I think it’s likely that Microsoft will start turning it on by default, and resetting it with updates for people who have opted out. Much like they did with edge and Cortana, intentionally making it harder to choose not to use it.

More programs actively blocking it will make that harder, but I wonder how many will stick to their guns when pressured by Microsoft.

I suspect that Microsoft will ratchet up the pressure to force it on people as the gen AI bubble pops, an attempt to keep the narrative alive to keep up demand for their overbuilt GPU data centers.

MARK MY WORDS: They're going to feed your screenshots into an AI eventually, then try to make an operating system that you don't need a mouse for.

One that does everything people do on computers (the basic stuff anyways). That's their goal here; AI OS.

Nothing private about Windows recall. It makes your computer usage into their training data.

Ok, seriously, just use Linux. I know how it sounds, but I'd say a majority of people use a computer to use a web browser. Guess what? We browsers have always worked and been native with Linux.

Problem is, it's not a passion for most people and they just want to buy something and get on the internet. While they exist, you can't exactly go to Best buy and buy a new computer running Linux.

But really, if you have hardware that works well with it, it's a dream.

No, I don't want Linux or any other OS. I perfectly know my way around with Windows and so many of my regular tasks depend on tools made for Windows. I have used Linux desktop in the past and have many friends and co-workers who use it as their main OS, but it's just not for me.

Besides of course this recall stuff gets blown way out of proportion like every time Microsoft makes a bad move. All of my computers don't even support recall and when they eventually do, I'll just disable it in one of like four possible different ways.

"Opt out of" or disable/block?

To me, "block" or "disable" seems like it blocks/disables the feature machine-wide, when it just says "pretty please, make me black after you take that screenshot".

What's been your favourite version of Windows?

Yup, that's how they operate...

I'm currently sticking to Windows 10 on my private machines but already on 11 on my work computer and it's fine with an alternative start menu. I'm also looking forward to the better HDR features on 11.

so many of my regular tasks depend on tools made for Windows.

Ok but the OP is taking about people who just use their computer for browsing the internet, so how is this relevant?

Fair enough, I use 10 and 11 at work and hate it ... I used to like 7, using the control panel, search, default paths and stuff seemed a lot more intuitive.

That's why I stick with Linux at home, it feels a lot more like Windows used to, lol

Yeah the control panel revisions took some getting used to, but now I think it's not so bad. I know where to find everything but I can see how it's frustrating for others. What's most important to me is that I have local admin rights on my work PC and can customize it to my liking. Many companies lock their devices down heavily, and I don't want to deal with that.

Indeed, I don't have admin rights for anything outside of IP address changes at work.

I just thought of another bug bear, start menu lag on mouse clicks is a very odd problem, I don't remember anything like that, even on the first release of Windows 95 which I ran on a laptop with 25MHz and 8 Mb of ram.

I just wanted to note that the 2nd paragraph made me downvote, the first one iust made me roll my eyes

I've heard about that but haven't noticed it myself. It does sound annoying.

This is the way of the world, but only because people are allowing it. I will never understand "I'm too lazy to care about my privacy", which undermines our security way more than we even know.

The worst part is that, no matter how some of us care and do something about our privacy, the ones that we interact with that don't care still expose us to all this BS. Until the world changes it's mindset, this will not change, and only get worse (I'm not holding my breath for people to care though).

Second paragraph isn't wrong though.

I don't think so. I don't think it is blown out of proportion, I actually think it is that bad, and I also think that if you think you can just disable it and be done with it, you don't have any experience with microsoft products and services. they regularly reset privacy settings, both on windows, and yesterday I found that even in their android apps like the swiftkey keyboard.

another example of this tendency, is that a few days ago I was helping a friend with computer problems who stuck on windows 7, and I have seen that microsoft yas gone out of its way to push an update or something that installed their edge browser, pinned it to the taskbar and automatically opened it on boot.

I've never had that issue on Professional editions of Windows 10 or 11. Home edition? Maybe. But Pro lets you override almost anything you want with group policies.

I also rely on group policies. they do get reverted. o&o shutup10 has a feature to detect it and point that out, and I see it almost every time I open it. I use it rarely per machine, but I use it on multiple machines and each does this.

then sometimes the setting is just ignored. I was baffled when the policy to disable the start menu automatic bing search -which basically uploads all your local searches to microsoft bing - did not work, even after 2 reboots. I think it was this year, perhaps the last one