The Windows 11 Apocalypse thread

[Skybird]

In this thread I will occasionally unsystematically post info and videos on the unfolding security and privacy desaster that Windows 11 is. Some poeple may not be aware of things like Copilot and Recall, and why they are so totally unacceptable. With Windows 10's days counted at least regarding updates, some people sooner rather than later will consider to go Windows 11, others may buy a new machine and get it as a free toxic preinstalled suicide bonus.

Myself, I was stunned with disbelief when I learned the first horrifying details about Windows 11's safety and privacy meltdown. I have buried all plans to ever buy a new machine for Windows use again, which will dramatically chnage and in parts delete my ability to play the sims I like, namely racing sims, flight sims and PC-based VR. I will get a new gaming rig once the need is there, but tailored to the needs of gaming under Linux, because Windows 11 is totally and completely unacceptable to me even if here in the EU certain legislation may and already have been released forcing Microsoft to compromise some of its totalitarian wet dreams. But who said they comply? There are already reports on that they lie and do not comply at all, but hollow out the new rules released in August this year.

With Recall at the latest Microsoft has overstepped the last thin red line for me, I am fed up with Microsoft. It led to the number of Windows 11 users declining over this year (!!) by either going back to Windows 10 - or migrating to Linux or Apple. Windows 11 and Recall is a great marketing strategy of Microsoft to push people over to Linux, the move is already happening.

I can only warn everybody to embark on Windows 11 or to carelessly accept Recall. And that you should not trust the cheating words and candy-glossed lies of Microsoft you should know yourself by now.

"Personal" Computers are dead. Windows is dead. That simple it is.

If you hear of this for the first time: Recall is a default-activated and mandatory "service" that creates screenshots of your screen every 5 seconds and stores these on your HD, exposing them to criminal hackers who attack your machine as well as allows remote-analysis by Microsoft' well-meaning AI tools. It snot just screenshots being stored, but the content of these screenshots in image and text and formula gets analysed by AI - and extracted, if MS sees an interest to do so, obviously. PIN numbers and sensitive data and texts you enter get analysed. Intimate communications you trade with a partner get analysed. Confidential customer or patient files get analysed. Data you may need to keep confidential for legal reasons if you are a lawyer or doctor etc will get analysed.

Its the total transparency and surveillance of yourself. And its mixed into the code of file explorer, you cannot delete the code of Recall and being done with it, they force you to accept its presence by trying to make it undeletable. You cannnot easily find it insettings of Windows (in the EU they need to make it "deactivatable" and they must offer it as an opt-in, not opt-out like in other parts of the world. But do you trust Microsoft that they do not secretly - or accidentally, "oooops, we apologize for our mishap" - activate it again? Or hammer the activation button secretely with every update they install?

You cannot trust Microsoft. They want total control over all data on your computer, that is their goal, you should not have any illusions there.

Go Linux. Serious. Because now the situation really becomes threatening. For your safety. For your privacy,. For your legal situation. You can violate privacy laws and rules of confidentiality if you work in certain professions and use this OS.

Gaming is said to have become quite good under Linux, with things like Proton Steam. I will investigate that.

[Skybird]

IMHO Recall is like a ticking time bomb for everybody using a system with it enabled, may it be his own devicem, or a public one, or his serviceman's device, it does not matter.

And Microsoft's claims and words and promises mean nothing.

Windows 10 was once marketed by the claim that it would be the last operaiton sysstem of that name. Well, for me that is true.




And this guy has drawn the consequences. He says his gaming has often become better under Linux than under Windows.

[mapuc]

Do remember that 95-98 % of us computer user isn't exactly what you would call a computer nerd and can do nothing than embrace the new operative system Win11.

I'm going to stick with my Win10 as long as I can.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Avoid Win11 like the plague for as long as possible.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Do remember that 95-98 % of us computer user isn't exactly what you would call a computer nerd and can do nothing than embrace the new operative system Win11.

I'm going to stick with my Win10 as long as I can.

Markus

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Avoid Win11 like the plague for as long as possible.

...as do I; I'm constantly decling sudden screen requests to upgrade to WIN 11 from my current WIN 10...a miserable form of nagging elder abuse to a computer illiterate as myself IMHO. I gresatly mourn the loss of my WIN 7 which had all my favorite games, particularly SH-5.

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

...as do I; I'm constantly decling sudden screen requests to upgrade to WIN 11 from my current WIN 10...a miserable form of nagging elder abuse to a computer illiterate as myself IMHO. I gresatly mourn the loss of my WIN 7 which had all my favorite games, particularly SH-5.

I have Windows 10 for business correspondences as it was essentially forced on me at work. I absolutely refuse to " upgrade " to Windows 11. My Silent Hunter 3 frequently crashes on Windows 10 units. I still have Windows 7 units with which to play Silent Hunter 3 and other applications. Luckily or unluckily, I never have time to play them anyhow. Maybe with Winter Weather fast approaching.....

I think it's time to for me revisit Linux and it's derivatives, like Ubunto Operating Systems. Maybe Microsoft and other manufacturers like HP will finally get the message but I seriously doubt it.

[Skybird]

[Skybird]

[Eichhörnchen]

Originally Posted by Skybird

If you hear of this for the first time: Recall is a default-activated and mandatory "service" that creates screenshots of your screen every 5 seconds and stores these on your HD, exposing them to criminal hackers who attack your machine as well as allows remote-analysis by Microsoft' well-meaning AI tools

Surely all you need to do - if you've somehow mistakenly downloaded Recall - is delete the folder it created to store all your stuff?

[Skybird]

See the video one post before yours, Eichhörnchen. What there is said about the role of AI in smartphones surveilling your deeds, habits, choices and verbal messages, is also true for the Recall data treasure chest on your HD - or do you really want to rely on Microsoft's sugarcode-wordings that they will not access that data? Das will ich doch nicht hoffen...! The screen content of every five seconds screenshots is being stored in a format that AI can analyse. And that is the real purpose behind it.


Also, a hacker getting this database of encoded screenshots, knows everything you entered on your PC that way. Sensitive data. Porn pics. Maybe PIN numbers. Customer data if its a business machine. Business plans. Hidden chats with your hidden girlfriend your wife does not know of.

Microsoft hides accessability to Recall options to switch it off. In the EU Recall must be an opt-in option, outside the EU they just have switched it to "mandatory", it is on by default and hard to switch off. They do that on purpose, and its not that easy at all to deactivate it, and even if the screen tick box said it is off now - how do you now that it is off indeed...? Its just a graphics you get displayed, it says "off". Pixels on a screen. Windows notoriously telephones home. Why is that?

Why is it that on my Windows 10 machine the telemetry "service" is practically impossible to switch off in the meaning of it not being activated automatically when booting? And while MS says it only collects data on my hardware setup and components why must it then scan and run my HD and SSD 20-30 m minutes every time I boot - it surely is just a thing of seconds to scan all technical compenents of my system and driver versions and put these data up in a simple file...?

(I made it a rule to go inbto Taks Msanager every time I boot and tnhere deaciutvate Telemtry Service manually, after every booting. I trtied all registry hacks that there on the web tio get rid of telemetry, and ran all tips and recipes - none of these work, that thing is what MS wants active, and they made sure you cannot switch it off. - WHY...? When it is only about collecting data on your hardware setup? And why must you telephone home these simple informaitons every time you boot? And why must all your HD and SSD apparently completely get scanned for that, 20-30 minutes long...???)

Dont be naive. >>> Do. Not. Trust. <<< When it comes to Microsoft, Google, and Apple, always assume the worst. Betting on it will make you a rich man. Privacy is against their business interests. And against government interests.

That video is about smartphones, and yet I put that in here - for a purpose.

Windows 11 is a privacy and security nightmare. Worse than anything I just years ago could imagine. An no, Apple OS and Google are NOT any better.

Some now want to add AI modules even into Linux. These idiots must have lost their senses. Its like starting a vaccination campaign against health.

[Skybird]

https://www.youtube.com/@robbraxmantech/videos

[Catfish]

And we can thank Apple, Microsoft, Zuckerberg and Musk for this.

[Skybird]

And Bezos. And China. And ourselves. By our consumer and political election decisions we let them go ahead with this.

Die dümmsten Kälber wählen sich ihre Metzger selber.

Edit: the guy is good, he knows his stuff and his explanations and videos show that he has really seen through it in depth. I can only recommend many of his videos. We currently give up, voluntarily, our freedom and independence. We must have completely lost all our marbles.

Butler, come soon and start your djihad...

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Butler, come soon and start your djihad...

.. yes only we have to do it ourselves

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/23/t...man/index.html

Also Musk is not against AI, not at all. He is against OPEN AI, the one that is free

edit:
"The Biden administration’s prospective “AI Bill of Rights,” for instance, seeks to regulate AI with an eye to protecting individual rights and civil liberties. For all its ambition, such a framework fails to reckon with the threat of mass economic displacement—and resulting social disruption—posed by AI."
The page has been put off the net right after Trump's inauguration lol
https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-b...compactmag.com

[Buddahaid]

Just bought a new PC from a boutique shop with Windows 11. Boutique shop because they don’t install bloatware nor do they activate onedrive and because software I use almost daily will not run on Windows 10 January 2026. Also buying before the idiotic tariff wars double the price.