For those who might wonder why just disabling the feature is not enough: when Microsoft releases big feature updates or even just a cumulative fix pack, there is a risk that previously disabled features get turned back on. You're unlikely to read through what each bugfix is going to do to your system. Ok, but then if you remove the feature you should be safe, right? Not necessarily. For anyone who have had windows issues before, you've probably come across a helpful response to use the "sfc" and "dism" commands which can repair issues on your system, by replacing missing or corrupt files with the original ones from the windows image. If Recall is a dependency for file explorer, these commands may just "repair" this feature too.
@@ChrisTitusTech There is nothing to enable. The x64 Recall AppX package does not contain any non-generic files, only UWP Visual C++ and generic assets, it has quite literally nothing to run. This issue with disabling the feature is also present even if it's disabled offline as well, so disabling with online DISM is just as effective.
I think is pretty clear that right now Recall is off or "sleeping" but I think is also obvious that is going to be activated and start working at some point without our consent or even notifying you, the activation is probably going to be bundled and buried in some "security" or "performance" update. The feature also seems to be ON by default, something that Microsoft promised they wouldn't do anymore after the initial backlash.
"A risk" - nope, a certainty. I now lock certain files in a way Windows cannot currently override because many features I disabled were always being re-enabled. However, I expect that to change again in the future to make it impossible for me to make it impossible for Windows to make a change.
Only wonder how will this be accepted by various security conscious organisations like banks. I don't think they will be impressed that M$ is taking screenshots and sends it to Azure servers for "safe-keeping". If recall is not part of "enterprise license", that might be the option to go to
Gut feeling tells me they're after fresh content to train their AI on. Apparently, LLMs already ate all the interwebs. and feeding them with content from another AI just creates more and more garbage data.
@@mhoop1 There is a big difference between *disabling* a feature, and *removing* a feature. Disabling means that the files still exist to allow you to enable it again in the future. Removing it does exactly that.. removes the files so that you don't even have the option of enabling the feature later. As discussed in the video, you can disable it. But you can not remove it without trashing the installed version of File Explorer.
Remember way back when Microsoft tied IE into file explorer to keep you from being able to remove it? That should tell you how important Recall is to M$.
Yup. People seem to have forgotten. In my opinion laws should be made to ensure that companies don’t pull these types of shenanigans. But we all know that’s not happening for obvious reasons
I sent a cease and desist email to Microsoft. This is not acceptable and I will lawyer up. They own the rights to the software, not to the copy of the software on my machine. They do not have a right to put this on my machine without my knowledge.
Good luck with that. You are taking on one of the biggest tech companies in the world at that point. Which will probably shoot you down with their lengthy terms that they force on you at install. Here's hoping you can win though. Gonna need some good lawyers.
@@ugib8377 Depends on the level of damages that a lawyer can get from the lawsuit. Some lawyers would take it on a contingency basis if the upside is sufficiently lucrative. And think of the PR of WINNING against the behemoth.
Every new generation of PC users gets surprised and learns about Microsoft's ways, thinking "oh my god, why is Microsoft like this?" when Microsoft has been doing this since the '90s. It's like a rite of passage.
When Internet Explorer was released, microsoft got sued for being anti-competitive iirc. Other browsers struggled to compete because most people were okay with just using whatever came with windows. They also got sued because they lied about offering refunds to anybody who bought a pc windows preinstalled if they didnt want windows. Microsoft conveniently didnt tell anybody on their customer support teams and tried to push the cost of refunds onto PC manufacturers instead. They were banking on nobody wanting to use a different OS, and got somewhat blindsided by the linux community. Microsoft also did some super sketchy licensing stuff when it came to MSDOS, and pushed several other variants of DOS out of the market. I'm pretty sure they also backstabbed IBM when working with them on OS2 by releasing a version of windows around the same time as OS2. You are right. Microsoft has always been this terrible.
Yeah, but most of their shady business has been monopolistic in nature, things like squashing anyone that might possibly compete with them in any way, no matter how minor. It's only in the last decade and a half that they've gone the Apple route of actively screwing their customers.
I was a part of the Microsoft technical testing team back in the Windows 95 days. When they came out with the new Internet Explorer they forced it down everyone's throat by making the desktop dependent on it. Sound familiar? They pick what people need and make their trash dependent on it so you can't get rid of it without getting rid of what you use all the time. Disgusting.
I'd already been using Total Commander and what Microsoft did to Explorer, one way or the other, didn't affect me in the slightest and still hasn't through Windows 11. You're limiting yourself if you're using Windows File Explorer.
I remember. They said it was impossible to remove from the system so they could justify packaging it in to destroy Netscape. If they made Windows "dependent" on it, they could explain to a court that it wasn't anti-competition. Bill Gates called Netscape a competitor, and they succeeded. Windows has always used scummy tactics to dominate areas, it's all greed. This is why I can't morally support Windows even if they went back on everything. It's chained to a despicable anything-for-profit company, and nothing is going to change this unless Microsoft collapses and their operating system is open sourced.
it's BEEN their intention since Window's 10 was FORCED on people... if not before, 10 was just THEIR excuse to start MASS forcing users into having ZERO control over YOUR system... drivers auto revert to THEIR idea of "up to date" even when you can get a driver to manually install to a better/needed version....even SIMPLE user functions like screen brightness can now ONLY be changed thru third party programs like Firefox.... sleep modes can only be accessed if you have a PREMIUM version of the OS.. this list of pains is almost endless... they even want to FORCE manufacturers to make computers REQUIRE windows 11 or better and NOT allow any other OS.... and i won't even get into Microsoft's current WOKE agenda's....
It's mine and it has faults, but it's because of a damn key that I downloaded and now I'm looking for another one because I had to reset the PC to factory settings.
imagine all the money they are going to make selling your screenshot activity to every marketing/ad agency on the planet for pennies on the dollar. this is an absolute gold mine for them and i doubt they will just let it go.
They won't do that directly. They'll just learn about you and sell targeting services. Remember, the data gathered by the big adtech companies is their moat, it's their competitive edge. They'll safeguard that data jealously. While looking to collect as much as possible, at least if they think it'll increase the value of the adspace they sell.
The value of personal data for targeted advertising is dwindling by the day and will only keep going lower, the real money maker they are going for here is AI training. They are going to utilize this data to train AI agents to do various office jobs.
This is just getting ridiculous. The windows telemetry was bad enough, now they're just getting as invasive as possible. I don't believe for a minute those screenshots will remain local.
The whole point is that the screenshots stay local, but their AI will scan them (locally) and tell Microsoft exactly what you're doing in detail. It's literally Recall's core feature. Glad I use Linux lmao
it still is if you know how to get the latests monthly updates, ok, you'll not be able to run the latest versions of 3rd parties software but who cares? I know professional photographers still making money with last good version of Photoshop, I mean CS6
@@jennytalia8224 Windows 7 was remarkable. Every element of its UI felt so inviting. I was the definitive "home" computing environment. I remember going to a microsoft promo tent outside of my local bestbuy as a kid and getting to play around with a pre-release version of windows 7. There was so much excitement. Now whenever a new version of windows comes out, people just get frustrated at microsoft mistreating them. Microsoft is no saint. It was never a saint. They always did sketchy stuff and used every dirty trick they could to crush the competition. Despite that, Windows 7 still happened and it was excellent.
I'm surprised, too. MS just took away everyone's privacy and information security, completely, without permission. They provide an operating system, not a dog collar. Where did our governments go? Looks like in Gates' pocket.
Absolutely insane. Dont get how companies, especially security focused ones, arent screaming from the top of their lungs. The guys i am consulting currently are experimenting with completely switching over to linux for 8 months now and it looks promising so far, there really isnt much choice left i fear.
Because the "security" software companies often work closely with the U.S. intelligence agencies, that will very much love for this feature to be on every device.
Not going into too much detail but they are a software company in an important (nowadays even more so) but still niche market. That allows/allowed them to start thinking about moving everything to Linux as their Infrastructure isn't necessary OS bound. Nevertheless, it is a huge project to be sure and requires meticulous testing and planning.
This level of embedding tells me that 1) Recall is going to be turned on by default in upcoming windows releases. 2) Microsoft will eventually look to harvest recall information from the PCs with it enabled (probably through OneDrive "backups"), and 3) eventually it will be in business and home users' windows deployments and it will become increasingly difficult to disable for any length of time and impossible to completely remove without replacing a lot of components with 3rd party solutions. Given the world we live in, its looking increasingly likely that Microsoft absolutely sees the loss of trust as absolutely worth the potential information gain.
The really disturbing part about all this spying and the monster databases it creates is that there is no good reason for any of it. *Especially* if the line that it's only for advertising purposes is true.
You're spot on. They're in the "it's not happening stage". Then they'll say it's a conspiracy theory. Then they'll say it might happen. And eventually they'll say it is happening and it's good.
The old frogs in the boiling water situation… starts slowly, then when you get used to, temperature rises a little more… till the frog is cooked… signs are all there. Fall from it to your own peril.
Did you know frogs jump out of water as soon as it becomes warm. It was myth-busted years ago. The analogy is nonsense anyway. If Microsoft raise the temperature enough, all but the most idiotic will jump.
mine was. until i switched something in bios (i don't remember, hope i don't have to switch it back). now it "SADLY" isn't able to run windows 11. something about the feature that means i'd have to buy a new windows if i change the hardware
The more eyes on this issue, the better. The fact that it exists, was hidden away, and enabled by default, after their own statements saying that it'll only be on Copilot+ PCs with an NPU and it only being opt-in, really should raise a LOT of questions about what is going on here and that's before any files related to it because a dependency in their file manager. Does anybody know if Microsoft has said anything publicly about this yet? Or are they doing their usual "silent treatment" and ignoring the tech community...AGAIN?
I _could_ see a chain of event that would lead to this happening in good faith; Recall is heavily invested in due to current trends, plans are made to make it able to interface with the core of the system, but technical limitations make it unfeasible to implement it across all users so for the sake of not fragmenting the codebase too much, on the computers advertised as Copilot+PC with the required hardware where the feature is in fact planned to be deployed the component will be the fully developed incarnation of Recall, and on all other computers the matching component is just a "dummy" service that doesn't do anything other than making sure the feature being missing doesn't result in malfunctions from, say, other software that assumes it exists and try to interface with it. *However* given their past behavior over... the entirety of Microsoft's existence, my trust in them is way too low for me to assume good faith by default at this point. If they intend to force Recall on everyone, this is exactly the kind of steps they'd take at first.
There's nothing really that Microsoft can say, because Microsoft fully knows they plan on and might already be harvesting the screenshot data and selling to everyone $$$!
It's not a bug, it's a "feature". It's policy. They've turned Win into full grade spyware. The fact File Explorer doesn't work after removing this "feature" tells you just how deeply rooted it is in the OS. This is by design, it cannot be a mistake, it's so clear.
So basically, they implemented a dummy to let people think "oh, but it isn't actually doing anything, it's just a dud" and then at some point in the future when people are used to it they'll activate that on some random update without telling us. Got it.
They've already commited to making this an opt-in feature because of all the noise but I think this is the remnants of their inicial idea to make it opt-out. It also gives it a higher level access to whatever you're doing because explorer is a special process.
I'm kinda surprised that govt/business aren't raising alarm bells at all about this, machines that handle classified data use Windows (albeit stripped down but still)
a lot of top secret stuff already runs on linux. most of consumer grade government stuff runs on windows 7 or xp .. the only people who run win11 is your avg person at home or corporate office.. and when has the government cared about the average joe or average small/medium business?
Microsoft sells special versions of windows for government/secure enterprise. Even then, microsoft and the government work together with their spyware and data harvesting.
ms want the ai on your computer to do somthing in the future -I assume nothing really can be deleted on your computer , recall are like undelete. exe before windows 95 - sowhat the purpose ,make an ai thats You? so who are really behindthis ?
I think this Recall stuff is the worst thing they’ve ever done. They’re willingly putting all their users data at serious risk. They’re just effectively a spyware company now as far as I’m concerned.
@@fragalot I think this is way worse because it’s easy to just switch web browsers but this means literally anything you do on your PC isn’t safe from spyware. You either have to just be fine with your data being at constant risk or completely change operating systems.
I wish I had the brain power to write software to completely lock all companies out of personal computers and phones. No more "auto-updates" to force spyware on people. The corporations are a bigger threat to our security than any hacker ever will be.
And they're not a direct threat, but an indirect one. Their actions enable hackers to cause disproportionately more damage than ever. Think about it, Recall essentially does at least these three things: 1. It enables directed attacks (against groups or individuals of power) to yield orders of magnitude more data. 2. It makes extortion/blackmail attacks against corporations orders of magnitude more devastating. 3. It allows not only corporations but everyone with an agenda to collect orders of magnitude more identifiable information. And because Microsoft is so damn loud about their glorious Co-Pilot, everyone on Earth knows it, and every hacker on Earth knows it's going to be orders of magnitude more lucrative than all other sources of data. And considering it isn't long ago since Chinese hackers were found to exploit a U.S. federally mandated backdoor, it won't be long before Co-Pilot is exploited left and right.
Hey Chris thanks for letting us know and keeping us updated. You've saved me a lot of times and I'm sure many people would happily say that too. Keep up the good work!
Welcome aboard, I ditched windows with xp and have been on Debian based distro ever since. There is some getting used to but it wasn''t too hard and didn't take long before I didn't even think of going back. I personally use Kubuntu and have been since 2005 and it has done nothing but get better. Good luck in finding your digital freedom.
It is really quite straight forward to check to see if the Recall software is installed and enabled. Open up the Terminal (as Admin) and type in this command Check If Recall Is ON : Dism /Online /Get-Featureinfo /Featurename:Recall Depending on your preference these commands can either ENABLE or DISABLE the software. Disable RECALL: Dism /Online /Disable-Feature /Featurename:Recall Enable RECALL: Dism /Online /Enable-Feature /Featurename:Recall
I'm not really a conspiracy therorist but I kinda feel like Microsoft wants to train some AI on everyone. This might be bigger than Facebook, Adobe and others training AI on Users data and other stuff.
That is likely their primary motivation. Of course that won't stop them from using it for other purposes as well, nevermind the security risk of having so much unnecessary sensitive data.
they really started tos uck when Bill gates left ,After windows xp I cannot care about windows features -they suck and are made for 3 year olds - the same iq a s the devs have on microsoft
And what? People will keep using it because there's a lot of businesses that are made around Windows compatible software. Any alternative OS won't be a feasible option for long time.
I recently had a windows update on my windows 10 PC that installed Co-pilot and pinned it to my taskbar. At this point I'm not sure I want any windows PCs in my house anymore just due to all of this recent hoopla. When I feel like I can't securely check my bank account or pay my bills on my PC you know it's time to go.
FYI, it was just a link to an app download, it didn't install anything. Was odd to see it on my Win10 machine too but scrolling through the start menu and uninstalling from there took the icon link away and no files were actually installed on the machine to remove.
explorer++ is pretty handy as an explorer replacement; there's some extra features but it doesn't try anything radical. Also integrates nicely with the stock shell and can open all the control panel "folders".
I would like to know how the EU looks at Recall vs GDPR. I'm not sure Recall is even legal here in the EU. I'm just glad I moved to Linux a few months ago on my daily driver. Now I'm only using Win10 on my gaming desktop, which is rarely turned on.
@@TheGunnarRoxen Or the games where the mouse is buggy. Or the shadows are buggy. Or where you accidentally install flatpak steam and wonder why you can't add a separate disk as a location anymore. Or when modding apps dislike version, or refuse to run on nVidia cards without extra commands to sandbox. Other than that, a lot of games do work fine. Or is you're new and discover Linux can have two sound setting apps that feed into each other so if max volume is too quiet you may have to increase volume on the other. It can be quite the shell game of settings. But I am not sure I will move to Linux on my gaming rig until Microsoft does something I can't easily undo.
Steam itself is quite reasonable on linux, but I switched last weekend, did not install tens of games, but quite a few, ie. Cyberpunk 2077, RDR2, EuroTruckSimulator to name a few big ones. Using Heroic for Epic games and Steam for steam games. Did use Bottles for a second steam, however with the 'play for steam' experimental setting other games seem to work in steam as well. There is a new / other framework in town "UWU", that pretends to know LOTS of configurations to let games work outside of Windows. The more people do this, especially the supported games in steam where Valve can see that Linux used, the more the signal goes to developers to make things for the best open operating system there is (in my opinion of 30 years of desktop linux)
Recall is Microsoft's legal version of spyware that infringes on civilians privacy laws and invades on their privacy to the maximum extent possible aswell as chat control, this is what is happening. It's another SOPA thing.
@@sociallyferal4237 doesn't sound any different from windows (minus flatpak), I've had weird ass bugs on both OSes (the frequency with which they happened wasn't that much different either, that's how software is), nothing is perfect and don't let perfect be the enemy of "it's bloody fucking amazing and usable everyday"
Using Wireshark and Fiddler as well as other web traffic monitors to ascertain what exactly Recall is doing is the only way to empirically determine what it's doing. Someone with the skills with these programs needs to dive into testing this controversial Windows feature for the sake of all Windows users.
@@surject Guessing this is referring to the Intel Management Engine, or AMD equivalent, which operates at a security ring below even your BIOS and has remote management features.
And if I was to install spyware on someone's computer I would be arrested! Sooo what should Microsoft punishment's be per single PC with Recall installed?
Feature was enabled, removed as per DISM example in video, but file explorer tabs remain. Seeing on other systems, if you have the NPU copilot chip then it is an option in privacy and security. But will continue to monitor....
And this is why you don't upgrade until we know more. Someone on our team updated manually and my argument is it just came out last week and we don't know enough about it yet.
Know of a recent case where a broken "Patch" was not installed on a network, because IT spotted that it would crash the network. There is always "That one guy", yeah he went "Oh why has this patch not been installed. You guessed it he installed it with out asking, it crashed EVERYTHING. "I didn't know the patch was bad", several long days later. Everything restored.
This was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I have fully made the jump to Linux and am loving every second of it. Thank you for covering this!
@@kevinrineer5356 Isn't dual-booting with Windows 11 still messed up? It didn't affect me so I didn't pay a lot of attention, but there was an issue several weeks ago with a Windows update that made it stop playing well with other OSes on the same drive.
@@capablanc Buy a second SSD, they're cheap. Have one for a Windows install and one for Linux. It's easier than dual-booting with GRUB and mose UEFI bioses these days have a menu to let you pick which drive to boot from.
@@capablanc get an external ssd and boot windows on one drive and linux on the other drive, play games on Linux as much as possible and wean yourself off of the Windows stuff so slowly but surely in a year or so dump Windows completely. Game devs will make linux compatibility a priority as we all switch. Windows needs to go away.
Switched to Linux full time earlier this year since I wasn’t dependent on Win-specific applications. Slight change in workflow but otherwise able to complete all tasks. No regrets.
No worries Chris. Those that understand debloating, custom ISO's etc. know how it feels when something unexplainable happens or a dependency is removed etc. I remember spending over a week trying to figure out what was breaking the immersive control panel in Win10 1709 that didn't happen in other versions. Now I just use your tool :) (and happily donated to the cause!)
@@oraz. It's easy to always find the Control Panel. Simply type control panel in search, right click the icon and either pin to start menu or pin to taskbar.
I believe quite a few national/federal institutions are still running XP because of lack of funding for new machines, so I suspect they will continue to remain oblivious for some time.
NO, you don't understand, having recall pushed to all PCs and activated by default is the matter for national security. The amount of data this will give to the government will make their past surveillance endeavors pale in comparison. I bet everyone at the NSA is very excited about Recall.
@@thescrewfly Some might be running XP, but I think I heard news stories about some western governments upgrading to windows 10 machines. It doesn't matter anyways though; microsoft makes custom versions of windows for governments and military. I think the US military was running XP with active security updates well into the lifetime of win10. The government officials are stuck using the schlock us peasants have to deal with.
I bet it 100% is recording your information. Even if not taking screenshots, if it's baked into the file system itself, it will be able to record what files exists, where, and what is in them and what you use them for.
Someone needs to file a lawsuit. This has to violate HIPAA or hundreds of other confidentiality laws for users of Microsoft systems. How can business customers simultaneously use Microsoft Computers and still abide by their legal obligations of client confidentiality?
Back when Microsoft released the Windows 7 Release Candidate via FTP download, they said it was because they didn't want to use "criminal technology" like BitTorrent. Today, I say I don't want to use a criminal operating system. This entire situation is objectively preposterous.
the funny thing is they introduced the bit torrent p2p protocol in windows 10 and it's on by default to share windows updates with other people from your PC
Windows literally forced an update on my computer while I was working yesterday, and this forced recall update is going to make me switch to linux for real this time.
Well i just cannot use Linux for everything because of my studies in university and also when i graduate i will still need windows in my upcoming working life so i'm screwed to say the least.
@@MrPelzi91 Use Windows AME, strip everything and then install Directory Opus as a substitute for Windows Explorer. You have to pay for Directory Opus, but it is worth it in my opinion.
In the EU, especially in Germany, some government divisions changed from Unix/Linux to Windows, some years ago. They don't care about the data of the users. MS will pay a few millions, and then it will be forgotten.
Just to explain something, as judging by the comments, some people might not be aware: The "explorer.exe" process is not just for the File Explorer. It's also the desktop environment for Windows. That includes the desktop wallpaper, the taskbar and the start menu. Considering Recall's whole purpose is take snapshots of the desktop, its not surprising that MS would integrate it to some extent into that process. Why they couldn't make the new File Explorer just work without recall is beyond me, but I suspect its just something they either didn't have time for or they didn't anticipate users would do. This is nothing new with Microsoft, however. They've done this with many features in the OS.
Yup, this is not surprising whatsoever and is exactly why all the "debloat" stuff can often cause issues down the line. Because Windows likes to integrate, and it's not always obvious why or where it's occurring. Hanlon's razor and whatnot.
They just make it this way so nobody can disable it or uninstall it without messing up their entire OS. This just proves they intend to gather all your data and spy on you. There would be no reason to make it this hard to get rid of it if it is intended to be used offline.
@@More_Row Well its always on purpose. Certainly wasn't an accident. If you're insinuating that they didn't want users to remove Recall, then of course. Windows was never designed to be modular, so I'm not sure why people expect it to be like Linux.
Open up the Terminal (as Admin) and type in this command Check If Recall Is ON : Dism /Online /Get-Featureinfo /Featurename:Recall
Depending on your preference these commands can either ENABLE or DISABLE the software. Disable RECALL: Dism /Online /Disable-Feature /Featurename:Recall Enable RECALL: Dism /Online /Enable-Feature /Featurename:Recall
I wonder how long it will take for Microsoft to disable or remove that function. We all know Microsoft absolutely hates to give users control over their system.
This function is an ‘Opt In’ function that can be activated or deactivated via the Windows features. This adds or removes the files from the SystemApp folder. There is currently no build that has fully integrated Recall. Microsoft has postponed Recall once again and will only test it in the Insider versions in October/November.
The "new version of File Explorer" is actually a shell extension component that overlays the new toolbars. Likely the dependency you are seeing is an integration that Explorer can use to query the Recall app.
Great video! We need to make a stand on these types of issues, it is a clear breach and aggregation of our privacy, and like some people said, how come more major cybersecurity companies aren’t talking about this?
Before copilot and recall, Microsoft has already force shipped Cortana without proper explanation. They also enabled hyper-v by default which is not useful to a large group of people and introduced a performance penalty. Edit: It's the hyperv hypervisor, which powers hyperv, is enabled by default and causes performance penalty. The performance penalty is not related to the installation of hyperv. You can see whether the hypervisor is enabled by yourself using msinfo32.
Your information is incorrect. hyper-v is not installed by default, you have to go into the control panel, add remove programs, into Windows features to actually check it and install it.
Hyper-V is needed to use Windows Defender memory protection, likely running many things as its own VM. I can't run that protection because I use VMware Workstation, which has taken control of my CPU's virtualization tech.
@@Rushtallica Technically, you are correct. Without ability for hardware virtualization, Hyper-V isn't going to work for you. Practically though, Enabling or disabling Hyper-V is when it's installed or uninstalled via control panel option
The money they'll get from harvesting user data from Recall will pay for the fine and then some. Best case scenario, the EU will force Microsoft to allow users to completely disable it or the sales of Windows devices will be restricted. It's gonna be really difficult to throw a punishment at Microsoft that'll cost them more than that level of data scraping will earn them back.
Ah yes and then they will ask Microsoft: Well where is the data? give it to us, after paying the -extortion- fine, and then they will carry on as always like nothing is happening. And if they ever get caught they can just say they did it to protect the children and that's it, case is closed.
The Recall "feature" is present and enabled on Windows 11 IoT LTSC 24H2 (26100.1882) too. The bug on explorer appears on IoT LTSC too when you turn off recall using dism.
Micro$oft will slowly start stealing your gpu/npu power for their benefit, and serve you ads and try to implement subscription fees for the computer you think you own..
That's my take on Win11 in general. It's the break from the PC being your PC to it being Microsoft's PC that you just use. They've been moving in that direction for awhile but now the gloves are off.
Thank you Microsoft for pushing me into Linux. Mint is super easy to set up and use and with Steam being OGs, all games I still play and almost every game I own is compatible.
There was something similar to Recall in windows a long time ago. "Timeline" or something, where you could go back and see all the programs you ran and files you opened on a calendar-like display. They apparently removed that because I never saw it again after I deleted it.
@@londo776 I'm talking about removing it from the ISO so the files won't be there when you do a fresh install. Sure you can disable it but what's stopping an major update re-enabling it like updates has always done in the past
Thanks, Chris. Non-techies are gonna be stuck with this dreck unless they jump off Windows, or some court issues an order during a privacy lawsuit telling Micro$oft to turn off the feature.
You know, it's bad enough that Windows includes a keyboard logger disguised as a 'search improvement feature (Inking and typing sample submissions),' now Windows is taking screenshots of your work every few seconds? Nope, not letting that happen.
I hope it logs my keyboard input. I'm tired of making a long TH-cam comment and then having to rewrite the whole thing over and over and over again. And yes I do type it in notepad first or word, but I also have other uses for the keyboard logger. So in my opinion Bring It On.
The NSA, the Mossad, the FSB and the CCP they're all salivating at the prospect of having recall on by default on all PCs. I bet everyone at the NSA is very excited about Recall.
Going by the latest Steam hardware\OS data, which is probably the most accurate snapshot of your follow-base, Windows 10 is only slightly ahead of Windows 11. Windows 10 has increased by around 1.5% and Windows 11 has decreased by around 1.5% suggesting that people are switching back from 11 to 10. Given Windows 10 has 1 year until EOL support, would you recommend it over Windows 11 until then? Any other thoughts on this? Thanks Chris.
I would recommend it if you dual boot with linux or need some time before using Linux but yeah. I would recommend trying to get a LTSC copy instead if you insist on windows 10
I ran windows 7 until Jan 2023 at which time a computer failure and new machines that would not boot Win7 forced me to update to windows 10. I ran win7 a couple of years past it's EOL... and I will do the same with Windows 10. The risk is pretty minimal... the OS will be no more vulnerable in 5 years, without updates, than it is today.
@@PortocaliusMaximus I'm really hoping valve fully releases steamOS before win10 dies. That would make it easy for a lot of people to switch over, but there hasn't been any news on it sadly.
Who would've thought that this is going to be the case for Recall... no one would've used it if it's opt-in by default. Good thing they promised the opposite though.
I get the feeling that when you disable Recall it reverts back to the older style file explorer as a kind of act of humiliation or punishment the same as when you run a non-activated version of Windows you get the desktop watermark and inability to change wallpaper, etc.
For those who might wonder why just disabling the feature is not enough: when Microsoft releases big feature updates or even just a cumulative fix pack, there is a risk that previously disabled features get turned back on. You're unlikely to read through what each bugfix is going to do to your system.
Ok, but then if you remove the feature you should be safe, right? Not necessarily. For anyone who have had windows issues before, you've probably come across a helpful response to use the "sfc" and "dism" commands which can repair issues on your system, by replacing missing or corrupt files with the original ones from the windows image. If Recall is a dependency for file explorer, these commands may just "repair" this feature too.
Very good points.
@@ChrisTitusTech There is nothing to enable. The x64 Recall AppX package does not contain any non-generic files, only UWP Visual C++ and generic assets, it has quite literally nothing to run.
This issue with disabling the feature is also present even if it's disabled offline as well, so disabling with online DISM is just as effective.
I think is pretty clear that right now Recall is off or "sleeping" but I think is also obvious that is going to be activated and start working at some point without our consent or even notifying you, the activation is probably going to be bundled and buried in some "security" or "performance" update. The feature also seems to be ON by default, something that Microsoft promised they wouldn't do anymore after the initial backlash.
"A risk" - nope, a certainty. I now lock certain files in a way Windows cannot currently override because many features I disabled were always being re-enabled. However, I expect that to change again in the future to make it impossible for me to make it impossible for Windows to make a change.
Only wonder how will this be accepted by various security conscious organisations like banks. I don't think they will be impressed that M$ is taking screenshots and sends it to Azure servers for "safe-keeping". If recall is not part of "enterprise license", that might be the option to go to
Actively preventing users from deactivating a feature is a very effective way to tell everyone that you're up to something sketchy.
Running 11 home insider preview (10.0.27723 build 2773) I was able to disable Recall with no effect on the file explorer.
@@mhoop1Disable is not enough. As the guy also explaines in the video, it can be remotely reenabled.
@@mhoop1Disabling does not produce this behavior it's removing it entirely that does
Gut feeling tells me they're after fresh content to train their AI on. Apparently, LLMs already ate all the interwebs. and feeding them with content from another AI just creates more and more garbage data.
@@mhoop1 There is a big difference between *disabling* a feature, and *removing* a feature. Disabling means that the files still exist to allow you to enable it again in the future. Removing it does exactly that.. removes the files so that you don't even have the option of enabling the feature later.
As discussed in the video, you can disable it. But you can not remove it without trashing the installed version of File Explorer.
Remember way back when Microsoft tied IE into file explorer to keep you from being able to remove it? That should tell you how important Recall is to M$.
Yup. People seem to have forgotten. In my opinion laws should be made to ensure that companies don’t pull these types of shenanigans. But we all know that’s not happening for obvious reasons
Switch to multi commander. That's the solution.
@@JohnDoe-ip3oq explorer also handles the desktop and taskbar iirc. so long as you have a functioning desktop an instance of explorer is running
That was part of the Anti-Trust lawsuit. Microsoft promised to remove the dependencies, but really didn't. They hid them, like with Recall.
What is ie?
Microsoft: Introducing Recall.
Users: HELL NO
Microsoft: Fine we'll just hide it from you
Running 11 home insider preview (10.0.27723 build 2773) I was able to disable Recall with no effect on the file explorer.
And yet the user will continue using it for the sake of convenience.
@@mhoop1you can disable it, but can't get rid of it, as the guy in the video said.
@@mhoop1 M$ will very likely re-enable it next patch
Time to switch to Linux to protest Windows.
I sent a cease and desist email to Microsoft. This is not acceptable and I will lawyer up. They own the rights to the software, not to the copy of the software on my machine. They do not have a right to put this on my machine without my knowledge.
Good luck with that. You are taking on one of the biggest tech companies in the world at that point. Which will probably shoot you down with their lengthy terms that they force on you at install.
Here's hoping you can win though. Gonna need some good lawyers.
@@ugib8377 Depends on the level of damages that a lawyer can get from the lawsuit. Some lawyers would take it on a contingency basis if the upside is sufficiently lucrative. And think of the PR of WINNING against the behemoth.
You have my support
Every new generation of PC users gets surprised and learns about Microsoft's ways, thinking "oh my god, why is Microsoft like this?" when Microsoft has been doing this since the '90s. It's like a rite of passage.
When Internet Explorer was released, microsoft got sued for being anti-competitive iirc. Other browsers struggled to compete because most people were okay with just using whatever came with windows.
They also got sued because they lied about offering refunds to anybody who bought a pc windows preinstalled if they didnt want windows. Microsoft conveniently didnt tell anybody on their customer support teams and tried to push the cost of refunds onto PC manufacturers instead. They were banking on nobody wanting to use a different OS, and got somewhat blindsided by the linux community.
Microsoft also did some super sketchy licensing stuff when it came to MSDOS, and pushed several other variants of DOS out of the market.
I'm pretty sure they also backstabbed IBM when working with them on OS2 by releasing a version of windows around the same time as OS2.
You are right. Microsoft has always been this terrible.
We have to start teaching our kids Linux, FreeBsd ... at schools.
@@lukastram4990 this!
@@lukastram4990yeah but these requires teachers to actually know Linux and a majority of them don’t even know what an operating system is
Yeah, but most of their shady business has been monopolistic in nature, things like squashing anyone that might possibly compete with them in any way, no matter how minor. It's only in the last decade and a half that they've gone the Apple route of actively screwing their customers.
I was a part of the Microsoft technical testing team back in the Windows 95 days. When they came out with the new Internet Explorer they forced it down everyone's throat by making the desktop dependent on it. Sound familiar? They pick what people need and make their trash dependent on it so you can't get rid of it without getting rid of what you use all the time. Disgusting.
I'd already been using Total Commander and what Microsoft did to Explorer, one way or the other, didn't affect me in the slightest and still hasn't through Windows 11. You're limiting yourself if you're using Windows File Explorer.
I remember. They said it was impossible to remove from the system so they could justify packaging it in to destroy Netscape. If they made Windows "dependent" on it, they could explain to a court that it wasn't anti-competition. Bill Gates called Netscape a competitor, and they succeeded. Windows has always used scummy tactics to dominate areas, it's all greed. This is why I can't morally support Windows even if they went back on everything. It's chained to a despicable anything-for-profit company, and nothing is going to change this unless Microsoft collapses and their operating system is open sourced.
Ok but to add to this comment nobody needs recall that shit is another security headache to have problems with
Running 11 home insider preview (10.0.27723 build 2773) I was able to disable Recall with no effect on the file explorer.
And in doing so, made so much hell for so many web developers and users.
It's not a bug. It's their intention.
It is a backdoor
100% agreed, it’s just a violation of privacy and trust from big corporations
@@YPSRAD You said use the back door stepsister?
@@YPSRAD backdoor lol? windows its self is a bbackdoor
it's BEEN their intention since Window's 10 was FORCED on people... if not before, 10 was just THEIR excuse to start MASS forcing users into having ZERO control over YOUR system... drivers auto revert to THEIR idea of "up to date" even when you can get a driver to manually install to a better/needed version....even SIMPLE user functions like screen brightness can now ONLY be changed thru third party programs like Firefox.... sleep modes can only be accessed if you have a PREMIUM version of the OS.. this list of pains is almost endless... they even want to FORCE manufacturers to make computers REQUIRE windows 11 or better and NOT allow any other OS.... and i won't even get into Microsoft's current WOKE agenda's....
I don't know what to think now if this is good or bad but if it is suspicious I just hope my Windows doesn't start having problems
It's mine and it has faults, but it's because of a damn key that I downloaded and now I'm looking for another one because I had to reset the PC to factory settings.
My friend, I'm sorry for you, but my Windows is from BNH Software and thank God nothing bad has happened to me. I think that information can help you.
Thank you very much, I really have to resolve this as soon as possible.
Windows itself is already a problem, so you're out of luck.
Switch to Linux mint or Fedora KDE. You barely have to relearn anything. There are even Windows icon packs!
imagine all the money they are going to make selling your screenshot activity to every marketing/ad agency on the planet for pennies on the dollar. this is an absolute gold mine for them and i doubt they will just let it go.
InHouse ChatGPT loves that data too 😂
They won't do that directly. They'll just learn about you and sell targeting services. Remember, the data gathered by the big adtech companies is their moat, it's their competitive edge. They'll safeguard that data jealously. While looking to collect as much as possible, at least if they think it'll increase the value of the adspace they sell.
The value of personal data for targeted advertising is dwindling by the day and will only keep going lower, the real money maker they are going for here is AI training. They are going to utilize this data to train AI agents to do various office jobs.
Recall not as in re-call, but as in rec-all
I see what you did there😂
Absolutely agreed
Clever!
The "Revolution" will be recorded. In detail.
reek-all, the whole thing stinks
This is just getting ridiculous. The windows telemetry was bad enough, now they're just getting as invasive as possible. I don't believe for a minute those screenshots will remain local.
i personally believe for only a minute that those screenshots will remain local
Maybe the screenshots will stay local, but not the metadata about what's in the screenshots
The whole point is that the screenshots stay local, but their AI will scan them (locally) and tell Microsoft exactly what you're doing in detail. It's literally Recall's core feature.
Glad I use Linux lmao
@@OryAlle with all the money and power Microsoft has, they could easily buy out Ubuntu, I hope that never happens
Of course they wont. But Microsoft's minions will say you have NO PROOF and that you are saying conspiracy theories.
Recall is basically first-party malware.
Spyware.
I've never wanted a replacement for Windows more. I wish Windows 7 was still an option.
it still is if you know how to get the latests monthly updates, ok, you'll not be able to run the latest versions of 3rd parties software but who cares? I know professional photographers still making money with last good version of Photoshop, I mean CS6
Windows 7 was the last good Windows. I am happy I lived in that time. Those times will never return.
@@jennytalia8224 Windows 7 was remarkable. Every element of its UI felt so inviting. I was the definitive "home" computing environment.
I remember going to a microsoft promo tent outside of my local bestbuy as a kid and getting to play around with a pre-release version of windows 7. There was so much excitement.
Now whenever a new version of windows comes out, people just get frustrated at microsoft mistreating them.
Microsoft is no saint. It was never a saint. They always did sketchy stuff and used every dirty trick they could to crush the competition. Despite that, Windows 7 still happened and it was excellent.
Mint Linux
yep. Windows 7 was my last windows i daily drove. now i use *nix based systems
I am baffled that there isn't some sort of lawsuit stemming from this.
Oh they did get sued for the Internet Thing, just takes a while
Will happen. In the EU especially, as soon, as they force it active.
I'm surprised, too. MS just took away everyone's privacy and information security, completely, without permission. They provide an operating system, not a dog collar. Where did our governments go? Looks like in Gates' pocket.
It's a direct violation of our rights I tell you! 😡
@@neurocosm Got a notification of a reply in this sub thread. Anyone see where my original comment disappeared to?
Absolutely insane. Dont get how companies, especially security focused ones, arent screaming from the top of their lungs. The guys i am consulting currently are experimenting with completely switching over to linux for 8 months now and it looks promising so far, there really isnt much choice left i fear.
Because the "security" software companies often work closely with the U.S. intelligence agencies, that will very much love for this feature to be on every device.
Big ceos salivate at this for bottom line accountability. It's sunshine and rainbows in meetings but the true white hats know what this allows....
What kind of work does your client do? I feel like being able to switch to Linux depends on what you'll be doing on it.
Switching to RHEL or other?
Not going into too much detail but they are a software company in an important (nowadays even more so) but still niche market.
That allows/allowed them to start thinking about moving everything to Linux as their Infrastructure isn't necessary OS bound.
Nevertheless, it is a huge project to be sure and requires meticulous testing and planning.
This level of embedding tells me that 1) Recall is going to be turned on by default in upcoming windows releases. 2) Microsoft will eventually look to harvest recall information from the PCs with it enabled (probably through OneDrive "backups"), and 3) eventually it will be in business and home users' windows deployments and it will become increasingly difficult to disable for any length of time and impossible to completely remove without replacing a lot of components with 3rd party solutions.
Given the world we live in, its looking increasingly likely that Microsoft absolutely sees the loss of trust as absolutely worth the potential information gain.
The really disturbing part about all this spying and the monster databases it creates is that there is no good reason for any of it. *Especially* if the line that it's only for advertising purposes is true.
You're spot on. They're in the "it's not happening stage". Then they'll say it's a conspiracy theory. Then they'll say it might happen. And eventually they'll say it is happening and it's good.
I sure hope that so many people switch to to other OS after W10 that bosses at MS shit their pants
For the recall to run you need a special chip on your motherboard. It won't run as intended without it.
And that they will backport this to x86 eventually (if not done already behind the scenes)
The old frogs in the boiling water situation… starts slowly, then when you get used to, temperature rises a little more… till the frog is cooked… signs are all there. Fall from it to your own peril.
The frogs don't want to jump out of the pot because they think the counter top is "too cold" this time around.
Did you know frogs jump out of water as soon as it becomes warm. It was myth-busted years ago. The analogy is nonsense anyway. If Microsoft raise the temperature enough, all but the most idiotic will jump.
That boiling frog metaphor is a myth btw. It's not how frogs actually work. :)
@@lennyvalentin6485 You mean Algore was pushing an untruth? Say it isn't so!
@@lennyvalentin6485 okay but still is a good metaphor to explain things
Most comforting words ever seen on my screen: "Your computer isn't able to run Windows 11".
IKR
mine was. until i switched something in bios (i don't remember, hope i don't have to switch it back). now it "SADLY" isn't able to run windows 11. something about the feature that means i'd have to buy a new windows if i change the hardware
The more eyes on this issue, the better. The fact that it exists, was hidden away, and enabled by default, after their own statements saying that it'll only be on Copilot+ PCs with an NPU and it only being opt-in, really should raise a LOT of questions about what is going on here and that's before any files related to it because a dependency in their file manager.
Does anybody know if Microsoft has said anything publicly about this yet? Or are they doing their usual "silent treatment" and ignoring the tech community...AGAIN?
I _could_ see a chain of event that would lead to this happening in good faith; Recall is heavily invested in due to current trends, plans are made to make it able to interface with the core of the system, but technical limitations make it unfeasible to implement it across all users so for the sake of not fragmenting the codebase too much, on the computers advertised as Copilot+PC with the required hardware where the feature is in fact planned to be deployed the component will be the fully developed incarnation of Recall, and on all other computers the matching component is just a "dummy" service that doesn't do anything other than making sure the feature being missing doesn't result in malfunctions from, say, other software that assumes it exists and try to interface with it.
*However* given their past behavior over... the entirety of Microsoft's existence, my trust in them is way too low for me to assume good faith by default at this point. If they intend to force Recall on everyone, this is exactly the kind of steps they'd take at first.
There's nothing really that Microsoft can say, because Microsoft fully knows they plan on and might already be harvesting the screenshot data and selling to everyone $$$!
@@onceuponaban I agree. This may also be why many businesses still have not yet rolled out Windows 11, (outside of hardware and software reasons).
It's not a bug, it's a "feature". It's policy. They've turned Win into full grade spyware. The fact File Explorer doesn't work after removing this "feature" tells you just how deeply rooted it is in the OS. This is by design, it cannot be a mistake, it's so clear.
Time to set up Debian for friends and family... If you appreciate people, you kindly mention alternatives. Then it's up to them.
I can't even imagine as a developer how I would make this happen by accident
@@thiscommentsdeleteddebian developers are woke...limix getting infe ed more and more too
@@thiscommentsdeleted mint for windows users switching. its literally who its for.
@@tiergeist2639 "they're woke" 🤓
So basically, they implemented a dummy to let people think "oh, but it isn't actually doing anything, it's just a dud" and then at some point in the future when people are used to it they'll activate that on some random update without telling us. Got it.
The Kreeping Krud of increMENTALism!!! 😬
Basically, wonder if they'll try to hide the storage use . Would be pretty simple since they control the entire OS
They purposefully made the world upgrade their computers just to be able to use Windows 11. Now they will use all that power to track everyone
They've already commited to making this an opt-in feature because of all the noise but I think this is the remnants of their inicial idea to make it opt-out. It also gives it a higher level access to whatever you're doing because explorer is a special process.
Trojan Horse approach, and yet users aren't supposed to see this as spyware/malware? Crazy.
I'm kinda surprised that govt/business aren't raising alarm bells at all about this, machines that handle classified data use Windows (albeit stripped down but still)
Because almost everyone in the Senate is so old that they don't even k kw the difference between Facebook and email
a lot of top secret stuff already runs on linux. most of consumer grade government stuff runs on windows 7 or xp .. the only people who run win11 is your avg person at home or corporate office.. and when has the government cared about the average joe or average small/medium business?
There is a special Windows 11 government edition that's cleaner than a custom iso, it pretty much doesn't have anything installed, not even edge.
Microsoft sells special versions of windows for government/secure enterprise. Even then, microsoft and the government work together with their spyware and data harvesting.
Why would the government be upset that their partners are developing spyware from which they will benefit?
I've breathed new life on my machines with Linux Mint.
In case it wasn't already clear: *It's on every 24H2 version of Windows. Including LTSC*
The code, yes.
The program will only appear and function on Copilot+PC machines
because once the models get small enough, they will push it to more machines that will then be able to handle it
are you sure it's on every version? I heard windows 11 enterprise versions are safe.
@@StarWarsExpert_ positive
@@StarWarsExpert_ Update: Windows Server 2025 has no recall feature
This behavior from microsoft is actually very suspicious. Tops out most of the stuff they did in their past.
ms want the ai on your computer to do somthing in the future -I assume nothing really can be deleted on your computer , recall are like undelete. exe before windows 95 - sowhat the purpose ,make an ai thats You? so who are really behindthis ?
I think this Recall stuff is the worst thing they’ve ever done. They’re willingly putting all their users data at serious risk. They’re just effectively a spyware company now as far as I’m concerned.
Google is worse at it though since a huge majority of users use Chrome they can watch everything you do, regardless of your operating system.
@@fragalot I think this is way worse because it’s easy to just switch web browsers but this means literally anything you do on your PC isn’t safe from spyware.
You either have to just be fine with your data being at constant risk or completely change operating systems.
Bill gates nuff said
I wish I had the brain power to write software to completely lock all companies out of personal computers and phones. No more "auto-updates" to force spyware on people. The corporations are a bigger threat to our security than any hacker ever will be.
And they're not a direct threat, but an indirect one. Their actions enable hackers to cause disproportionately more damage than ever.
Think about it, Recall essentially does at least these three things:
1. It enables directed attacks (against groups or individuals of power) to yield orders of magnitude more data.
2. It makes extortion/blackmail attacks against corporations orders of magnitude more devastating.
3. It allows not only corporations but everyone with an agenda to collect orders of magnitude more identifiable information.
And because Microsoft is so damn loud about their glorious Co-Pilot, everyone on Earth knows it, and every hacker on Earth knows it's going to be orders of magnitude more lucrative than all other sources of data. And considering it isn't long ago since Chinese hackers were found to exploit a U.S. federally mandated backdoor, it won't be long before Co-Pilot is exploited left and right.
Terry Davis did it with TempleOS
@@sean7221 better yet, just unplug the wifi modem
Just get Linux
@@sterkriger2572 I will be when Win 10 is no longer viable, but I would rather make corporations eat their own sh_t.
Microsoft needs another anti-trust lawsuit!
Hey Chris thanks for letting us know and keeping us updated. You've saved me a lot of times and I'm sure many people would happily say that too. Keep up the good work!
I will not be doing another Winblows update. Will be moving to Linux.
You and many more. I moved from Windows years ago and have not regrets - actually I feel better not having MS looking over my shoulder.
Welcome aboard, I ditched windows with xp and have been on Debian based distro ever since. There is some getting used to but it wasn''t too hard and didn't take long before I didn't even think of going back. I personally use Kubuntu and have been since 2005 and it has done nothing but get better. Good luck in finding your digital freedom.
It is really quite straight forward to check to see if the Recall software is installed and enabled.
Open up the Terminal (as Admin) and type in this command
Check If Recall Is ON : Dism /Online /Get-Featureinfo /Featurename:Recall
Depending on your preference these commands can either ENABLE or DISABLE the software.
Disable RECALL: Dism /Online /Disable-Feature /Featurename:Recall
Enable RECALL: Dism /Online /Enable-Feature /Featurename:Recall
I'm not really a conspiracy therorist but I kinda feel like Microsoft wants to train some AI on everyone.
This might be bigger than Facebook, Adobe and others training AI on Users data and other stuff.
This is probably it. They will tap into so much training data for free, it reduces the cost of training their future models indefinitely.
Three letter agencies want a back door into every PC and Microsoft is making it happen this way.
100% [..'and other stuff..] Very salient. It's the 'other stuff' that they don't/can't get from Amazon or Google et al. Next level of intrusion.
Running 11 home insider preview (10.0.27723 build 2773) I was able to disable Recall with no effect on the file explorer.
That is likely their primary motivation. Of course that won't stop them from using it for other purposes as well, nevermind the security risk of having so much unnecessary sensitive data.
At this point Microsoft is indirectly the biggest supporters of linux
Protip: Never interrupt your enemy when they're making a mistake.
@@meh.7539 the dirty scum are busy taking Linux down
Totally agree, they pushed me to Linux a few years back.
If only someone figures out a way to get MS Office to run on Linux.
@@B312XC you can, just not the 365 version
"recall" is an unfortunate name choice. Reminds me of a dystopian sci-fi movie
Installing an alternative operating system sure is a good way of disabling Microsoft "features" permanently.
Wow Microsoft sucks
I would have never guessed
Recall is only available on Copilot+ PC and you can turn it off
CachyOS is a good alternative and the more members we have the more reliable Linux will look to game and software companies
they really started tos uck when Bill gates left ,After windows xp I cannot care about windows features -they suck and are made for 3 year olds - the same iq a s the devs have on microsoft
And what? People will keep using it because there's a lot of businesses that are made around Windows compatible software. Any alternative OS won't be a feasible option for long time.
I recently had a windows update on my windows 10 PC that installed Co-pilot and pinned it to my taskbar. At this point I'm not sure I want any windows PCs in my house anymore just due to all of this recent hoopla. When I feel like I can't securely check my bank account or pay my bills on my PC you know it's time to go.
I uninstalled and group policy blocked that shit so fast
FYI, it was just a link to an app download, it didn't install anything. Was odd to see it on my Win10 machine too but scrolling through the start menu and uninstalling from there took the icon link away and no files were actually installed on the machine to remove.
Good news is that if your Running windows 10, then Recall probably won't work. Recall needs Win 11.
@@mrdan2898Nice. I'm sticking with this one then.
I got Copilot on my PC randomly recently (Windows 10). I thought it was suspicious.
Thank you. Programmer not an admin. Good luck on finding the where and maybe the why.
explorer++ is pretty handy as an explorer replacement; there's some extra features but it doesn't try anything radical. Also integrates nicely with the stock shell and can open all the control panel "folders".
how is this legal? isnt there channels it needs to go through in order to be pushed on people by force?
I would like to know how the EU looks at Recall vs GDPR. I'm not sure Recall is even legal here in the EU.
I'm just glad I moved to Linux a few months ago on my daily driver. Now I'm only using Win10 on my gaming desktop, which is rarely turned on.
It's worth trying steam/proton gaming on linux. I've found it amazing (i don't play mp games with anticheat which is patchy).
@@TheGunnarRoxen Or the games where the mouse is buggy. Or the shadows are buggy. Or where you accidentally install flatpak steam and wonder why you can't add a separate disk as a location anymore. Or when modding apps dislike version, or refuse to run on nVidia cards without extra commands to sandbox. Other than that, a lot of games do work fine.
Or is you're new and discover Linux can have two sound setting apps that feed into each other so if max volume is too quiet you may have to increase volume on the other.
It can be quite the shell game of settings. But I am not sure I will move to Linux on my gaming rig until Microsoft does something I can't easily undo.
Steam itself is quite reasonable on linux, but I switched last weekend, did not install tens of games, but quite a few, ie. Cyberpunk 2077, RDR2, EuroTruckSimulator to name a few big ones. Using Heroic for Epic games and Steam for steam games. Did use Bottles for a second steam, however with the 'play for steam' experimental setting other games seem to work in steam as well.
There is a new / other framework in town "UWU", that pretends to know LOTS of configurations to let games work outside of Windows.
The more people do this, especially the supported games in steam where Valve can see that Linux used, the more the signal goes to developers to make things for the best open operating system there is (in my opinion of 30 years of desktop linux)
Recall is Microsoft's legal version of spyware that infringes on civilians privacy laws and invades on their privacy to the maximum extent possible aswell as chat control, this is what is happening. It's another SOPA thing.
@@sociallyferal4237 doesn't sound any different from windows (minus flatpak), I've had weird ass bugs on both OSes (the frequency with which they happened wasn't that much different either, that's how software is), nothing is perfect and don't let perfect be the enemy of "it's bloody fucking amazing and usable everyday"
Using Wireshark and Fiddler as well as other web traffic monitors to ascertain what exactly Recall is doing is the only way to empirically determine what it's doing. Someone with the skills with these programs needs to dive into testing this controversial Windows feature for the sake of all Windows users.
Until it is deemed important to national security and piggybacks off the hidden networking embedded in your CPU :)
@@skycaptain95 Can you elaborate?
@@surject Guessing this is referring to the Intel Management Engine, or AMD equivalent, which operates at a security ring below even your BIOS and has remote management features.
What was that? TLS? SSL? Nothing shows their data in traffic captures anymore...
@@jasonblazgk9973 Makes sense. Turning that shit off (as good as possible) since its beginning.
Evil monopoly company forcing spyware on their users. 😒
Recall is only available on Copilot+ PC and you can turn it off
😈
And if I was to install spyware on someone's computer I would be arrested! Sooo what should Microsoft punishment's be per single PC with Recall installed?
@@mrdan2898 did that someone give you permission to install that spyware on their computer?
@thecursed01 No, that's why I never installed Spyware.
When the OS itself is a dark pattern malware it has truly become obsolete.
Monthly fines from EU would be getting off the hook too easy.
Feature was enabled, removed as per DISM example in video, but file explorer tabs remain. Seeing on other systems, if you have the NPU copilot chip then it is an option in privacy and security. But will continue to monitor....
And this is why you don't upgrade until we know more. Someone on our team updated manually and my argument is it just came out last week and we don't know enough about it yet.
Exactly! Always test it first and wait for the big issues to get addressed.
@@ChrisTitusTechis there a way to disable updates completely, rather than using their temporary pause button?
@@ChrisTitusTech Running 11 home insider preview (10.0.27723 build 2773) I was able to disable Recall with no effect on the file explorer.
@@oraz. Yes but no but I won't tell you cause updates are not only for features, they are for fixing security in things as well.
Know of a recent case where a broken "Patch" was not installed on a network, because IT spotted that it would crash the network. There is always "That one guy", yeah he went "Oh why has this patch not been installed. You guessed it he installed it with out asking, it crashed EVERYTHING. "I didn't know the patch was bad", several long days later. Everything restored.
This was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I have fully made the jump to Linux and am loving every second of it. Thank you for covering this!
I'm hesitant because a lot of the games I play don't run on Linux
@@capablanc Is dual booting an option just to keep playing games on windows and doing your other daily tasks on an alternative OS?
@@kevinrineer5356 Isn't dual-booting with Windows 11 still messed up? It didn't affect me so I didn't pay a lot of attention, but there was an issue several weeks ago with a Windows update that made it stop playing well with other OSes on the same drive.
@@capablanc Buy a second SSD, they're cheap. Have one for a Windows install and one for Linux. It's easier than dual-booting with GRUB and mose UEFI bioses these days have a menu to let you pick which drive to boot from.
@@capablanc get an external ssd and boot windows on one drive and linux on the other drive, play games on Linux as much as possible and wean yourself off of the Windows stuff so slowly but surely in a year or so dump Windows completely. Game devs will make linux compatibility a priority as we all switch. Windows needs to go away.
Recall is basically a logic bomb
More like a knock knock from hacker to easily sneak into user pc
Haha nice try Microsoft now i go to ubuntuOS
*clears throat*
*Demoman: “KABOOOOOOM”*
Switched to Linux full time earlier this year since I wasn’t dependent on Win-specific applications. Slight change in workflow but otherwise able to complete all tasks. No regrets.
This is honestly terrifying.
Windows Recall finally made me do my long awaited switch to Fedora.
Welcome my friend.
W Fedora. Idk what it is but damn it hits different. Arch, Debian and even Nix dont compare 😎
lmao, maybe i should finally install ubuntu already, after weeks of procrastinating!
sad you guys take this long to switch, windows been spyware for almost 20 years now.
Recall is only available on Copilot+ PC
No worries Chris. Those that understand debloating, custom ISO's etc. know how it feels when something unexplainable happens or a dependency is removed etc.
I remember spending over a week trying to figure out what was breaking the immersive control panel in Win10 1709 that didn't happen in other versions.
Now I just use your tool :) (and happily donated to the cause!)
I've never heard of the control panel being advertised as "immersive" 😅
@@SpaceCadet4Jesus That's it's official name but people call it "settings", as you would.
It's weird they hide the real control panel from any easy way to get to it when you still need it for things.
@@oraz. It's easy to always find the Control Panel.
Simply type control panel in search, right click the icon and either pin to start menu or pin to taskbar.
@@SpaceCadet4Jesus I know it's not in the right click start button menu though
Wonder when this will be considered a national security problem. Should have like a decade ago.
I believe quite a few national/federal institutions are still running XP because of lack of funding for new machines, so I suspect they will continue to remain oblivious for some time.
NO, you don't understand, having recall pushed to all PCs and activated by default is the matter for national security. The amount of data this will give to the government will make their past surveillance endeavors pale in comparison. I bet everyone at the NSA is very excited about Recall.
Well China definitely recognizes it as such and that's why they replaced government computers with homemade silicon running homemade Linux distro.
@@thescrewfly Some might be running XP, but I think I heard news stories about some western governments upgrading to windows 10 machines. It doesn't matter anyways though; microsoft makes custom versions of windows for governments and military. I think the US military was running XP with active security updates well into the lifetime of win10. The government officials are stuck using the schlock us peasants have to deal with.
If your email ends in .gov, you can get a version of Windows 11 without Recall and Copilot.
I felt like this already back in Wndows 7 from XP. Now as a non-Windows user looking at it, I feel relieved having jumped ship over 10 years ago.
I bet it 100% is recording your information. Even if not taking screenshots, if it's baked into the file system itself, it will be able to record what files exists, where, and what is in them and what you use them for.
By far, I have no annoying crap in my Win 11 22H2 in 2 years of use with support oft Chris's Tools, thanks sir!
I switched to Directory Opus years ago and can't imagine life without it now...
oh, remember that from my good old Amiga days....somewhen in the 90s ;)
Opus and Autohotkey are the reasons why I don't want to switch to Linux, and Vegas Pro and ...
Thanks for the tip, looks awesome.
Exactly! I use Total Commander instead but the idea is the same, never need to use the file Explorer.
@@SpaceCadet4Jesus The latest version of DOpus added the last "missing" feature for me from Linux - expandable folders, ala Dolphin. Great stuff!
The fact that MS hid Recall from the user it wouldn't surprise me that they have hidden any resource usage (CPU, I/O, etc) from the user as well.
Someone needs to file a lawsuit. This has to violate HIPAA or hundreds of other confidentiality laws for users of Microsoft systems. How can business customers simultaneously use Microsoft Computers and still abide by their legal obligations of client confidentiality?
thanks Titus for your support
"I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better!"
-WEF
You*, but true otherwise.
Back when Microsoft released the Windows 7 Release Candidate via FTP download,
they said it was because they didn't want to use "criminal technology" like BitTorrent.
Today, I say I don't want to use a criminal operating system.
This entire situation is objectively preposterous.
Where did they claim that?
the funny thing is they introduced the bit torrent p2p protocol in windows 10 and it's on by default to share windows updates with other people from your PC
@maxrinehart4177 Pretty sure the Delivery Optimization is based on either HTTP or SMB.
@@maxrinehart4177 That is actually hilarious. Thanks for that one.
*Source:* _trust me bro_
Windows literally forced an update on my computer while I was working yesterday, and this forced recall update is going to make me switch to linux for real this time.
Mint is like the successor to W7 that should have been.
Mint and Nobara are the best options today.
No ubuntu, no nothing.
Well i just cannot use Linux for everything because of my studies in university and also when i graduate i will still need windows in my upcoming working life so i'm screwed to say the least.
@@MrPelzi91 Use Windows AME, strip everything and then install Directory Opus as a substitute for Windows Explorer. You have to pay for Directory Opus, but it is worth it in my opinion.
Your fault haha auto updates on XD
where does recall store the screen shots
4:28 Did he say it's showing up on legacy systems?
Time for some trillions in EU fines!
In the EU, especially in Germany, some government divisions changed from Unix/Linux to Windows, some years ago. They don't care about the data of the users. MS will pay a few millions, and then it will be forgotten.
Just to explain something, as judging by the comments, some people might not be aware: The "explorer.exe" process is not just for the File Explorer. It's also the desktop environment for Windows. That includes the desktop wallpaper, the taskbar and the start menu. Considering Recall's whole purpose is take snapshots of the desktop, its not surprising that MS would integrate it to some extent into that process. Why they couldn't make the new File Explorer just work without recall is beyond me, but I suspect its just something they either didn't have time for or they didn't anticipate users would do. This is nothing new with Microsoft, however. They've done this with many features in the OS.
Yup, this is not surprising whatsoever and is exactly why all the "debloat" stuff can often cause issues down the line. Because Windows likes to integrate, and it's not always obvious why or where it's occurring. Hanlon's razor and whatnot.
They just make it this way so nobody can disable it or uninstall it without messing up their entire OS. This just proves they intend to gather all your data and spy on you. There would be no reason to make it this hard to get rid of it if it is intended to be used offline.
Its on purpose
@@More_Row Well its always on purpose. Certainly wasn't an accident. If you're insinuating that they didn't want users to remove Recall, then of course. Windows was never designed to be modular, so I'm not sure why people expect it to be like Linux.
Running 11 home insider preview (10.0.27723 build 2773) I was able to disable Recall with no effect on the file explorer.
Open up the Terminal (as Admin) and type in this command
Check If Recall Is ON :
Dism /Online /Get-Featureinfo /Featurename:Recall
Depending on your preference these commands can either ENABLE or DISABLE the software.
Disable RECALL:
Dism /Online /Disable-Feature /Featurename:Recall
Enable RECALL:
Dism /Online /Enable-Feature /Featurename:Recall
You must be a Mac guy. “Terminal” is a Mac term. The Windows equivalent is “Command Prompt”
I wonder how long it will take for Microsoft to disable or remove that function.
We all know Microsoft absolutely hates to give users control over their system.
Command prompt (cmd) works as well. Just open it with admin privileges.
@@bigedslobotomy That's outdated. It's Windows Terminal now and the console is replaced by the terminal emulator.
@@bigedslobotomy Linux "terminal"? "Command prompt" seems so DOS.
This function is an ‘Opt In’ function that can be activated or deactivated via the Windows features. This adds or removes the files from the SystemApp folder. There is currently no build that has fully integrated Recall. Microsoft has postponed Recall once again and will only test it in the Insider versions in October/November.
The "new version of File Explorer" is actually a shell extension component that overlays the new toolbars. Likely the dependency you are seeing is an integration that Explorer can use to query the Recall app.
Great video! We need to make a stand on these types of issues, it is a clear breach and aggregation of our privacy, and like some people said, how come more major cybersecurity companies aren’t talking about this?
I just disabled Recall on my laptop and I don't even have an NPU. I didn't know it was there until I tried the DISM command.
Before copilot and recall, Microsoft has already force shipped Cortana without proper explanation. They also enabled hyper-v by default which is not useful to a large group of people and introduced a performance penalty.
Edit: It's the hyperv hypervisor, which powers hyperv, is enabled by default and causes performance penalty. The performance penalty is not related to the installation of hyperv. You can see whether the hypervisor is enabled by yourself using msinfo32.
Your information is incorrect. hyper-v is not installed by default, you have to go into the control panel, add remove programs, into Windows features to actually check it and install it.
I believe that Hyper-v can be enabled or disabled in BIOS.
@@Rushtallica That's hardware virtualization, something used by Hyper-V and virtual machines and other sandbox software.
Hyper-V is needed to use Windows Defender memory protection, likely running many things as its own VM. I can't run that protection because I use VMware Workstation, which has taken control of my CPU's virtualization tech.
@@Rushtallica Technically, you are correct. Without ability for hardware virtualization, Hyper-V isn't going to work for you.
Practically though, Enabling or disabling Hyper-V is when it's installed or uninstalled via control panel option
mine was disabled when I checked my dell laptop got the new 24h2 but my home built PC did not get the update
I am currently on Windows 11 24H2 and the command states that Recall is Disabled. (By default)
I can't wait for the EU to fine Microsoft one more time 🔥🚀
The EU will fine them for less than what M$ wipes their butt with.
sweet summer child. so naive.
The money they'll get from harvesting user data from Recall will pay for the fine and then some.
Best case scenario, the EU will force Microsoft to allow users to completely disable it or the sales of Windows devices will be restricted.
It's gonna be really difficult to throw a punishment at Microsoft that'll cost them more than that level of data scraping will earn them back.
You mean, shakedown. Meanwhile there will not be any real consequences and business will carry on as usual. That's until the EU needs another payday.
Ah yes and then they will ask Microsoft: Well where is the data? give it to us, after paying the -extortion- fine, and then they will carry on as always like nothing is happening. And if they ever get caught they can just say they did it to protect the children and that's it, case is closed.
Switched to Arch because of this and so far couldn’t be happier
Wrote this comment on Linux Mint. With Firefox it doesn't have ads either 🧐
Hi fellow Mint user. Brave here.
So what's the issue?
What's wrong with the previous windows explorer style?
The Recall "feature" is present and enabled on Windows 11 IoT LTSC 24H2 (26100.1882) too. The bug on explorer appears on IoT LTSC too when you turn off recall using dism.
Micro$oft will slowly start stealing your gpu/npu power for their benefit, and serve you ads and try to implement subscription fees for the computer you think you own..
While using Recall to train their AI.
@@RupertBundem You'd say the same thing about recall 5 years ago, shill
Is this some sort of negative prophecy?
That's my take on Win11 in general. It's the break from the PC being your PC to it being Microsoft's PC that you just use. They've been moving in that direction for awhile but now the gloves are off.
"You can now plug in your second monitor for only $20/month" - MS
Thank you Microsoft for pushing me into Linux. Mint is super easy to set up and use and with Steam being OGs, all games I still play and almost every game I own is compatible.
same ^^
You're playing cyberpunk 2077 on Linux?
@@SpaceCadet4Jesus I own Cyberpunk, but I’m not playing it on any platform.
@@SpaceCadet4Jesus I am, runs as well as it did on Windows.
@@mihairomulus2488 I concur, played Phantom Liberty dlc exclusively through Linux.
i don't know what happened but the update changed my login screen to bazzite 😱
That's weird. Mine changed to Kubuntu. How wacky!
mine changed to Fedora Workstation, interesting
Mine changed to CachyOS. This update is strange, huh?
Mine changed to Mint, really strange
😂😂😂
Maybe this will be an alternative way of disabling the 'new' file explorer and using the old one instead - which many users like to do.
There was something similar to Recall in windows a long time ago. "Timeline" or something, where you could go back and see all the programs you ran and files you opened on a calendar-like display. They apparently removed that because I never saw it again after I deleted it.
im using directory opus for about 10 years. not sure about pricing for company
Love checking up on Windows drama. I'm always like that, "what are they doing over there" meme
Same for me. Happily exclusively on Linux in the last 5 years on the desktop, including gaming.
I'm just here for the nonsensical comment section.
Hi Chris, can you update your MicroWin to have all the unnecessary A.I. features such as recall and Copilot and invasive features too.
He's working on that
@@Splarkszter Cool can't wait for that, my Blackview MINI PC with he Intel N95 processor has Chris's Microwin nice annd clean
Recall is only available on Copilot+ PC and you can turn it off
You want to use multi commander to replace file explorer
@@londo776 I'm talking about removing it from the ISO so the files won't be there when you do a fresh install. Sure you can disable it but what's stopping an major update re-enabling it like updates has always done in the past
When I do the Dism check it says "Feature name Recall is unknown. Does this mean I'm clear or did they simply change the name?
Clean
Thanks, Chris. Non-techies are gonna be stuck with this dreck unless they jump off Windows, or some court issues an order during a privacy lawsuit telling Micro$oft to turn off the feature.
Been on Linux for over a year now, and I am so happy with it, I only use Windows for a couple of games
i have windows on a vm proxmoox with gpu passtrough
I have Windows as my main OS and never have to reboot, I stay online for months at a time, it's awesome!
@@nikichashadow Do you need 2 gpu's to do that?
You know, it's bad enough that Windows includes a keyboard logger disguised as a 'search improvement feature (Inking and typing sample submissions),' now Windows is taking screenshots of your work every few seconds? Nope, not letting that happen.
I hope it logs my keyboard input. I'm tired of making a long TH-cam comment and then having to rewrite the whole thing over and over and over again. And yes I do type it in notepad first or word, but I also have other uses for the keyboard logger. So in my opinion Bring It On.
Germany's DDR could only wish they had this ability back in the day
The NSA, the Mossad, the FSB and the CCP they're all salivating at the prospect of having recall on by default on all PCs. I bet everyone at the NSA is very excited about Recall.
us nsa are glad they have it today
Big...Brother! Big...Brother!
Your experience may change, but I forgot about Explorer when I switched to Directory Opus - as per my setup it blends in seamlessly
It is also in the WIN 11 Pro Insider Preview
Going by the latest Steam hardware\OS data, which is probably the most accurate snapshot of your follow-base, Windows 10 is only slightly ahead of Windows 11. Windows 10 has increased by around 1.5% and Windows 11 has decreased by around 1.5% suggesting that people are switching back from 11 to 10. Given Windows 10 has 1 year until EOL support, would you recommend it over Windows 11 until then? Any other thoughts on this? Thanks Chris.
maybe win 10 LTSC (and manually adding the store and other stuff back in)
maybe steamOS if it gets better
I would recommend it if you dual boot with linux or need some time before using Linux but yeah. I would recommend trying to get a LTSC copy instead if you insist on windows 10
I ran windows 7 until Jan 2023 at which time a computer failure and new machines that would not boot Win7 forced me to update to windows 10. I ran win7 a couple of years past it's EOL... and I will do the same with Windows 10.
The risk is pretty minimal... the OS will be no more vulnerable in 5 years, without updates, than it is today.
@@Douglas_Blake_579No, it will definitely be more vulnerable
@@PortocaliusMaximus I'm really hoping valve fully releases steamOS before win10 dies. That would make it easy for a lot of people to switch over, but there hasn't been any news on it sadly.
Directory Opus looks awesome, but last I checked, it wasn't free. :-(
True, but DOpus earns its keep.
Yeah, only downside is that once you start using it you will never ever go back to Windows Explorer. :P
Who would've thought that this is going to be the case for Recall... no one would've used it if it's opt-in by default. Good thing they promised the opposite though.
My Explorer replacement is: Directory Opus
use it for over 10 years now
I get the feeling that when you disable Recall it reverts back to the older style file explorer as a kind of act of humiliation or punishment the same as when you run a non-activated version of Windows you get the desktop watermark and inability to change wallpaper, etc.