Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

Apparently testing was pretty good and MS has decided to launch Recall for Windows 11. They have made it opt-in, thus you must specifically enable it before it starts snapshotting your system. This is good.

But there's something better: it doesn't run on most machines out there!

Recall requires a system with an NPU, a Neural Processing Unit. These are additional chips installed on the motherboard that have only been in the sales channel for about a year. I'm also pretty sure that these computers came with a keyboard that had a Copilot key on the bottom row to the right of the space bar, though there may be keyboards with that key sold with computers without the NPU. So if your PC is from 2023 or older, it doesn't have an NPU and won't run Recall.

And yes, there are laptops with NPUs.

Recall is part of a feature package called CoPilot+. From the article: "The only consumer processors that currently support Copilot+ are Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and Plus chips, Intel's Core Ultra 200V-series laptop chips (codenamed Lunar Lake), and AMD's Ryzen AI 300 series. Copilot+ features have generally been coming to the Arm-based Qualcomm PCs first and to x86-based Intel and AMD PCs later; Recall and the improved Search are available for both Arm and x86 PCs, while some Click to Do features are currently only available for Arm systems."

Of course there is the problem that when you go to replace your current system in a few years, it's likely that your new box will contain an NPU and you'll get nagged to activate Recall.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/04/microsoft-rolls-windows-recall-out-to-the-public-nearly-a-year-after-announcing-it/


In an interesting sidenote, Intel's AI chipsets are not selling well, people are really wanting the previous generation known as Raptor Lake. The AI chips are known as Lunar Lake and Meteor Lake, I think one name designates laptop chips.

Intel is having all sorts of corporate problems and it's being felt up and down the product line. They're looking at selling off divisions to hunker down and get their act together.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/intels-ai-pc-chips-arent-selling-instead-last-gen-raptor-lake-booms-and-creates-a-shortage

Recall, if you recall, is their replay "assistant" that no one seems to particularly be asking for. It takes screen shots of your computer and stores them so that you can look back if you lose information. During the first tests of it we learned that the storage of said snapshots were not secure, so someone who'd infiltrated your computer could conceivably see banking credentials, medical records, etc.

From the article: "Originally planned for October, Recall will now be available for preview with Windows Insiders on Copilot Plus PCs by December."

and

"Earlier this week, Microsoft again clarified that Recall will not be mandatory on Copilot Plus PCs, and will be an opt-in experience that can be fully removed."

It'll be interesting to see the blowback when this thing finally deploys, especially if it isn't fully opt-in.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/31/24284572/microsoft-recall-delay-december-windows-insider-testing

Of course it is!

In a recent developers build, Recall was shown as something that could be removed in Windows Features. This is apparently a bug and will be removed from the Features applet in a future update. The Verge reached out to Microsoft to try and find out if Recall will be removable but did not receive a direct answer.

In the EU, Microsoft was required to make their browser removable, presumably the same thing will be required for Recall. So hopefully some clever boffins over there will find the registry switches to let us do it over here.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/2/24233992/microsoft-recall-windows-11-uninstall-feature-bug

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/09/02/2241242/microsoft-says-its-recall-uninstall-option-in-windows-11-is-just-a-bug

This was kind of inevitable, so many things are moving there and sometimes it's hard to what obscure thing you're looking for is where. In the end it will probably be a good thing, but it'll take a decade before it's stable. ;-)

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/system-configuration-tools-in-windows-f8a49657-b038-43b8-82d3-28bea0c5666b

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/08/23/031251/microsoft-says-its-getting-rid-of-control-panel-in-windows


In other Windows news, Microsoft announces the return of Recall. That's the system where your operating system watches everything you do, OCRs it and stores it in a local database to help you remember what you were doing in the past for your convenience. This was announced back in June, and it was discovered in beta deployments that there was absolutely no security being deployed in the database in terms of encryption or permissions, so if someone gained access to your PC - which never happens - then they could see your bank credentials, credit card numbers, health insurance info, you know - trivial things.

Details have not yet been released as to what security protections have been put in place. A non-existent Microsoft PR flack was quoted as saying "Trust us!"

The revised feature will go to Insider Program testers in October. Microsoft says more details will be disclosed at that time.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/08/microsoft-will-try-the-data-scraping-windows-recall-feature-again-in-october/

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/1648253/microsoft-will-try-the-data-scraping-windows-recall-feature-again-in-october

Most of the systems affected are back working, but the remainder still accounts for a rather staggering 250,000 PCs and servers. My guess is these are the hardest hit and are either physically difficult to access or encrypted and might need to have the drive replaced and rebuilt from scratch.

Oh, the Uber Eats gift card debacle has been resolved. It's still a debacle, but apparently the cards that were sent out are now actually redeemable.

So why is the European Commission to blame? Let's get technical.

The core of an operating system is its kernel. This is the set of programs that provide its basic operations and core security. Obviously this is the most important part of the OS, and the part that you want to protect the most. Preferably, as the maker of the operating system, you don't want anyone to have direct access to the kernel.

Linux and Apple Mac do not allow access to the kernel, not even for anti-virus and anti-malware applications. They have a framework that allows those sorts of programs to run and defend the kernel, but not actually link into it. Thus, they were completely unaffected by the ClownStrike event.

But because of Microsoft's overwhelming market domination and ubiquity, the EC didn't like that everyone was banned from kernel access for their third-party software for things like malware and virus protection and required that Microsoft literally and actually break their security model to allow such kernel access. The alternative was that they couldn't sell Windows user or server software in Europe, and there was no way that was going to happen. So Microsoft broke the security protections that Windows had, and ClownStrike broke Windows.

Now the big question is what happens in the future to prevent a similar event? Microsoft says they are evaluating newer frameworks, more along the lines of what Linux and Mac are currently doing, to remove ClownStrike and similar software from the kernel to keep a repeat event from happening again. I would suspect that the EC regulators will take a look at what this cost the world-wide economy - estimated at over $5 billion dollars - and see that Apple and Linux allow third-party products to work well with their operating systems and give MS permission to lock down their kernel in a more secure fashion.

Which will make things better, but will also take some time to roll out.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/07/97-of-crowdstrike-systems-are-back-online-microsoft-suggests-windows-changes/

After suffering TONS of blowback in the press and industry, Microsoft is pulling the playback feature that took snapshots of what you were doing on your computer and saved them. The issue being that the save was unencrypted and readily accessible to anyone who could sign on to the PC: such as spouse abusers, hackers, etc. Why it was not encrypted from the get go, I don't understand.

Privacy? Who needs privacy! It's nifty! Nifty > privacy!

There were ways to deactivate the Recall feature, how easily it could be turned off is a matter of some debate. Microsoft and other vendors are also infamous for silently turning on things with updates that users had previously turned off.

CoPilot+ goes live June 18. *sigh*

https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/microsoft-postpones-windows-recall-after-major-backlash-will-launch-copilot-pcs-without-headlining-ai-feature

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/06/14/0318213/microsoft-postpones-windows-recall-after-major-backlash

Meanwhile Windows 11 adoption rate DECLINES to below the 26% mark after hitting a high of just over 28%.

I'm running 11 Pro on my desktop at home. But given the choice, I prefer 10. I can't go back to it, don't have the media. And it's about to go to paid-for support, which I don't want to mess with. I have not yet found any feature in 11 that benefits me, in fact I had to find a workaround to move the task bar to the vertical left side of the screen, where I prefer it.

I really hate it when they eliminate features that people like.

https://www.neowin.net/news/windows-10-reaches-70-market-share-as-windows-11-keeps-declining/

*sigh* At least it's been a long time since the last one, but it's going to be a rough transition.

Microsoft is taking away the Ctrl key on the right.

In its place will be a key for its CoPilot AI Assistant.

Won't that be just dandy?

The last change was when MS added the Windows key to the Natural Keyboard back in '94. But MS really wants people to use its AI assistant, so what better way than to make a key dedicated to it where people regularly use a normal key?

Here's the kicker: it's possible that it may not be able to be reassigned!

I was reading an article on Dell's new XPS series that's going through a complete refresh for 2024. They all have the new CoPilot key - to the left of the left arrow key - and it is immutable. Cannot be changed. That's definitely going to force a lot of people to retrain muscle memory who are semi-touch typists.

Personally, if they'd tied it to a function key, or left the key reprogrammable - that'd be fine. But if it is indeed not reprogrammable, that's going to be quite an issue!

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/ai-comes-for-your-pcs-keyboard-as-microsoft-adds-dedicated-copilot-key/

And all of your printers appearing to be HP lasers!

Doesn't that make you feel special?!

Theoretically your printer should continue working normally, unless you have third-party drivers. It's unknown if MS will be able to remove the driver and whether or not at that point what will happen to your printer configuration. Right now I'll bet IT staff are ready to go on a rampage at HP HQ! My home system is unaffected as I don't have printer drivers installed in it: I occasionally print to PDF files, that's it. If I need to actually print something, I mail the document to myself and print it from my laser attached to my Mac.

Microsoft claims it is a bug in the MS Store and has nothing to do with HP.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/12/hp-printer-app-is-installing-on-pcs-whether-they-have-hp-printers-or-not/

I've never liked the Chrome browser, personally, for two reasons. It had an auto-update that at the time that I learned about it you couldn't disable, and it eats an awful lot of resources. And I don't use it except on a couple of PCs at work, not on my personal work station.

So let me give you a little background on how cookies can track you across web sites.

First off, don't go thinking that Google is mainly a search engine company. They are an advertising company. They make their money off of selling (functionally) ad space to companies through search results and looking at key words in your email. NEVER FORGET THIS. It used to be this was accomplished by what is known as third-party cookies. This was a special kind of cookie that could persist across web sites and browser sessions.

For example, you buy a pair of shoes off of Amazon. Amazon keeps a cookie (or three) in your browser's cookie cache that remembers some information about you, and theoretically no one except Amazon can read that information. So we have an Amazon.com cookie. Now, a super cookie is just a cookie with the name .Com and that's it. And because it's a top-level domain (TLD), apparently it can read some information below it, such as the Amazon.com cookie. It may not know what the information within the Amazon.com cookies means, but it knows the information is there and might be able to make some guesses.

Advertisers want as much information about people as they can get, supercookies are one such tool. Another tool is tracking pixels. These are invisible 1 pixel images that are inserted into a page or email that link to a server where the tracking pixel has a specific identity tied to the email or page that you open. If your email or web page doesn't block images or tracking pixels, when you open the page, that pixel is loaded - and the tracker database knows that specific pixel was loaded and ties that page or your email into tracking information about you.

Now, email programs can be configured to block tracking pixels and supercookies, which advertisers hate because they get less analytic information which means less information they can sell to potential ad or analytics buyers. And remember, Google is in the ad serving business.

Google came up with an alternative, baked into the browser that they want everyone to use. When you open Gmail, or Google Search, in Firefox or Microsoft Edge or Safari, you get this lovely popup: For the best experience, open this page in Google Chrome. Gee, wonder why! Now what Google is doing is they analyze the page that your browser is now looking at and generates a 'topic list', along with a unique identifier for your PC, and now they have analytics that they can sell for ad buyers! All without cookies! Oh, and it gets better! Google claims "a significant step on the path towards a fundamentally more private web."

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

They also claim that they'll block third-party cookies in the second half of 2024. I think Firefox now does that by default. And while Microsoft Edge, which is a pretty good browser, is built on Chrome code, it can also block third-party cookies.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/googles-widely-opposed-ad-platform-the-privacy-sandbox-launches-in-chrome/