A solution to windows PC requirements

@vlad_the_invader Co-pilot capable chips have the Recall feature enabled by default and AFAIK home users cannot turn the feature off. This takes a snapshot of whatever you’re doing every 5 seconds or something like that which a lot of people are very unhappy about. It’s all locally stored BUT it only takes an exploit to be found and that’s a LOT of personal or company data compromised.

Yeah, that sounds pretty stupid…thanks for the heads up.

Damn. I was about to apologise for my bad maths and my ninja edit.. Then you come along and…

Boom!

Co-pilot capable chips have the Recall feature enabled by default and AFAIK home users cannot turn the feature off.

Happy to be corrected if you have a source for that but, AIUI, the user has to enable it, it’s disabled by default. I don’t think it’s going to be the huge deal that MS thinks it will be (basically, it’ll just OCR screenshots to help you search for things on your PC), but I don’t think it’s the security problem that critics think it is either – it runs locally so if hackers can access your Recall screenshots, they already have access to everything on your PC anyway.

I don’t have a PC with the hardware to run it but if I did, I would just check that it’s disabled and go about things as normal.

Not true.. I’ve had that copilot bs turn up unannounced on my laptop.

I’ve had that copilot bs turn up unannounced on my laptop.

Copilot is not the same thing as Recall. Copilot is an AI assistant, which can be pretty useful for some things.

Recall takes a screenshot every 5 seconds and then allows you to search to find stuff that you’ve worked on in the past. It only runs on very specific hardware, apparently has to be enabled to run, and, AFAIK, is only currently available to people who have signed up for the insider preview service. Your laptop has Copilot but not Recall unless you’ve gone to the trouble of installing it.

I had a DfE advanced hunting script to detect people that had enabled Recall on the work Windows devices. Not much use here, but I think the docs do say that it’s off by default now.

As for Copilot. Yeah, MS (and about everyone else) is trying to roll AI into everything so they can find what works and what doesn’t. I generally opt out of that crap and disable what I can. I’ve not needed to with this machine (I type on my Win11 gaming box), but my old Win10 has a Copilot search button thanks to the last update. It never gets used.

The currently defined chatbots that ‘are’ AI are everywhere now. Your data, no matter which service you use, will be used to train a model somewhere.

Cougar2
Huh?

I think they mean that Microsoft are disabling more and more of the workarounds that allow you to install Windows without signing into a Microsoft account.

Personally I’m not a big privacy nut or anything, but I’m still getting close to the point that I’m uncomfortable with the amount of data gathering that Microsoft wants to do in a default install.  For example I’d still rather not have all the keystrokes I’ve made being recorded or all my activity being screenshotted.

Microsoft now allowing Windows 11 on older, incompatible PCs | PCWorld

It looks like you might be able to get away with older PC’s for a while longer.

 I’m uncomfortable with the amount of data gathering that Microsoft wants to do in a default install.  For example I’d still rather not have all the keystrokes I’ve made being recorded or all my activity being screenshotted.

The screenshotting feature isn’t currently available in a default install and the default setting is that it’s disabled.

thols2

The screenshotting feature isn’t currently available in a default install and the default setting is that it’s disabled.

You’re talking about the AI thing I think,  I’m talking about Windows Timeline, maybe it doesn’t use screenshots to generate its previews but the point stands.

I think they mean that Microsoft are disabling more and more of the workarounds that allow you to install Windows without signing into a Microsoft account.

That’s not what I was “huh?”ing at. Rather, as I quoted,

really intrusive windows account crap

How is it “really intrusive crap”? If you use a MS account to login it will back up your digital licence keys and gives you a bunch of synchronisation features. If for some bizarro reason you don’t want free OneDrive storage you can create a local account by not connecting it to the internet during setup.

If for some bizarro reason you don’t want free OneDrive storage you can create a local account by not connecting it to the internet during setup.

I don’t think that works any more (ETA: Though some media creation tools still modify the installer to allow it).

Also, being able to login to my laptop when I happen to be somewhere without convenient internet I don’t think is that “bizarro”.

Cougar2
How is it “really intrusive crap”? If you use a MS account to login it will back up your digital licence keys and gives you a bunch of synchronisation features. If for some bizarro reason you don’t want free OneDrive storage you can create a local account by not connecting it to the internet during setup.

This is what I was saying about the workarounds. Grab a current ISO of 11 and try that, I don’t think it works any more, nor does the wrong password trick. I think oobe\bypassnro is still working.

And how’s it intrusive? Well I can’t answer that for the original poster, but my own view is that I don’t trust them to keep my data safe and basically don’t see any valid reason for them knowing what I’m up to and linking that back to a centralised account anyway.

If it offers something really useful to me in future, that might change, but right now it doesn’t.

You’re talking about the AI thing I think,  I’m talking about Windows Timeline, maybe it doesn’t use screenshots to generate its previews but the point stands.

The AI thing is called Copilot, it has nothing to do with screenshotting.

The screenshot thing is called Recall, it’s different to Timeline. Timeline is available on Windows 10, and you can turn it off if it bothers you.

Recall is only available on Win11 and requires a neural processing unit. PCs with this capability are called Copilot+ because the NPU is designed to run AI. This is not the same thing as having Copilot on your PC (hence the + in the name). Even if your PC can run Recall, you have to enable it before it starts screenshotting your work.

oobe\bypassnro is still working

was a few weeks ago. we use pcs for control of our machines and set them up without a ms account. if we don’t it starts trying to put our underlying system files in the cloud which does not go well at all…

linux is all well and good for the OP, clearly, but what about those of us with an nvidia card? are there drivers available for those yet? asking for a friend who has a 1080 and otherwise decent gaming pc. i, err, my friend likes the sound of bazzite…

linux is all well and good for the OP, clearly, but what about those of us with an nvidia card? are there drivers available for those yet?

Only since the early 2000s NVidia has basically always had Linux drivers!

Pop! OS claims to run AMD and Nvidia natively.

I’m waiting to see what Steam do, there’s a lot of speculation that 3.0 is going to get a public release soon.

Also, being able to login to my laptop when I happen to be somewhere without convenient internet I don’t think is that “bizarro”.

You don’t need to be online to login using a Microsoft account.

NVidia has basically always had Linux drivers!

Ha! Where the hell did I pick up that idea then? Thanks!

You can run nvidia cards on linux… they are supported but it seems AMD cards tend to be better catered for (read less faff) in certain situations depending…

It depends what you want compatibility with.  The MS business model is based around adding features to its products that make them a bit flashier at the expense of compliance with open standards.  Also, the respective office suites do not create round-trip compatible documents  or at least didn’t a few years ago.

Now I don’t have to be compatible with an MS workplace, my Windows usage has dropped to zero.  But that is only because I am using Mrs g’s old Macbook for Zwift and stuff.  Also my requirements are quite modest and I am a bit nerdy Linux-wise (I run Gentoo….)

So an update!

I’ve only had time to prat about with it off and on, over the last few days.. so I’m still duel booting with windows…

So far it works REALLY well for a windows replacement for general desk jockeying.

I’ve managed to get Forza Horizon 5 to run via Steam, and authenticated it via MS**

Random Steam games work really well.

I’m really impressed with the multi screen functionality… I can run movies on my TV (LG oled 4k) from the pc Via HDMI @1440/120hz !!!

It’s a bit of a learning curve… but basic games like portal2 etc…they just run.

I’ve stlil not managed to reliably connect my Xbox seris s pad via bluetooth, but it works flawlessly if I plug it in via USB_c Cable.

**FH5 is running, but only at about 40FPS and the audio is glitching….  so there’s some more figuring out to do there, maybe I’m running the wrong version of Proton.

**my GPU (rx480) only supports 4k@60hz so I’m running it at 1440@120hz which both my TV and GPU support.

Executive summary:

I could flush windows down the toilet right now if I didn’t want to play “triple A games”

As there’s a lot of Linux talk on this thread, I’m going to ask if anyone has any tips for successful 4k video editing on Linux. By successful, I mean, playback within the editor that doesn’t stutter and slow to a crawl when the playhead reaches the start of a clip (no filters). I’ve been using Shotcut recently, works well with 2.7k and thought I’d try recording in 4k but continuing editing in 2.7k to give more zoom/pan flexibility. The jump to 4k hasn’t gone well! I’d expect my H/W to be capable – 32gb DDR4 ram, Intel i5 12600 CPU (Alder Lake), NVMe SSD storage. Using Fedora with Cinnamon.

I run Gentoo

I spent about a year using it many years ago, then  went with Arch Linux for about a decade until the other year when I realized I no longer had time or inclination to keep getting my hands so dirty with system configuration. Hence Fedora.

Hence Fedora.

I think what I’m running ‘nobara’ is based on Fedora, but with the plasma/KDE user interface.

I saw a thread on Bluesky the other day saying how Linux was good these days and easy to do, and i thought, hmm, maybe i should give it a go with the old mac mini that will soon be redundant here.

Anyway, having skim read this thread i have decided that this would be a miserable undertaking that would make me hate life. So thanks all for setting me straight…

Using Linux is great until it suddenly isn’t.

Using Linux is great until it suddenly isn’t.

And this is why we duel boot with windows until we are happy, and also why we have backups.

This little experimiment has cost me about £26 for a cheap 500gb 2.5″ SSD.. and quite a few hours of learing and frustration…

Basically my aim is to move away from Windows and IOS, and so far, it’s working very well. I’ve rebooted into windows now, it’s a familiarity thing I guess, (Stockholm syndrome?) but it takes like, less than 90 seconds to shutdown and reboot into linux.

old mac mini that will soon be redundant here.

Half the probelm with apple macs are, they are why they are..they work until they can’y cope, and then they are just E-waste…you can’t upgrade the CPU or the RAM or the GPU…. unless you want to spend 10x what it would cost to just but a proper upgradable PC in the first place.

Using Linux is great until it suddenly isn’t.

I’ve been using it for 24 years, it’s fine 😉

I’ve been using it for 24 years

We’ve all been using it since the day we first interacted with computers, in one shape or another, we just might not realise it.

We’ve all been using it since the day we first interacted with computers, in one shape or another, we just might not realise it.

I can assure you, sonny, I wasn’t using Linux since I first started “interacting” with computers 🙂

Was kind of a tongue in cheek comment… anyway here’ s a tune for you…

this is why we duel boot

SSDs at dawn, the fastest read-write wins?

I can assure you, sonny, I wasn’t using Linux since I first started “interacting” with computers

I’m pretty sure my mate wasn’t running Linux on his ZX81. 🙂

SSDs at dawn, the fastest read-write wins?

Very good, this needs recognition!!

https://www.techspot.com/news/105894-microsoft-now-officially-allows-windows-11-installation-unsupported.html