Microsoft's Recall Feature for Newer PCs Using AI - Do You Want It?
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Microsoft as ever are adding more bloat into their operating systems but this time its a feature that records everything you do and allows you to perhaps 6 months from now go back in time and find something you did. I.e. perhaps you were looking at a document 6 months ago and can't remember where it is or what you did with it or perhaps visited a website you have forgotten the address of. Now with Recall due to saved data and the use of AI you should be able to go back and find it easily. It stores so much of your data to do this and its stored locally but processed externally I believe. It builds up a huge amount of data about how you think, what you do and makes you easy to manipulate for commercial gain, i.e. advertising that knows exactly who you are.
It feels wrong to me and of course has storage and processing requirements which of course means more energy used.
As someone who strips out as much bloatware as possible to speed up computers and make them more pleasant to use plus it can have a energy saving and therefore a cost saving I don't want this from inefficiency point of view but also don't want it as I feel my data will be more vulnerable and perhaps it will mean more exploits to get into my online banking and medical record etc.
It can be extremely difficult to disable Microsoft applications you don't want and even when you do a new update can reinstall the software. I have a laptop that can last about 16hrs on a single charge but with the standard windows is about 13 hours and that to me is 3hrs of bloatware activity I have removed from my computer. Making operating systems more complex can lead to more exploits plus it pressurises people to update their hardware frequently as the operating system becomes more bloated and slower.
This new Recall feature takes bloatware to the next level with your computer constantly wasting power and memory. Games will be slower, browsing slower and power and therefore money wasted. If you are using a laptop your battery runtime will reduce significantly for what at best can only be described as minor gains. AI is processor intensive.
This is not the use of AI I wanted. Making everything even more complex is not the answer to the world's problems. Making products longer lasting and more efficient should be the goal. We need to slow down consumerism and get more responsible in the way we spend money. A computer should be something that last 7 years before upgrading not need replacing every year.
At the very least everyone should have the right to have a modular operating system where features they don't want should be removed and not present in the operating system at all. If you don't use Edge and never will it should be fully removable. Same with any other Microsoft app you don't use and never will. I mean Recall may have its uses for some people like those with dementia and it could assist them in everyday life but it is a huge can of worms with regard people's privacy and how Microsoft will monatise their data in addition to providing this feature. Maybe criminals should be forced to have the recall feature on so how they use their computer is recorded. Also on shared computers do couples want their other half to know what they have been up to on the computer, what they have spent money on and which websites they have been looking at. I can see a few divorces being caused by 'Recall'.
Your PC needs the following minimum system requirements for Recall:
A Copilot+ PC.
16 GB RAM.
8 logical processors.
256 GB storage capacity. To enable Recall, you'll need at least 50 GB of storage space free. Saving screenshots automatically pauses once the device has less than 25 GB of storage space.
Well of course i can see the benefits to such features, however i do not believe these things are being done to help consumers and the data will be used for other things as well
I don't want it - too many privacy issues for my liking. While it has its uses, I'll avoid as long as possible.
Consumer It will probably get more and more integrated into the operating system over time. Microsoft are trying much harder to monatise their operating system. Many people in many countries are not upgrading or run pirate versions of the operating system. Still a huge number of users in India running Windows XP. Many want to stick with Windows 10 so Microsoft are introducing a subscription service for that operating system if you want to get security updates. No doubt this will roll out to Windows 11 at some point.
Steam has done a lot of great work in making Linux gaming compatible using special software that allows you to run Windows games on Linux and so many people are now moving to Linux.
Like stuffing all your drawers full of clothes that you neither want or need.I won't be signing up for that.Less is more eh? 
I use a chromebook now after years of using windows
Besides being faster , it is less bloated and i am not tied down with restrictions , and much safer from hackers, A1, too risky
telmel Chrome OS is great. My mother has been using Chromebooks for maybe 8 years now, she is on her third model of Chromebook I think. I used to be always sorting out her Windows laptops but I don't have to do anything with her Chromebook except find replacements when she pours tea into them by mistake. I do like the versatility of Windows myself and do game but no question for many users Chrome OS is vastly superior.
telmel I once bought a Chromebook thinking it was an "Android Laptop," but most of the apps were incompatible so sent it back.
Might as well just use a Linux distro instead. Linux Mint is very user-friendly for those who've used Windows for years.
PhilipMarc You can get chromebooks now based on ARM processors so their android compatibility and speed is much better and they are only marginally slower for normal Chrome OS apps. My mother has a Mediatek based Chromebook and there is no issues with its speed. Really nice chromebook.
Steam are doing a lot of good work making PC games run on Linux to support their Steamdeck product so I can honestly see Linux being the future of operating systems as the more people switch to Linux the more applications and games will have Linux versions anyway. I'll admit I still haven't got my head around Linux. I struggle to know what to do in certain circumstances and when I google a solution it often doesn't seem to work as intended. There are just so many versions of Linux. It's a fairly steep learning curve for me. For general use its fine but when I want to do something more complicated with it I struggle.
PhilipMarc Its fine for what i use it for P, i switch it on and it loads in seconds and i hardly get any problems with it , none up to now thinking about it
I was reluctant to buy it as i dont really like lenovo, but this is great
I got it when it was on offer with amazon at half price , very rare to find such an offer now, and i had the added bonus of using my amazon voucher to get a further reduction , so thanks to LD for that 
No.
M$ is just getting more intrusive with their "features" and Windows 11 has become unusable for me due to it.
After 2029, I'm done using Windows 10. Maybe sooner as I've already gotten used to Linhx Mint.
PhilipMarc Windows 10 moving to a subscription service for updates, Microsoft Recall making screen copies of everything you do and stuff like Office 365 being subscription as well it is getting really annoying. I'm commited to not sending Microsoft any of my money or my data so they can make money off the back of it.
It's like when Microsoft flags anti-bloatware software as a virus. Simple scripts to remove Microsoft bloatware which don't have an uninstall option is somehow a virus to Microsoft. I find it really annoying. My low powered Celeron laptop went from 13hrs maximum battery life to 16hrs maximum battery life just by removing the bloatware and tasks in the background that forward your data to Microsoft. Games that wouldn't run before now run because there is more processing and memory available to run them.
People spending huge sums on computers just so they have enough performance to run all the bloatware and data gathering apps and the apps they actually want to use at the same time.
BonzoBanana I'll use the LTSC edition until 2029 (there's one that lasts until 2031) and while it's not ideal for most users due to newer programs being incompatible (the LTSC that ends in 2031 is compat), I'm good with it as I always use the same ones from years ago.
Windows 10 LTSC Build 1809 really feels like 7 with a 10 skin and I love that.
I bought a 2TB SSD though I'll want to clone the disk than go through installing it all over again. Kinda tedious.
PhilipMarc Yes I've got one version of Windows 10 on one of my laptops that is I think Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2021 which is supported until 2032 and that is the one I'm concentrated on using for older PCs or PC's where I want the absolute maximum performance.
BonzoBanana There's an 11 LTSC, but that only lasts two extra years more than that LTSC version you're using. Not really an improvement.
Plus, I read it requires to use an M$ account... Nope, don't want to link it.
I’m used to housekeeping so if I lose something it’s gone. I just accept it and look again. I don’t like all this tracking nonsense but could be useful for some things maybe for criminality.
JLouM It's not good to be tracked and have your data sold and commercialised. The more data about you out there the more vulnerable you are and that can be just putting personal details on facebook. They can work out what you might use as passwords etc and it makes you more vulnerable. Commercial websites keep getting hacked and people's passwords gets exposed. I've lost my facebook account twice to hackers but I only used the minimum data on the site and don't update phone numbers. Facebook are terrible at recovering accounts and often want you to send in personal documents to prove who you are which personally I'm not prepared to do. I've lost 2 accounts because I used passwords that were compromised elsewhere. I only use facebook for facebook marketplace. I see people who put a huge amount of personal data on facebook and at some point a Chinese hacker will likely have complete control of it.
BonzoBanana Yes I have been caught out twice by hackers. Deleted old accounts and made a new one. Most settings are private and I don’t share much these days. I did before. It’s a real faff and there’s no customer service just robots. I belong to private groups more than anything now as I find them useful. My passwords are not easy ones to guess either and I have two factor authentication now too so 
it won’t happen again. I know the second time I clicked on a link thinking it was one of my friends. They must have spoofed it somehow.
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