Win11 Concerns?

[Psittac]

I see a lot of people concerned about windows 11 being forced on them with copilot etc, but I was wondering what are some valid concerns behind this?

 

I come from a history of extreme paranoia that I've fought to overcome, so I've kind of swung the other way and thrown caution to the wind.  I really don't care if I'm spied on whether that's anywhere from big data down to a dedicated individual.  I've spent decades worried about it to the point I don't care anymore.  But that's why I'm asking, what are some legitimate concerns behind all of this?  Any middle of the road issues?

[TudorFinalBosz]

The idea that you'd pay for an OS that spies on you is just preposterous. This business model appeared after the 2008 financial crisis, when people became more conscious about spending. That's when the F2P model appeared in gaming, for example. Social media already existed but it was very early days, until they figured out how to make money by collecting data off users and linking that with advertising.

 

Now Microsoft is doing both: asking you to pay for a license and datamining you anyway.

Really this would only make sense if it was F2P. If I pay for license, I want 0 telemetry, 0 datamining, 0 online account. It's my software if I buy it. But no... you're just buying software as a service, you don't own software anymore.

[Eigenvektor]

18 minutes ago, TudorFinalBosz said:

 you don't own software anymore.

You've never owned software. You've always ever owned a license to use said software. The primary difference was that software came on physical media that couldn't just be taken away remotely or required online activation. But that's somewhat of a separate concern from the privacy angle.

 

Software licenses used to cost a lot more and you used to pay for each new Windows version. That is tangentially related to your privacy in the sense that Microsoft still needs to turn a profit and people are no longer willing to spend big money on software licenses or updates. So they turn to ads and selling personal information.

 

That said, there's nothing wrong with telemetry, as long as it's anonymous. Telemetry is used to collect statistics about which features are used the most or where crashes occur to inform future development and bug fix efforts. So its actually something people should want.

 

Collecting personal information on the other hand is very problematic. Aside from more personalized ads, you might find yourself in a situation where a loan is denied or your job application falls through because of personal information collected on your PC and sold to whoever pays for it.

[TudorFinalBosz]

@Eigenvektor

Can't separate one from the other. And they're not doing this by actually having ID information. They use fingerprinting techniques, so that even if you change hardware, IP, location, they can still eventually get a match with the profile they've created on you.

They use subtle patterns about what music you listen to, which videos you watch, what kind of health concerns you have, the type of slang/language you use, how much time you spend on the PC, types of products you're interested in, etc. Thus they get an age interval, sex category, personality traits, consumption patterns, potential health issues. It's much more insidious. Similar to totalitarian systems like communism which also had surveillance institutions keeping a file on lots of people. Their purpose was population control, but these megacorps just want to trade that info to other companies looking to assess risks, sell you something, deny a job or a credit application, etc.

[thrasher_565]

ya they keep moving to Goal Post. one day you pay for w11 nexed they give it for free...

to be fair i guess if you have windows 10 you can use the key for windows 11 too atleast...

the recall thing is concerning too.

 

more like you said" ass" some were on the net we will give you minim wage and also because you said "ship" we give you 6 hours only no brakes. 

 

ied emagen if you have no data they could still lock you out of things...cuze your not making data for them to make money off you. 

 

love to see an ai mimick my writing...im not even consistent...

 

also love to see an ai fix my weighting...

Edited October 8, 2025 by thrasher_565

[TudorFinalBosz]

yea

[Psittac]

In my mind, the real problem isn't advertising on even our desktop, which we hold dear.  It's when legal and societal issues arise from what we do when we are alone on our systems.  Personally my only hope is to believe that big brother will be kind and only use it's powers to enforce the laws that are current.  No social credit score, no niche seeking of "law breakers", just keeping those in jail who would have belong there 50 years ago.  I'm sure this will be a hot button topic if we stray into China levels of censorship and social control.  But I pray that man kind doesn't go down that route, at least not for the "free" world.  I have thing's in my life that are prosecutable if not minor.  And a people that fears retribution for it's smallest infraction is not a free one.  But again, if it is only used for advertising and big data profiles.... I really don't care.  I'm virtually immune to advertising and if something REALLY hit's the nail on the head, like my little retractable stanley blade, no doubt imma buy it.

 

So existential degradation of society, and big data wanting to sell you thing's...... What is another issue?

[Somerandomtechyboi]

my personal solution is the pre debloated enterprise ltsc windows versions, though i prefer 10 over 11 as 10 just worked while 11 still needed tweaking due to that asinine context menu and some other ui oddities

[thrasher_565]

what do you really get in windows 11 for your money. new ai...witch did nothing in w10...

no io people hate change they want to customize it witch cant do and if you do it its hacking...are the promising 100mhz ram speeds? or like 10ghz all core? (might not be all the much today...) they promisng you 2 second boot times...most like there be subscriptions. i dont even the people that make software want to keep updating for the "new" os there old macheans that use old pcs to do work...you think they want to update...did they even offer them a solution to there old hardware to even upgrade too...its really not about the money but everything els. stores have upgrade there systems like 6 moths a go now to just have to thow them out as its more cost to just get new systems that cost $100. the it guy cost more per hour then the systems cost. love having a 10$ keyboard and $2 mouse to "get work done" and no second monitor...most times its not the pc speed its the login in to the 40 year old server...that they put it a room with no vents  people only going to have to move to it because there being forced too. i haven't even heard one good thing about it...

 

 

[Doobeedoo]

It's matter of principle in terms of data collection, not if you care or not. It's an freaking OS that is meant to use professionally and privately for work etc. And it's not even free. 

The W11 concerns part, some things are overblown at least in a sense it's same as W10 but people complained about that but are on it, cycle continues as people need Windows as there is no actual alternative for everything.

[Donut417]

7 hours ago, Psittac said:

I see a lot of people concerned about windows 11 being forced on them with copilot etc, but I was wondering what are some valid concerns behind this?

 

I come from a history of extreme paranoia that I've fought to overcome, so I've kind of swung the other way and thrown caution to the wind.  I really don't care if I'm spied on whether that's anywhere from big data down to a dedicated individual.  I've spent decades worried about it to the point I don't care anymore.  But that's why I'm asking, what are some legitimate concerns behind all of this?  Any middle of the road issues?

Privacy is an issue for some. But the vast majority of people dont care. I think the biggest issue for Windows 11 are the system requirements. Because a lot of machines dont meet the TPM requirement and while there are work arounds the average person isn't going to do that. So you got a lot of ewaste. 

 

There has been a lot of issues when it comes to the Microsoft account requirement. Microsoft recently just patched out another work around for Local Accounts during install. That brings me to another point, there have been instances where Windows installer doesnt have to required network drivers and therefore can proceed with install because you cant log in to a Microsoft account. 

 

My concerns with Windows 11 have been the updates. Every week I hear about shit breaking. Some times data loss. I use dual OS's, MacOS and Windows based on my task, so Im not as affected and my Windows machine is not fully updated as I dont leave it turned on to get updates.