this post was submitted on 07 May 2025
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"We set out to solve one of the most common frustrations we hear — finding and changing settings on your PC — using the power of AI agents," Navjot Virk, corporate vice president of Windows Experiences at Microsoft, said in a blog post on Tuesday. "An agent uses on-device AI to understand your intent and with your permission, automate and execute tasks."

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 hours ago

I set up my pc as dual boot a few weeks back. Opened up windows yesterday, for the first time in a while, to export a few settings from thunderbird. Took about half an hour to get it started. Felt like popping round to the house of an abusive ex to pick up the last of my things.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Holy shit.

Your ux SUCKS SO MUCH, that instead of making it not shitty.....

You developed AI for it?

Are you fucking kidding me

How inept are these developers

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

They broke alt tab.

That's how fucking inept they are

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

Microsoft Windows be like

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

"Hey Copilot. Delete yourself, Recall and all other bloatware from my system. Thank you."

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago

Copilot: "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"

[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 hours ago (4 children)

Ah Christ. We’ve collectively regressed so much in computer knowledge that people can’t even find a settings menu? Even I have trouble believing that one.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 hours ago

kinda fair considering windows has like 20 control panels that should all do the same thing but at the end of the day you still need to use regedit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

You know that windows 10 still has the original control panel hidden deep in there.

Why do that

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 hours ago

Finding settings in Windows is pretty hard

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

The last time finding settings in Windows was straight forward was Windows 95. Since the stupid dumbed down 'settings' app was vomited upon us, it has been nearly impossible to find the thing you know is there but has now been renamed and moved, and isn't even indexed in the settings app search bar.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

The registry never has and never will be simple nor usable. Windows is rotten to the core.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 32 minutes ago

Have you tried to configure gnome beyond what is offered in its GUI ?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Just to be the devil's advocate here: There are way more settings now than back then. That interface wouldn't cut it either.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

The problem isn't the new coat of paint - it's more that Microsoft keeps painting half the building then starting over for the new OS. It's frustrating that the key to finding a setting is knowing when it was developed to know which UI you need to be digging through.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Even on 11 hit winkey+r then type in CONTROL

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Not convinced the number matter as much if settings are indexed and thus searchable, which they probably are now otherwise the "AI" wouldn't be able to access them. So... just more convolutions for the end user?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

I actually like the ability for a local AI to help with this in theory. I don't think it's an excuse for unintuitive UIs though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago

I appreciate the sentiment - in fact it's been fun watching AI being integrated into home assistant by end users and being given full control, lots of incredibly interesting times.

But not all AI is the same. Somehow I expect that Microsoft's implementation will make it ridiculously easy to opt-in to Microsoft services and relaxed privacy settings, but will leave opting out as an exercise left to the user.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 hours ago

Wow, a take that isn't just "AI bad?" Wild.

Yeah I thought it was weird that it couldn't do this in windows in the first place when you had to click a button to allow the AI to change your computer from light to dark mode or something. It was right 99% of the time in my brief testing, and just include an undo button in case it isn't.

All of that said, I'm glad to be on Linux where there isn't any AI built into my OS, but I'm also not the target audience for needing an AI to change my settings for me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

I agree but with Microsoft you know an air-gapped 'AI agent' is never going to happen.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 hours ago

Glad to be using Linux on all my computers

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Easy way to automatically set settings that are convenient for them and disguise it as AI being AI

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

Worse - easy way to set the settings then gaslight the user to say they asked for it that way.

How much you wanna bet that it makes those changes in a way that is generally indistinguishable from as if it was done by the user's own credentials? (Except save perhaps in recall's own logs)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 hours ago

I dumped Windows about 18 months ago, before their recall and copilot BS. There are many Linux distros out there. They are free and there is almost nothing you can do with Windows that can't be done on Linux. These days, most games for Windows can be played on Linux using Proton and Wine. There is no reason to keep Windows and plenty of reasons to dump Windows, like not wanting your personal data stolen or monitored by corporations and governments.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

They really are trying to drive away their user base huh

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago

No, we're just not their target market. Most of their users, inexplicably, actually like changes like this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

Yea, but in my experience most people just dont care.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

Just put the search results in under the search bar, bro.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago

just a simple search feature works.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

Maybe if you didn't split settings into that half-baked settings app, then leave control panel in place with the remaining settings, but make control panel increasingly difficult to get to, we wouldn't need a stupid AI agent to help us change settings.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 hours ago (8 children)

Yes! I really feel all this copilot bullshit is to hide the fact they released windows 11 broken as fuck and here 2.5 years later it's still a pile of shit. It's just fucked. I have to use it daily for work and clients and it's done nothing but prepare me to install W10 LTSC this summer or move to Linux. Problem with Linux is a have an Nvidia GPU and don't like having to fuck with that, otherwise Zorin it will be. Windows 11 pushes me everyday to hate it more and more. Seriously. Daily fucking updates for broken shit and shoving AI down our throats. Fuck windows.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Quick! I need a guide on how to disable this.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 hours ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

Pop_OS or Bazzite, IMO.

Unfortunately, Ubuntu is corporate bloatware these days.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

There isn't a settings switch to turn off?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

Because coming up with a UI that doesn't suck is too much work

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 hours ago

Oh no you don't

[deletes wuaueng.dll because windows update has turned itself back on like 5 times]

[–] [email protected] 93 points 15 hours ago (19 children)

Perhaps you could just make them easier to find by putting them in one location... You could call it a "control panel".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Curious who the hell downvoted you.

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