Microsoft braces for automatic AI takeover with Copilot at Windows startup Microsoft is experimenting with having Copilot open automatically upon Windows startup. Described as a "Change and Improvement" for users who have a minimum screen width of 27 inches, Microsoft's latest attempt to cram the AI assistant into every bit of the OS turned up in the Windows Insider Dev Channel a few days ago. The …
Surely, what is ""what is the best" operating system is subjective?
For instance, my PC at home is used 98% of the time for gaming, therefore, in that instance "the best operating system" is Windows as it's more compatible, natively, with the majority of games.
On the other hand, my laptop is used for web, email, Youtube etc and that is running a version of Mint as that is "the best operating system" for that usage case.
I also have a Chromebook that also works in tablet mode, which I use if travelling and if I need a, rather large and cumbersome, tablet, and that is "the best operating system" for that usage case.
There will be outliers in all cases but I think you're being excessively dour. I think that there will be broad trends of use that mean an automatic adjustment upon encountering a novel monitor (to that system) will satisfy the majority of users. This will be helped by all that telemetry Microsoft love to slurp.
My employer is finishing up a, er, pilot program of Copilot. I asked for additional suggestions on things to use it for, as none of the suggested uses were at all applicable to my role, and I had been unable to find anything useful to do with it. Instead, they told me that was exactly the kind of feedback that they need - that for folks in my role, it's useless so don't pay for it.
It's bad enough getting my laptop to "start up" without me drinking 3 coffees and smoking 3 ciggies
You clearly don't have a Mac - that would be "3 soy lattes and 3 vape refills and one vial of beard oil[1]" :-)
(I cleaned up the "start at login" settings on my Mac - it's amazing how much old cruft was there - even stuff left over from applications that I removed years ago! That's what happens when you migrate from Mac to Mac and don't actually start from fresh at one migration..)
[1] I've had a beard for many, many years [2] and I have yet to purchase said mysterious oil..
[2] Shaving hurt. So I stopped shaving with the (eventual) consequence that I have a beard. Fortunately, my wife is entirely happy with the situation and, on the very rare occasion that I remove it, wants me to grow it back as quickly as possible. A less secure person might wonder why..
I recently replaced on Intel iMac with a shiny M3. I made the decision to do a clean install and just load the software I was actually using; with my mail, calendar, and documents. I've been retired for a while, so I realized that I no longer needed Parallels VMs for all the Windows stuff I had written. The new disk drive's contents were 170GB smaller than the old one.
No I don't want Co-Pilot to even run on my OS without me doing a specific install, but then it's M$ so what do they care. We need some more creepiness providers so the EU can say bundling it is anti-competitive and rip it out.
What also gets me, is why on Earth "Microsoft has updated the Windows share window to share URLs directly to WhatsApp, Gmail, X, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and dealt with an issue..."! Just provide the framework and if you install the unwanted associated application, then add it to the share system (like android), don't just build it in.
With how they write their software lately, it wouldn't surprise me if we find that on opening it, it pings a load of info to them regardless if you have an account or not.
This helpful article tells you how to automate removal on W11 23H2 (which has Copilot installed and pinned to the taskbar by default, whether you like it or not) - I've tried this and it works:
https://www.prajwaldesai.com/disable-copilot-on-windows-11-intune-gpo/
We can hope that they don't enforce auto start, but come on, who are we kidding? Of course they are likely to - they are clearly determined to force their latest shiteware on everyone, and this sort of tactic is pretty much expected these days.
Someone out there has probably posted Powershell commands to do it, which you could wrap up into a script that also removes other unwanted Windows "features", such as all the XBox crap.
I know, this is still far from ideal. But if you have a Powershell script on a USB drive, it's easy enough, on the rare occasions you install Windows, to open an Administrator command prompt, plug the drive in, and run the script.
Though having said that, I've never gotten around to doing it myself. Instead, when a new Windows laptop is forced on my by my employer, I spend the better part of a day going through Settings, Add/Remove Programs, Add/Remove Windows Features, Services control panel, Local Security Policy editor, Group Policy editor, and Powershell commands I have to look up each time, getting rid of cruft. It's just not quite often enough (happens every 4 or 5 years, as I opt out of equipment "refreshes" when I can) for me to have taken the time to automate it.
I misread this as Microsoft were sticking Copilot in charge of an experimental new version of Windows and genuinely thought “ah well, it couldn’t be worse…”
Annoyingly for me, Copilot is also the name of a brilliant satnav app for smartphones (before apple and Google did turn-by-turn directions) and I still have a fondness for the name. Not for much longer I reckon.
I had some Tom Tom navigation app on my Treo, might have been the same one.
No GPS, but it worked usably well just off GSM cell data.
Not perfect, though. It once directed me down rue d'Alsace in Paris, next to gare de l'Est. Fortunately I was on a bicycle, since that road has a staircase about halfway along its length.
These days I use Google maps. I don't want to, but what to do on Android?* (I don't mind paying.)
-A.
*I'm trying to switch to a UBP device. Haven't yet got the Android subsystem working at all, and so have no navigation so far. Suggestions?
and looking at what data is sends to god knows who without asking for permission.
Then they'll find buried deep in the the licence that you clicked through years ago, you gave MS permission to share anything it wants to with anyone it chooses.
Then we'll see businesses all over the world blocking every sire that MS sends to which MS will change on a daily basis.
And so the game of cut and mouse goes on.
Meanwhile the Linux and MacOS users sit back and laugh at the next big screwup that MS is inflicting on itself.
Do you know how much data those chromebooks send to Google?
As for AI? I'm sure that Google will be infesting their babies (aka Chromebooks) with the AI Virus very soon.
Yes folks, AI is a Virus and once caught, you will obey your AI Masters (aka The Borg) or be exterminated.
Some of us have jobs that, from time to time, require us to support someone else's computer. That computer is nearly always running Windows more or less the way Microsoft provide it. I don't have the authority to fix it, and quite often the "someone else" doesn't either. We both just have to put up with it.
Removing the inconvenience from my life would, in this case, also remove the income so if you don't mind I'll just carry on complaining about the abusive relationship, thanks.
For your sake, I hope you are getting paid big enough bucks to make it worthwhile. Otherwise you are suffering the double handicap of shortening your life as a result of your raised blood pressure, and having less wherewithal to enjoy your life with.
As well as the Copilot experiment, Microsoft has added support for the latest iteration of USB4, which ups the speed from 40 Gbps to 80 Gbps, assuming one has the appropriate hardware to hand.
[...]
The latest version of USB4 can hit 120 Gbps.
I know technology moves quickly, but that's impressive!
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Autoopen is easy to turn off if it hits you. Can't see they will mass adopt that. Like having a browser page launch by default. Not many will want it. It is just a Dev test for now after all.
Without that, all it does is add a Copilot button next to the Seach bar. If you ignore it, it doesn't do anything. Doesn't listen for your voice unless you open it and click the microphone button, etc.
Fair enough but there's a point of principle here. At idle/unused state, it may 'only' be a few handles, some loaded DLL's (or whatever Borkzilla use these days) some memory, a few system calls here and there - but all these little bits add up. Add in all the other cruft and it goes a long way to explain why the machine specs need to be so damn high. They also introduce a larger attack surface. I find all this harder and harder to justify when the purpose of the OS is, I thought, to allow me to interact with applications I choose to install.
As I need a new PC, starting to get the odd component failure, one of the HDDs is failing despite being second newest.
Tempted to get really overblown PC and run Windows in a VM for the few bits of software requiring them.
Needs
Firefox
Thunderbird
Something video edity
Something 3D CAD
chitubox
Why is this PC operating system the only tool in existence to never be finished and always be a "work in progress"?
Micro$hit just won't stop fannying around with their OS and making it do new things on startup. It started with that annoying news thing that you just have to brush the mouse pointer on for a nanosecond to cause it to pop up with clickbait batshit nonsense. Then it was Teams, even if you don't have or want it. Lately I've seen XBOX apps pop up - on business computers. And then annoying popups begging you to give feedback on some new feature that you only just saw and also don't need.
Now it's going to be some AI copilot which can't actually do anything useful other than write poems about cats or tell you that it can't use copyrighted material.
If only there was an alternative...
I'm sure the decision to have it open automatically and stay on automatically has already been made, we're just at the early stages of less and less gently feeding this idea to the users. By any opening, and through, if need be. It's like the later mutations on the Alien, soon you won't even realise that that inner voice in your head is not your superego, but your MS super 'friend'.
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