*** Microsoft Windows 11 Thoughts & Discussion Thread ***

[ED209]

It is a two way street when they add AI, because it feeds your writing, images, or whatever back to them when making a suggestion (it can't function otherwise), so it improves itself by taking your data.

The more data it has, the better the tool gets and the more competitive their models/services are.

That's my take on it, anything with AI is not trustworthy from a privacy or plagiarism POV, because it gets gobbled up by the machine.

Totally agree, I do not give consent for them to take and train their AI on my data\images\etc

This is why I am thinking of moving to Linux. AI has it's uses for looking at xrays to find issues etc but not on my home PC which is used for gaming and browsing.

 

[Tetras]

Totally agree, I do not give consent for them to take and train their AI on my data\images\etc

This is why I am thinking of moving to Linux. AI has it's uses for looking at xrays to find issues etc but not on my home PC which is used for gaming and browsing.

I've have already switched if I don't have some apps that don't run properly on Linux. Windows is just a vehicle for corporate data theft at this point instead of an OS, though I guess that happened before AI, even if Windows 11 24H2 is showing us the endgame.

 

[darael]

Just more hassle and I bet it will end up back on the PC with Windows updates

That's not usually the case with apps. I use the classic calculator in Windows 10 and have uninstalled the Calculator app. Windows Update hasn't made any effort to try and restore the app.

So I'd argue that it's well worth the effort.

AI should be optional and not default. If the user wants it, they can choose to install it. If the user doesn't want it, don't assume they either will or might want it and just install it anyway.

The route Microsoft is taking with Windows 11 is troubling for me and all the more reason to stick with Windows 10. I can see Windows 10 eventually getting community updates, just as Windows 7 currently does.

 

[ED209]

That's not usually the case with apps. I use the classic calculator in Windows 10 and have uninstalled the Calculator app. Windows Update hasn't made any effort to try and restore the app.

So I'd argue that it's well worth the effort.

AI should be optional and not default. If the user wants it, they can choose to install it. If the user doesn't want it, don't assume they either will or might want it and just install it anyway.

The route Microsoft is taking with Windows 11 is troubling for me and all the more reason to stick with Windows 10. I can see Windows 10 eventually getting community updates, just as Windows 7 currently does.

That was my other option, Roll back to Windows 10 and ignore Windows 11 as all the AI stuff seems to b aimed at 11

 

[Donnie Fisher]

I wonder about businesses going forward. My company is on 10 still, (which I like), but I wonder about 11, and whether they will force enable AI on machines within the companies. Does that mean that Windows will be able to scrape what is effectively business data? Some of it will be very sensitive for some companies, and some will be handling personal data under GDPR ... yet MS will potentially be accessing all of it ? It's mental the more I think about it.

 

[Tetras]

I wonder about businesses going forward. My company is on 10 still, (which I like), but I wonder about 11, and whether they will force enable AI on machines within the companies. Does that mean that Windows will be able to scrape what is effectively business data? Some of it will be very sensitive for some companies, and some will be handling personal data under GDPR ... yet MS will potentially be accessing all of it ? It's mental the more I think about it.

This is a part of why there's such a fuss about Recall being embedded in the OS, not just because of privacy concerns with storing it locally, but because with one simple on/off toggle it can be re-enabled remotely and upload everything you have ever done on that machine (within however many second windows for the screenshots) to their servers.

Microsoft automatically enabled OneDrive backups awhile back, so sending the Recall archives to them won't take any extra work on their part.

 

[Rroff]

Not to mention unfriendly to people who may still be on limited/pay per gigabyte, etc. internet connections when these features are enabled automatically and/or attempted to be forced on, etc. etc.

 

[Murphy]

I wonder about businesses going forward. My company is on 10 still, (which I like), but I wonder about 11, and whether they will force enable AI on machines within the companies. Does that mean that Windows will be able to scrape what is effectively business data? Some of it will be very sensitive for some companies, and some will be handling personal data under GDPR ... yet MS will potentially be accessing all of it ? It's mental the more I think about it.

I guess it will depend on how big a company you are, if you sign up to access their cloud-based unified endpoint management service (aka: Intune) and keep paying you get a lot more control over these sorts of things.

If you're a pleb like me who uses Windows at home you either have to jump through hoops or just accept your role as a guinea pig.

 

[mrk]

GIFs only capture so much, but these were recorded at 240fps with the screen at 240Hz, really do find the Windows 11 animations super smooth/slick. In b4 "Mac has had this for years".

These are slowed to 1/4 speed to show the smoothness.

 

[Vimes]

IIRC it was Windows 8, the last version, where you could scale a desktop to less than 100%. I now miss that option with Windows 11. Yes you can do certain things to make certain icons etc smaller, but overall having that negative value function of scale was useful, for me anyway.
Going back, not sure how long for, from using a 4k monitor as my primary to a 34£ UW at 3440x1440 at 100% the overall UI is just too big. Some applications, like Steam or Edge takes their scaling from the UI of the OS, so it compromise how others look.
I just wish that the yhad maintained what they seemed to drop after W8, scaling under 100%, iirc.