battery life to be on par with x86?
/s
lol. Amusingly, my wife's Dell Latitude 7400 with an i3 has much better stand by battery life than my 7x slim. The slim does wake up a ton faster - by the time the lid is open it's already doing facial unlock and it it sees me it unlocks immediately and is "fully awake", but I suspect this is achieved at the expense of more battery consumption while sleeping.
The 7x slim loses around 5% / day when asleep :(
Which OSes? Newer windows relies on newer CPU sleep states in that it doesn't actually suspend to disk/hibernate but just sleeps, trickling the battery.
Is it possible to disable this organization-wide for the handful of windows devices we have? Or do we have to subscribe to some kind of device management service from MSFT? We currently use standard o365 subscriptions
From the video sounds like it can be prevented from running, just not removed.
The companies will do anything to make having the ai capacities built locally an acceptable thing via "cool" features like this or apples, and I think it is because once the devices can do the processing locally, it allows them to stop processing it themselves on their servers. This will also allow them to use microphone and why not camera data as additional data points without having to send and process the actual microphone data. The only local software is open source AI implementations that are being used by FOSS applications, with no network access.
To me this isn't about shareholder value and buzzwords, this is just the excuse to shove it into the OS. It's a more long term game they are playing: the one of reducing their costs and improving the value/accuracy of the data that they get, since it will be pre-digested 100% locally in the background, which is not limited by network latency and bandwidth.
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
Good thing I don't use Tabs.
Good thing I don't use explorer. (Free commander ftw!)
What happens if you copy explorer.exe from a prior release of Windows and replace the recall-infested version?
At that point why bother? Either accept it and move on, or axe the partition and start browsing forums full of furry pfp gentleanimals advising you on how to fix your latest issue with your new linux installation.
I know you're mixing in joking with your response, but can I point out the irony that a Linux advocate is telling me essentially "don't try to hack a solution, just give it up entirely and adopt a completely different product". That is the opposite of the Linux mindset I'm familiar with.
It's because Linux isn't actually trying to work against you, even if it may feel that way to a noobie at first. Guaranteed this requirement exists to make Recall impossible to uninstall, and for no other reason.
The question isn't "why take the time to hack windows" it's "why keep supporting a company that requires you to undo so much of the product just to maintain control and privacy with your own hardware, and which actively seeks to sabotage attempts to do so."
Your statement suggest that if Windows is "trying to work against you" then Linux is "trying to work for you". I don't believe that is the case either. Linux works for itself, and if what you want can be done with Linux, great! If you have the skills to alter Linux to do what you want, also great! If you have neither of those, then you'll be left without a specific solution. Linux is great, but trying to pitch it as purely altruistic and supportive isn't accurate and could lead those trying it to abandon it early because their own experience doesn't meet this implicit expectation.
You don't escape that problem entirely in Linux, it just takes different forms. Proprietary vendor Linux hardware drivers would be a perfect example.
So why hack Windows to make it do what you want? Because that was one of the basic tenets underlying Linux. There is no perfect operating system, just different tradeoffs. If one OS meets most of your needs for a specific task, and you have a way to hack it to fix the rest, thats the better solution rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. Departing from this idea moves the definition of computing from a tool to a religion/social movement. That's fine for some, but not my calling.
That's literally not what I said, nor what I implied. If you want to interpret it that way it's your choice, but I'm not going to defend a statement I didn't make and didn't try to make.
I feel like you aren't distinguishing between "problem exists" and "problem exists because the makers of my OS want it to exist."
I literally said this was NOT the question.
I'm not trying to strawman you here, so lets revisit these to make sure we understand what each other is saying.
I don't understand why you'd bring up âtrying to work against youâ if you weren't implying that Linux was the opposite. I suggested you were implying it was the opposite, and you're communicating now that is not what you mean. I don't think you're suggesting that Linux "is trying to work against you". So if its not a positive, and not a negative, you're suggesting what....neutral? As in, "Linux is neither trying to work against you nor is trying to help you". I suppose I can agree with that, but I'm not sure how that supports your argument.
What am I missing you are trying to communicate with your statement?
You're right, I'm not distinguishing between them because as an end user the reason is irrelevant. I'm left with the same result, with the same choices about how to solve it for myself. I'm not trying to save the world. I'm trying to get my computing done.
My apologies for the paraprhasing of your position of my position.
Lets look at your exact question:
My answer: Because I'm not trying to save the world. I'm trying to get my computing done. If a hack to the existing product can do that faster than changing the world, then the hack is the better choice FOR ME. If its a social/religious movement for you, feel free to spread the "good word". I won't stop you, but I'm not interested in joining your evangelistic endeavor.
Or maybe it's so you can use it in search box in explorer.exe
Incompatible DLLs most likely.
What's an alternative to explorer?
Unfortunately, just switch to Linux is not an option.
What do you have against Linux?
As much as I love it, it just doesn't work for some people or situations.
THIS IS WHY I AM STILL ON WINDOWS 10 AND DUALBOOTING LINUX