Oh, didn't you know? It's not really your PC any longer.

Well yea, you turned off the windows search/Cortana/Bing bar, but now it's called copilot/recall bar which you haven't turned off yet.

/S

Chris Titus made this tool. I use it to debloat windows, disable all the telemetry, then pause all feature updates for two years and let only security updates through. As an added bonus (and if you want win11), he added a tool to create a micro windows iso. I am running the micro and it has been fantastic. I even removed defender and other garbage they force on people.

OUR desktop wallpaper, comrade

I hate that goddamn searchbar

Dont say it... dont say it.... dont saaaayyyy iiiiitt!!!

Have you considered Linux Mint?

Damn... sorry.. was I the first to suggest it this time?

Your computer? You mean Microsoft's bitch box?

Face it, they can do whatever they want with your computer and you're powerless to stop them. They've also been looking through your photos and adding them to their AI model.

It even did the same thing with enterprise customers. All our machines suddenly started asking us to enable search. Like why do I need another thing when opening the Start Menu and typing is the same fucking thing?? And to fuck with my group policies and undo the customization I had is mega infuriating.

When they tell you they're walking back Recall and it's "off by default", remember that they constantly do this shit.

This is why you should not trust them regarding Recall. They will not let it go. It will be forced on you eventually.

no no no, it asked your permission. It's just that the "we added back the search bar, is that ok" dialog defaults to "yes" after some short time. Extremely fucking annoying change

the dialog:

article: https://www.c-amie.co.uk/technical/windows-10-patch-for-october-2023-kb5015684-re-enables-the-taskbar-search-box/

All it did to you was cosmetic.

Windows 10's "feature" updates consistently also re-enable the "fast startup" option on my machine when they install. Which, on my particular motherboard and SSD combination, causes Windows to take about 30 minutes to boot when left enabled for reasons I have never been able to comprehend. A regular cold boot only takes like 20 seconds, so... I definitely tend to notice when it does this behind my back yet again.

And they've made Bing your standard browser and activated Copilot.

It's a nice wallpaper though for what it's worth.

Sweet wallpaper though

your background? Since when is this Windows computer your computer? Microsoft has been very clear that we no longer own our computers if we choose to use Windows.

VirusOS

Silly consumer. You thought you owned your copy of Windows. You LEASED it! "

My windows vm runs Cairo shell as the desktop and I've replaced the file manager with Dolphin and the command prompt with Konsole and notepad with Kate and it almost feels like a usable operating system

Get used to it. It is not your machine, its Microsofts.