I changed the title of this thread to fit the recently leaked scenario at Windows Central:
So it will be 24/7 AI at your fingertips - looks like it will be observing EVERYTHING you do and visit. It’s time to update President Reagan’s most famous quote…
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from Microsoft Copilot, and I’m here to help. "
Maybe it needs a new logo too…
I think this says it really well.
https://twitter.com/_h0x0d_/status/1732419096019660990
I really just don’t want any of these things. Is it really too much to ask for a lightweight performant OS where I can choose which services I want to install? Can the EU step in here or something? 
Like come on, seriously? I’m a heavy 365 user already and this sounds miserable:
I think WalkingCat is WRONG - I think it is going to get harder and harder to disable with out a computer engineering degree…
The audacity of MS pushing their other services through Windows is getting annoying. It better support third party programs.
It is annoying. Even Apple has the good sense to not harp on their users with Today View. Windows UI design is pretty terrible anyway. Linux UI/UX designers have already replicated Windows 10 and 11 Start Menus and made them better as well. My Steam Deck is currently configured with a Windows 10 Start Menu and it actually doesn’t lose its marbles with the pinned app groups like it often would with Microsoft’s Windows 10 Start Menu.
Maybe…
And this will alarm some, but MS push for AI/Copilot allegedly has a dark side as well.
One of our customers was attending an AutoDesk (makers of AutoCAD) event and there were some cryptic mentions that Autodesk was considering adopting “the new license and content management APIs” in the next major update to Windows.
On the one hand, that could be a net gain for AutoCAD customers and the company itself. For customers it has the potential to eliminate one of the most futzy aspects of using AutoCad, which is the constant (and buggy) validation process for valid licenses. And for AutoCAD it would go a long way to reducing what is still one of the most pirated apps out there.
The customer pressed further though and was told that these same AI-pwered API’s could be used to detect “altered apps” including thwarted copy protection.
And… it can also detect illegally acquired content using code “watermarks” that media companies are already embedding to establish that the content was “stolen” when they actually go after some of the more egregious offenders.
And apparently it’s “trivially easy” to engage/use.
I’m not a lawyer, but I’d imagine this a potential goldmine for them both pursuing claims and defending alleged violators. Though it also strikes me as opening up significant privacy concerns to.
And just to put this back on the main topic, I think MS feels like they have no choice as they struggle to get users off older OS’s AND continue to incur significant costs to maintain old code.
Neither defending or attacking that choice, but acknowledging why they are likely doing it.
PS: There are actually “consultancy companies” out there who’s business model is helping customers defeat copy and content protection methods, especially in China and India
I switched back to the walled garden just in time, it appears.
Moved this over to the Win12/WinAI thread to consolidate discussion. We’ll leave the other thread focused on the Win10 EOS / ESU.
People are talking about “just one more thing to disable”, but this sounds far lower level: possibly a kernel-hosted hypervisor, ever-present, un-disableable, and constantly monitoring the contents of memory.
Very Orwellian stuff.
Apparently, Orwell is now a “how to” manual as opposed to a warning.
Another candidate for post of the year!
It does not surprise me that the large CAD companies are quick to jump on this. I heard that computers that run the legal version scan networks for pirated versions (who than needs to pay a very high fine). Companies/employees that use CAD software are often very dependent on the specific software and advanced features so they are basically locked in. But the prices for CAD software are high so this can be tricky especially for small businesses (if you want something more reasonably priced but still quite advanced I can recommend Alibre).
The last two Microsoft Windows machines, apparently, had co-processors (or something like that) just for AI… Might mean that the new features won’t burn cpu cycles.
Windows 12 - “I’m not installing that, it’s terrible!”
Windows 11 - “I’m not installing that, it’s terrible!”
Windows 10 - “I’m installing that, it’s better than 8!”
Windows 8.1 - “I’m not installing that, it’s terrible! Cries”
Windows 8 - “I’m not installing that, it’s terrible! Screams”
Windows 7 - “I’m installing that, it’s better than Vista!”
Windows Vista - “I’m not installing that, it really is terrible!”
Windows XP - “I’m installing to escape Windows ME”
Windows ME - “Oh dear lord, another boot loop”
Windows 2000 - “What’s that? I’m on Windows 98 SE”
Windows 98 - “Oooh the latest version of Windows.”
Windows 95 - “Oooh the GUI rocks!”
My fav has to be either ME (which loved to crash) and Windows VIsta. OEMs (Acer etc) shipped machines with 256MB/512MB ram and Microsoft got the blame. Poor Vista. Mmm, Superfectch.
No doubt, Windows 12 will be installed day 1. After all, I’ll have to eventually support it.
LMAO…I so remember being in that exact spot…my only question, after reading your list is…
WHY THE H$LL ARE WE STILL ON WINDOWS!
I will probably just do the same as I did with W11, just wait ~2 years before upgrading so microsloth can re-add missing features, let others be the guinea pig 
To be fair some features are great, like the legacy support and multitasking. MacOS lacks the competition between brands and no touchscreen/digitizer so that is a dealbreaker for me at least.
ps: I just noticed that for me only (sub)folders that are placed under Desktop show the annoying “Start Backup” label in File Explorer. Since I have the tendency to place almost all of my stuff under 1 parent folder on the Desktop (for easy rmb backups), I did not notice this before. So I think I will just move the whole parent folder directly under C:\ and just put a shortcut on the desktop.
GREAT IDEA - probably good enough to wait one year. Makes me even think of letting my wife plug along on Win10 and jump to Win12 in 18 months…
Add to that Windows Snap and File Manager and you’ve explained why I’m still here…
If the rumors end up being true about replacing the Start Menu with AI, Nadella is an even bigger idiot than Steve Ballmer was made out by the press:
Also in the video comments…
