Technology

Even if all the processing remained on my devices, I still wouldn't want or trust it. Microsoft could change that policy at any time, claim something like my logging in to my local account constituted agreeing to their new terms, and expose screenshots of my password manager in an unsecured public data store.

Fuck Windows Recall, and fuck Microsoft generally for being so fucking awful to their customers but mainly fuck them for forcing me to finally make good on my threat to switch to Linux. I've been using Windows for over thirty years and switching off their spyware for ten, but this is the final straw.

No, there’s a bigger context that you’re not considering: enterprise IT orgs in privacy-sensitive/confidential domains.

This whole feature is an absolute non-starter in biotech, defense, finance, and a bunch of other industries. It’s an infosec nightmare. Legal teams will categorically refuse to allow W11 to be installed simply due to the legal jeopardy it would put their own orgs in, since it implicitly trusts MS with who the fuck knows how much data exactly.

I continue to be shocked and baffled that MS isn’t taking their stance on this product as an “always-on” thing back to the drawing board.

I've tested it, and while it does work, there are some issues:

1. The anti-cheat doesn't work for all games (delta force demo).
2. Sometimes i had strange sound glitches.
3. I had to use a second mouse. In certain games where you drag the camera (like Sins of a Solar Empire), the camera spins uncontrollably fast.
4. It's not as fast or responsive, but good enough.
5. Game Pass games don't run.

Because of these points, I still keep Windows 10 as a dual boot option.

I don’t recommend going that direction. I think you’ll get better results with Proton and Proton-based solutions like Lutris and family.

I only play games that work native or via proton. I just use windows for the CAD programs that i need to use. I do gpu pass through and native for my host system idk how this would be for gaming tho.

With GPU passthrough you can get almost native performance. This requires 2 GPUs though (iGPU as second one should suffice), dunno about the input lag and stability though as I only have one GPU

Without it though? Not even worth trying

I mean, it's not like accidentally running Recall once is going to automatically compromise all your data to Microsoft in perpetuity. I don't even know what the final implementation is supposed to be, I'll make up my mind when I can review it, not before. Ditto for Apple's version on the new iPhones and all the other stuff being promoted right now.

But in this case I'm just puzzled. At this point it sure looks like they installed some package or service that is probably the ground layer for the actual feature at some point, but that doesn't mean it's doing anything at the moment. Maybe logging the same metadata as the Win8 feature, but it's not clear (there is a "activity history" setting in the privacy settings now, perhaps it's part of that?).

If anything the panic shows how tainted the Recall name has become, but that's not new for Microsoft. That original logging feature was also widely hated, as was a lot of their search or their current, mandatory "widget" news feed that nobody has ever found useful. The question is how widely tainted it is, and whether normies will want to burn it with fire as much as the Linux-facing techies.

I fixed a windows install for an old guy, and windows patched the BIOS to prevent F11 loading the boot menu....

Never again

I think that was The Zuck.