Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

windowslatest.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 657 posts

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#401

Post by tjpnz »

AlexandrB wrote: post #121
tjpnz wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't trust a big tech AI agent to act in my own best interest. How do I know I'm getting the best deal and that they're not clipping the ticket? Given so many of these companies are really ad-tech/surveillance businesses, how do I know that they're not communicating information about me to the travel site which might affect the price?

> How do I know I'm getting the best deal and that they're not clipping the ticket? You should actually expect the exact opposite. There's more money in getting large companies to pay you to redirect customers to more expensive products than in consumers paying for this kind of service. Honey[1] should server as a stark reminder here. [1] https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/software/honey-scandal-e... > According to…

What happened to Pt2 of his video?

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#402

Post by bayindirh »

pjerem wrote: post #160
testartr wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

every week when I login into my Ubuntu with unattended updates enabled I see this: "system restart required". the hot patch feature you mentioned is paid

On Ubuntu, when this message is shown, most of the updates except the kernel are already applied so you are mostly pretty secure. And you can choose when that will happen. And it’s just a normal reboot. On Windows, IIRC, you are blocked during the whole update process which can take several minutes.

Ubuntu's stable builds do not upgrade kernel and its close vicinity every week, AFAIK. I have a couple of servers with unattended updates enabled, and they do not greet me with "System Reboot Required" banner every week, and if that's required, the server is back with all services running OTOH, I upgraded my parents' PC yesterday, after three months of downtime. It really took at least two hours and four reboots. The machine was screaming and the task manager showed a blue rectangle for CPU load (uninterrupted 100%) and a green one for the disk load (again, uninterrupted 100%) while nothing was usable all the time.

Same process takes <10m in Linux (specifically Debian), and an optional reboot, without any hardware load drama.

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#403

Post by wolvesechoes »

serf wrote: post #382
exe34 wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is notepad++ still a thing? I only use Windows as a dumb terminal now.

yeah, and it's still one of things in Windows that is a pleasure to use when you need it.

If it comes down to FOSS/freeware stuff I am actually quite fond of Windows ecosystem.

Foobar2k, Paint.NET, Notepad++, IrfanView, WizTree, Ditto, TotalCommander, NAPS2 etc.

Linux has many options for any of those, but I always had a feeling that those options have less polish, or are less stable, or their UI is an afterthought etc. On Windows you have basically a single option for each application that most people go for, so documentation and online help is plentiful.

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#404

Post by carlos_rpn »

jstanley wrote: post #343
fsflover wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want years, just choose Debian.

In my experience the problem with Debian is that sooner or later you're bound to want to use something that is only 5 years old and therefore not included yet, so you end up having to install it from source or something else, but something doesn't quite work right so you have to hack it one way or another, and over time all this cruft adds up and you end up with a broken system caused precisely because the base distr…

Lots of Linux software these days are also distributed as flatpack or appimage, and appimage in particular is dead simple if what you want has it available: place the file wherever on the path, make it executable, and done.

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#405

Post by theandrewbailey »

p_ing wrote: post #112
LooseMarmoset wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that Windows 2000 was the last decent version of Windows. Fast, non-bloated, ran DirectX and games better than Windows 98 ever did, and as stable an operating system as I'd ever run.

Someone forgets how long Windows 2000 took to boot ;-)

If you turned off a PC booting Windows 2000, you'd have an unbootable install of Windows 2000.

Source: I did that. Twice.

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#406

Post by hackinthebochs »

ChicagoDave wrote: post #311
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> OpenAI enabled its users to have a sext conversation. Considering that this is only with verified adults, how is this "evil"? I find it more evil to treat full grown adult users as kids and heavily censor their use of LLMs. (Not to detract from the rest of your post, with which I agree).

My point is not about morality. It’s about ROI focus and that OpenAI can’t and won’t ever return anything remotely close to what’s been invested. Adult content is not getting them closer to profitability. And if anyone believes the AGI hyperbole, oh boy I have a bridge and a mountain to sell. LLM tech will never lead to AGI. You need a tech that mimics synapses. It doesn’t exist.

>LLM tech will never lead to AGI. You need a tech that mimics synapses. It doesn’t exist.

Why would you think synapses (or their dynamics) are required for AGI rather than being incidental owing to the constraints of biology?

(This discussion never goes anywhere productive but I can't help myself from asking)

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#407

Post by tetrisgm »

npteljes wrote: post #373
tetrisgm wrote: post #226

I’d pay good money to disable that feature and keep my pc as is. Or I’ll have to swap to Steam OS

Try LTSC in case you haven't already. It's the essence of Windows, without most of this user-facing bullshit. They release it for environments where people expect their things to actually work, "like hospitals or kiosks". But, I can attest that it works for gaming as well. Activation can work with Massgrave, or by you spinning up your own activation emulator, or by pointing your Windows to the myriad other activation…

Oh interesting, never heard of it. I do a bunch of emulation and gaming that sometimes requires esoteric drivers, does video streaming and ofc the latest nvidia driver. Does that windows let users mess with that part of the stack?

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#408

Post by zoobab »

ChicagoDave wrote: post #127

Microsoft has gone full-blown evil corporation again. No customer validation on any of the AI cruft. No full OPT OUT. Office products are bastardized with copilot buttons everywhere. I've been a Windows user from day one and I now see a future without it. Satya had been a bright spot in Microsoft, but this blind lust for AI, especially in bed with Altman who is pure con artist, is unforgivable. Some of the investment…

"No full OPT OUT"

Well even if they have an "opt out" option, it's closed source software, so you cannot audit anything.

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#409

Post by ItsBob »

pndy wrote: post #210
jwitthuhn wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are describing Windows 11 LTSC which is a product that exists because Microsoft knows people want to turn this crap off. It is of course only available in volume licensing to keep it away from normal users. Only businesses get to control their computers.

Does LTSC comes with respectable default settings or that's still a matter of setting up system?

I'm replying to you from Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC courtesy of massgravel (or massgrave... not sure wth it's actually called now!) and it's activated until 2038.

The only thing it didn't have out of the box that I wanted was Microsoft Store (so that I could install Winget and Terminal) but you install it from an elevated powershell command with "wsreset -i" and that's it done.

It also has the original version of Notepad, not that abomination with the tabs and Copilot!

Oh, no Copilot whatsoever in fact.

All the instructions for IoT (including where to get it... legitimately) are on the massgrave github page and website.

And before I am accused of sailing the high seas... I'm not! The activation script just activates complicated processes built-in to Windows: it doesn't "hack" it or anything!

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#410

Post by theandrewbailey »

alex1138 wrote: post #36

That Simpsons meme with Principal Skinner where it's like "Could it be that going against the user on every single step and every single product isn't good for the longterm health of my company? No. It's the users who are out of touch." With every single tech company, these days If there was accountability these people might be in jail

I had that exact epiphany over the weekend (AI pushers are out of touch with everyone). I don't think anyone should go to jail though, just have their businesses crash and burn. Unfortunately, that's probably going to bring the entire economy down with them.
Post reply on HN