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Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

wired.com

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Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#321

Post by smaudet »

wannacboatmovie wrote: post #302
atribecalledqst wrote: post #260

Maybe a bit off-topic, but I sure wish they'd do this for OneDrive! I installed Windows for personal use for the first time recently (although I use it exclusively at work) and it drove me ABSOLUTELY BONKERS that my home drive was mapping to C:\Users\atribecalledqst\OneDrive. What I hated the most was that the File Explorer just calls the folders in there e.g. "Documents" and "Pictures" without showing the full path.…

The proper way of doing it is to use the API calls that have existed for decades to get the paths of well-known folders. It is because they are known to move and in fact having a roaming profile on a server location dates to the mid 90s with WinNT. If you're hard coding paths you're doing it wrong.

> The proper way of doing it is to use the API calls that have existed for decades

A user doesn't want to do this though.

I tried casually using a windows 11 machine for something the other day (I think I was fixing game folders for my girlfriend), using just explorer, and it was pretty obscenely bad how overly confusing it had gotten. I say this, and I fairly routinely debug old build systems with complex nesting file structures, I know my way around a file system.

This wasn't a case of "oh you're just a power user", this was a case of the system had broken, and the simple advice of "backing up your files" and "copy your files over here" wasn't working.

Telling everyone they need to use API calls is just ridiculous, the filesystem is just broken for the average user.

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#322

Post by adamomada »

GordonS wrote: post #267
thaumasiotes wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your browsing history is unlikely to contain [...] porn images Of all the places on your computer that might contain porn images, that would be one of the very top candidates.

Nope - links to porn sites (but who browses porn without Incognito Mode! :), but it's not going to contain actual images.

I always joked around that Firefox made the incognito shortcut CTRL-Shift-P for Porn mode

(I really wish they followed the “standard” keyboard shortcut)

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#323

Post by jl6 »

jandrese wrote: post #272
atribecalledqst wrote: post #260

Maybe a bit off-topic, but I sure wish they'd do this for OneDrive! I installed Windows for personal use for the first time recently (although I use it exclusively at work) and it drove me ABSOLUTELY BONKERS that my home drive was mapping to C:\Users\atribecalledqst\OneDrive. What I hated the most was that the File Explorer just calls the folders in there e.g. "Documents" and "Pictures" without showing the full path.…

Dear OS writers: Internet access is not always guaranteed or reliable. Please do not assume that the cloud is a viable solution for every user. I ran into this on my phone awhile back. I knew I would be out of service for some time but had some PDFs I needed to reference. So I downloaded them to "files". Que surprise when I later go to look up a value and there's a little cloud with a down arrow button next to the PD…

If this is the place to complain about broken patterns in Microsoft software, I wonder if anyone can fix this:

1. Create new office document (Word/PowerPoint/etc) and hit save.

2. No, the default location in OneDrive isn’t right so you click the down arrow to see more.

3. No, none of the other recent locations in the (short) list are right either, so you click “More locations”

4. Now you have to click Browse to see an actual Save As dialog that finally lets you navigate through folders. Even then the actual folders are right down at the bottom of the left hand “tree” pane, below a bunch of virtual folders, below OneDrive (aside: if you navigate “up” from here you get to “Desktop”, but it’s not the same “Desktop” that appears lower down in the list; that one is inside your OneDrive), below Music, Videos (you get no hint as to where these actually are), finally near the bottom there is This PC and Network which you can navigate sanely through. Oh, and right at the bottom there is “Microsoft PowerPoint”, as a save location. You can click on it and try to save a document in there, wherever “Microsoft PowerPoint” is. Just kidding, you are stopped by a dialog box telling you this isn’t a valid location.

JFC. No wonder people prefer the “everything is an app icon” approach. Windows is diabolical for managing files.

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#324

Post by al_borland »

ydnaclementine wrote: post #76
herf wrote: post #58

It's interesting to compare this to the Chrome/Safari/Edge browsing history, which is stored in an unencrypted SQLite database, and tracks what you do for the last 90 days. It's just a bit less visual, Incognito/Private modes work, and some users clear it more often. But a whole lot of the surveillance attacks people imagine about Recall apply just the same to the browser. I think it's the "little brother" casual att…

Does Recall run entirely locally? I don't think your browser history gets sent out

It does, but who's to say insights in gains won't ever be sent back and used/sold?

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#325

Post by salt-thrower »

dylan604 wrote: post #84
danielcampos93 wrote: post #36

This seems to be a feature that execs wanted, and people find creepy, and no one has the gumption to push back on the exec request.

How can you have the number of employees they do and not have a single non-sychophant employee?

Non-sycophant employees are shut down and ignored once the whole corporate culture has bought in to the hype du jour. If you are the sole dissenter, it can even make you look like a “bad” employee for not recognizing the “opportunity” that the new hyped thing will supposedly bring.

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#327

Post by al_borland »

danielcampos93 wrote: post #36

This seems to be a feature that execs wanted, and people find creepy, and no one has the gumption to push back on the exec request.

As someone who has tried to push back against what execs ask for many times, if they want it bad enough, it doesn't matter. They will push forward no matter what the objections are. And if the person objecting won't give in, they'll find someone else to do it.

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#328

Post by fooey »

skc wrote: post #205

The first big mis-step of the Nadella era. Will be interesting to hear what he has to say when he's inevitably asked to comment in his next public appearance.

This is something nearly on par with the xbox launch debacle

Mind bogglingly tone-deaf and out of touch with what users want

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#330

Post by diego_sandoval »

atribecalledqst wrote: post #260

Maybe a bit off-topic, but I sure wish they'd do this for OneDrive! I installed Windows for personal use for the first time recently (although I use it exclusively at work) and it drove me ABSOLUTELY BONKERS that my home drive was mapping to C:\Users\atribecalledqst\OneDrive. What I hated the most was that the File Explorer just calls the folders in there e.g. "Documents" and "Pictures" without showing the full path.…

I unfortunately had to use Windows last year, and the whole mix up between local folders and OneDrive folders meant that the only way to not go insane was to avoid using those folders altogether, create a C:\MyStuff folder and store everything there.

I like this video of Jonathan Blow ranting about the file explorer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le6dvr95Z2Q

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