311–320 of 464 posts
> "To avoid the next problem: 'Microsoft locked my data behind bitlocker, and now I can't get it back.' they need to store that key on the MS account." Doesn't that make the account requirement even more scary? So now if MS decides for some reason to lock my account, this will make even the data I have on my local disks inaccessible as well?
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Let me provide you a preview of how this will go: "You moved my Chrome. I liked my Chrome. Put it back. I can't get to the Facebook. I want to talk on the Facebook and I can't because you moved my Chrome."
Someone who is 75 years old today was 49 years old at the peak of the dotcom craze, and is probably a lot more computer literate than you're giving them credit for. What you're saying might have been true 20 years ago, but it isn't today.
Changing the OS she uses is like tossing a flashbang grenade at her while she's sitting on the couch.
One thing I disagree with the article about is that drives should not be encrypted by default. For the vast majority of people an encrypted drive is just data loss lying in wait. I prefer to use non-encrypted drives so I have the option of popping out the disk and reading it from another system with ease, which also means that I can recover files from drives of otherwise dead systems just as easily. This is a trade o…
I'd say it's mandatory today to encrypt drives. In the age of SSDs it's not really possible anymore to delete files and to be sure they are in no way recoverable by an adversary.
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Let me provide you a preview of how this will go: "You moved my Chrome. I liked my Chrome. Put it back. I can't get to the Facebook. I want to talk on the Facebook and I can't because you moved my Chrome."
Fedora is quite capable of doing absolutely nothing but opening Chrome and going to Facebook.
The icon is in a different spot. The task bar looks different.
DOA.
Case in point, moving to a new computer is absolutely painless now with a Microsoft Account because of OneDrive and Winget.
Make sure that Onedrive is setup to backup all folder (desktop, documents, pictures. you can do this by clicking the gear icon and selecting Manage Backups)
Next have this simple batch file run whenever the user logs in. It basically uses winget to update all packages to the latest version and export a list of all those packages and save it onedrive
winget update --all --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements --silent winget export -o "C:\Users\\OneDrive\WingetPrograms.txt"
Now if you move computers, you just log in with your Microsoft account so that you will have your desktop and everything because onedrive will come over.
Now just do an import with Winget and you will have 95% of your programs installed. Yes I know there might be some programs that aren't available for installation through Winget, but almost ALL popular programs are available.
winget import -i "C:\Users\\OneDrive\WingetPrograms.txt"
It's that simple. Something that use to take days now takes minutes and 3 commands. Plus the fact that everything is backed up to the cloud, you just can't beat it.
Yes I get the same stuff can be done with Google Drive, Dropbox replacing Onedrive. Chocolatey, ninite as a package manager instead of winget. Using Onedrive and winget are native and available on ANY Windows 11 machine and they WORK.
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What news are you referring to? The only news about Xbox I've caught is that it's declining in profit because they removed Xbox exclusives.
Asha is doing some good decisions, or it seemed so until the XBOX Reset blog post. However beyond XBOX, Microsoft is one of the biggest publishers as per amount of owned studios especially since ABK acquisition, so even when XBOX is doing bad, Microsoft Publishing is doing great.
> In the last couple of weeks there's been some good news coming through for Xbox
Since I wasn't sure what good news they were referring to.
One thing I disagree with the article about is that drives should not be encrypted by default. For the vast majority of people an encrypted drive is just data loss lying in wait. I prefer to use non-encrypted drives so I have the option of popping out the disk and reading it from another system with ease, which also means that I can recover files from drives of otherwise dead systems just as easily. This is a trade o…
What it should definitely not happen is to do this behind scenes and store recovery codes on a microsoft account. Why those codes have to be stored on their servers?
A screen should display the recovery codes and instruct the user to print them and keep them in a safe place in case of requiring them. I should be able to recover my data completely offline. End of the story.
It's super fast -- it beats a 2026 Macbook Pro rendering Blender "Classroom".
I have a Microsoft account, I don't know what the big deal is. I follow the happy path. It's nice to have settings (and I can control which ones) sync across machines. I pay for a Office365 subscription.
I don't see ads popping up anywhere. I did disable about a dozen things (those silly icons in the search bar, syncing desktop icons across machines, etc) all through exposed UI switches, no "hacks" or undocumented registry tweaks.
I've watched coworkers go through all sorts of contortions, and downloading hacked binaries from sketchy sites, just to avoid creating the local account and I'm not sure why. I use my name and info on my longstanding Microsoft account, but you can just as easily call one "mymaxasus_11111", and be done with it.
I ditched Windows in 2022. I'm not going back to Windows unless Microsoft makes an OS for professionals that is stripped down out of the box to show how serious they are. No ads of any kind, no garbage online account features, nothing, just core offline-ready Windows. I bet it would perform drastically better too.
Sounds like Windows 11 Pro would do it for you, then.