If you thought that Microsoft was done with Recall after its catastrophic reveal as the main feature of Copilot+ PCs, you are mistaken.
Microsoft wants to bring it back this October 2024. Good news is that the company plans to introduce it in test builds of the Windows 11 operating system in October. In other words: do not expect the feature to hit stable Windows 11 PCs before 2025 at the earliest.
While Recall may have sounded great on paper and on work-related PCs, users and experts alike expressed concern. Users expressed fears that malware could steal Recall data to know exactly what they did in the past couple of months.
Others did not trust Microsoft to keep the data secure. We suggested to make Recall opt-in, instead of opt-out, to make sure that users knew what they were getting into when enabling it.
Microsoft pulled the Recall feature shortly after its announcement and published information about its future in June. There, Microsoft said that it would make Recall opt-in by default. It also wanted to improve security by enrolling in Windows Hello and other features.
Finished migrating to Linux right on time
I’m dual booting Debian and Windows, is there an easy way to fully remove the windows partition and add it to Debian to fully be rid of windows?
You could use GUI partitioning tools to just remove the windows partition and expand your debian installation. Did you install an extra bootloader for linux?
Yes i installed and changed the boot order to do Debian first, disabled secure and fast boot also. I heard that could cause som issues
It can, but that’s not what I meant. When booting linux, do you see the blue windows menu where you can decide between debian and windows or does linux just start? If it just starts, you can just delete the windows partition (make sure to check that all important data has been copied to linux or you will loose it!). If unsure which partition it is, it’s the one with ntfs as the file system.
It’s not a blue window, it says Debian and lets me choose between Debian as the first option and windows as like the third one
I’m currently dual booting and still uses Windows for gaming since I tried gaming on Linux and I basically got around half the FPS that I usually got on Windows (I have Nvidia GPU). I think I’ll fully migrate when I upgrade to an AMD GPU sometime in the future.
How’d that Windows update go? Did it break your grub?
Didn’t break mine, I’m dual booting Debian 12
Luckily on my system it didn’t break.
Is there anything you’d recommend as a migration tutorial from someone who’s used windows their whole life?
I have a really basic one. Some caveats - I’ve also used Windows my whole life (up until about 2 weeks ago), but I’m comfortable getting into a command prompt and/or powershell to tweak stuff. Also, I had a spare SSD lying around and extra space on my installed HDD.
Step 0 (arguably the hardest): pick your distro.
I went with Arch - but if you want something Arch-based but a little less barebones, you might do fine with Manjaro or EndeavourOS. This is totally up to you though (I’m in the process of migrating my wife to openSUSE). “But Gaspar, you crazy old man,” you may ask, “what all is out there?” Well… there’s a lot. Over 600 active distros, if you believe this random-ass tech blog, and countless other hundreds (or thousands) that are old, outdated, no longer supported, or were cooked up by one dude specifically for their own system and will never be uploaded. There are a couple of tools that can help narrow this down, but you’re really just going to have to poke around and see what appeals to you.Step 1: Test in a virtual machine first.
This is optional, but it may help you make up your mind: pick a few different distros and install them in virtual machines, using VirtualBox or something. You can poke around in there and see how things “feel” before you make up your mind, without worrying about messing something up.Step 2: Load up a USB stick.
Ventoy. You don’t HAVE to use this, strictly speaking. You can just get Etcher or Rufus or something, use them to write your chosen distro’s ISO to a USB stick, and install that way. But Ventoy sets up a separate partition on your USB stick where you can grab a bunch of different ISOs and drag-and-drop in there, and load up whichever one you want. Pretty handy.Step 3: Go into Disk Management and free up a partition for your chosen distro.
This is up to your taste (I just installed it into its own whole SSD) but I’d set aside at least 256GB for the OS and the packages you’ll want to install once you get in there. Again, though, YMMV.Step 4: Install that sucker!
OK, now boot into your ISO through the USB stick you prepared earlier and install the sucker on your new partition. Most distros will have you set up a root password and give you the option to create a user. YOU WANT TO DO THIS. You do not want to always access your system as root - that way lies madness (and it’s wildly insecure). You may also get a choice of desktop environments. This is up to your taste but I went with KDE Plasma because I have a Steam Deck (which also runs on a variant of Arch) and I was already used to the interface.Step 5: Migration start
After you’ve gotten set up and a little comfortable poking around (maybe you already figured out how you want to start setting up when you were testing VMs in Step 1 earlier), it’s time to start partitioning. There are a few GUI partition managers you can use - I used KDE Partition Manager, but there’s also Gparted and a few others.Once you’re in whichever program you’ve chosen to set up your partitions, you’ll want to proceed in this basic order:
- Shrink your Windows partition(s) if they are taking up the entire drive, and you have the space to do so (if not, we’ll get to that)
- Create new Linux partitions in the filesystem of your choice (again, will explain this shortly)
- Mount both your Windows and Linux partitions and copy from one to the other
- Once you’re happy that everything’s copied over, delete the Windows partition(s) (unless you’re planning on dual-booting, in which case keep the partition with your Windows install)
- Finally, extend your new Linux partition(s) to cover the whole drive
Step 6: Wait what?
Well, maybe your Windows drive is full, or there isn’t enough space on the new partition to copy everything over. This is why I mentioned the spare SSD. You can plug that in, if you have one, and use it as a placeholder to copy your files to while you reformat your drive and then copy everything back.Also - filesystem of your choice? Well, Linux has a few options for partition types: ext4, btrfs, zfs, and a bunch of others. You’ll have to check them out and see which makes the most sense for you. I personally just reformatted everything as btrfs. It may not have been the most efficient choice, but it’s worked out for me so far. The main issue here is the standard Windows NTFS file system. Now - you CAN keep a lot of your data on an NTFS partition, especially if you want to dual boot Windows for a while and get used to things while still having that familiar lifeline (or, like me, if you have some games that still just don’t play well with Linux yet). Here’s the thing, though: thanks to a driver you can download, you can fairly easily get Windows to mount your btrfs partitions (I did it and even still have my drive letter associations). Plus, if you are a heavy Steam gamer, while you CAN get Steam on Linux to read your NTFS partitions… it’s a huge headache, and it isn’t worth it IMO (and, in my experience, I couldn’t get my NTFS partitions to STAY mounted as read/write). Better to just bite the bullet.
If you are planning on dual-booting, of course your Windows partition will still need to be NTFS. But if you have the disk storage to copy everything over, you can have everything else converted to whatever combination of Linux partitions you want in a few days (took me about 3, but I also had 10-ish TB to copy over and I had to do half of that twice).
Final Thoughts
Depending on whichever flavor of Linux you opted for, you may boot into GRUB, which is a bootloader that gives you some pretty neat configuration options - one of those options is the ability to boot into all your existing OS installs, including your Windows installation. Once you get a bit more familiar with Linux you may wish to make your Linux partition the default, secure in the knowledge that whenever you want, you can just hit down a couple of times, then Enter, and boom - you’re in Windows. Just be careful, because Windows recently pushed an update that may have broken this currently. I think it’s a nice touch, though.I have rambled on long enough at this point and I’m sure someone else can point out several hundred things I missed - again, I am still a Linux newbie. But the best way to learn this stuff is just to do it, and depending on your comfort level and familiarity with Windows it shouldn’t take you long to get up to speed. Good luck!
I’m taking a dual-boot route, it does have it’s issues. Unfortunately due to work related and gaming reasons I can’t let go of it just yet.
I went with Linux Mint and I’ve been happy as Larry since I got used to it. But distro hop until you find your fit I’d say, I had spare hardware I was distro-hopping with and Mint just fit me best I think.
You’re spot on with Ventoy, it’s a huge boon. I only recently became aware of it, absolutely love it already. I highly recommend giving it a go.
Awesome writeup, I’ll likely refer to it in future.
Step 0 really doesn’t need to be hard. Most Linux distros have largely the same compatibility with software, so pick something popular so you can get good community support. For that, I recommend Mint. Pick the flavor that looks pretty to you, and go for it, and if you can’t decide, get the Debian edition (LMDE).
You’re probably going to decide to use something else after getting to know Linux, and that’s 100% fine, but you want something stable and popular to start with so you don’t need to learn everything at once. After that, branch out to try something else until you find what works for you. I started with Ubuntu (all I knew about), then Fedora (what school used in CS labs), then Arch (rec from coworker), and now I’m on openSUSE Tumbleweed. For a new user, the differences honestly don’t matter much, but once you get familiar with the basics, you’ll start to develop opinions and want to try things out.
So keep it simple, install Mint and you’ll probably have a good experience. Or if that doesn’t look good for whatever reason, pick Debian or pretty much any Debian derivative (Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, etc). Those are really popular in the community, and you should have no problem getting help.
This is extremely helpful, thank you!
I love the other guys response, but seriously I’ve heard enough recommendations and plan to try Mint after Windows. Sounds easiest for people that aren’t Linux snobs.
Most important part would be talking about it as often as possible, a la CrossFit or veganism.
<Insert how you’ll use Linux> <shit on Microsoft and how you are done> <rest of the population uses Windows because they don’t know shit about tech and how shitty this is> <realize work loves Microsoft and you can’t change that> <destroy all your tech> <become a Luddite hermit>
Work is the only reason I still have windows in my life, and thankfully, they will be trialing linux as an option for employees in the next month or two. I signed up so damn quick lol.
I got lucky that my last 3 jobs have all let me use Linux on a work laptop, but I guess it’s not too surprising since I work as a web developer and production always runs on Linux lol
Yet another reminder that alternatives, where your privacy is not for sale, and your hardware belongs to you, actually exist in 2024
Not until Linux comes pre-deployed on gaming laptops for sale. That’s my market.
Before you ask, I don’t have the know-how to boot into Linux, and I need the portability of a laptop. As well as enjoying gaming to an extent. Pretty niche.
We already have the Steam deck, and SteamOS just got official support for third-party hardware. I don’t think it will take that long until we see gaming laptops or mini PCs preloaded with SteamOS.
Yeah, that would work I guess.
it’s for corporations to deploy on all their worker drones’ workstations
Agreed - if I were evil, I would use this data to look for long periods of static/unchanging desktop screenshots to look for inactivity and employees lying about being there or away.
Honestly this is just an arms race. If the above happens (and if I can come up with that use case think about what will come up when someone actually smart thinks about it.)
The response? I’d make a tool that presses alt-tab every 15 seconds a random number of times - to both keep the computer alive and change the desktop view, maybe move the windows around a bit for variety. A usb rubber ducky would be perfect for this.
Agreed. But if big brother really wants, they can detect a weird program running, a weird hardware being on it, or just that someone is tabbing around without actually doing something.
I wish they would do a much better job of distinguishing corporate workstation versions of Windows and Home versions of Windows. Put all this MS ecosystem garbage on the workstation version, and make the Home version a stripped down to the essentials OS. Which is what most of us try to do with tools like ShutUp10, anyway.
i’ll do you one better: all PCs at my job are running win10 LTSC, which was meant for specific use cases like running neon signs and shit
Ironically, in reality it’s the exact opposite. The home version is pumped to the brim with this dogshit, while the Enterprise version is stripped to the bare necessities. They likely know that other corporations have the balls to sue them for all kinds of reasons
How long before there’s a discovery request for all recall data for a time period and companies start screaming about the risks with recall?
companies start screaming about the risks with recall?
this comment veers pretty close to implying that upper and middle management know a single goddamn thing about tech or cybersecurity OR that they listen to their IT guys
That’s a really good summary of the degradation of software throughout time and the path to recreate software for the people. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks - I love that video and I share it all the time. It gets across the whole idea of why Free (libre) software is important without preaching, and (as you point out) with a reminder that it wasn’t always this way.
I can see the use case, and that some people might find this useful (not to mention many agencies and ad companies). But enough was enough, for me at least. Linux Mint rocks. Can’t see myself going back to Windows.
Of course it is coming back.
It will keep coming until plebs accept parasite.
They never said they were doing away with it. It’s a feature literally no one asked for, it’s insecure, it’s invasive, a privacy nightmare any way you look at it.
And people who willingly use it will deserve all the shit that it is. And meanwhile, I’ll be enjoying my privacy-respecting Linux operating system.
I am keeping Win 10 until I can’t safely anymore then Linux may be my next stop. Been looking at CachyOS for gaming.
My gaming Linux of choice right now is Garuda.
It’s another contender for sure.
Why cachy?
I also would love to know why cachy
Just some performance I’ve seen people get from it and the nvidia bits. Still need to research before I decide though.
Thing with cachy is that it doesnt do anything better than other distros when it comes to nvidia drivers, its entire focus is giving you like maybe 5% better performance at the cost of worse stability, so i really would not recommend it to new users.
I’d say use something like bazzite or pop_os! instead.
Feel free to dm me if you want help.
Thanks! My cousin used pop and was a fan tbf. I do like stability but also hoping, as I don’t work on my personal PC, that some instability would revitalise my enjoyment of tinkering. I have become used to the comforts of stability as I’ve aged. Haven’t really played with Linux since the Red Hat 7 days…! I used to use Unix back then for FORTRAN but yeah of late just forgotten everything.
How does using avx instructions reduce stability?
source? or did you mean arch is unstable?
Well, i just meant that all the changes cachy does (on top of being arch based) means it just isnt as stable as some other options
In this case, PopOS and Bazzite are also less stable because they add things on top of Ubuntu and Fedora
I’m guessing maybe the scheduler? Its the only real difference I see versus the other gaming distros.
IDK why they want to but to me the name seems pretty catchy
I’m glad I don’t use Winbloat
Their feature may come back to their OS but their OS isn’t coming back to my hardware.
Who thought they were abandoning it?
I doubt they secured it particularly well either, because the nature of proper security is building it from the ground up with security as a core principle, but it was always coming back.
They delayed because “oh shit, people noticed we didn’t even bother with security theater” and to let the backlash die down. They still consider it a major selling point.
They did abandon it but it backed itself up
Since Recall is constantly watching what you do, is it plausible that it could summarize and quantify for an employer how much work is being done on the machine during work hours?
Or not being done. Recall absolutely will not take into account how many “run & gun” hallway meetings you will have for a simple example, let alone researching an issue on your phone while you shit.
Plenty of productivity & engagement measurement tools already exist anyhow.
The writing is on the wall, they are not giving up on that potential cash cow. I won’t use it, hell I don’t use windows, but there are normal computer users that will have it thrust upon on them and won’t know how to really turn it off.
The tendency of the rate of profit to fall is here again. They really do need to squeeze those dollars out
To the title of this article /post, all I can say is Duh.
“has enough time passed that we won’t get bad press for this?”
Thing is, it BARELY changes performance
Windows users got no right to complain about performance.
what? Im not trying to be rude but i dont understand why you’re saying that
Lol, it’s a running joke that Windows have terrible performance.
aah ok, yeah that didnt make sense to me because for gaming pc’s at least, windows has equivalent performance
A lot of games aren’t made with efficiency in mind anyway, so you probably wouldn’t notice for your usecase.
oh, i use linux, iwas just pointing out that for games there isnt much difference
