Microsoft is starting to integrate AI shortcuts, or what it calls AI actions, into the File Explorer in Windows 11. These shortcuts let you right-click on a file and quickly get to Windows AI features like blurring the background of a photo, erasing objects, or even summarizing content from Office files.
Four image actions are currently being tested in the latest Dev Channel builds of Windows 11, including Bing visual search to find similar images on the web, the blur background and erase objects features found in the Photos app, and the remove background option in Paint.
You know it’s funny that Microsoft took this feature from Apple from macOS. But here’s the thing right? This shit requires a super computer npu to run and meanwhile my 2012 MacBook Pro with a core i5 3rd gen running opencore legacy patcher can just do this stuff in the exact same way. For the features one would actually wanna use this for.
Damn I thought it was going to be at least useful like a text prompt.
“Search all these files dumped and find me the ones from my old pc, move them all to the same location on the biggest spare partition that isn’t the os one, and then organize them into folders by general idea without breaking up the coherency of the directories. And do it without losing the existing modified or created dates. Retain the original organization in an xml doc that you can read, just in case I don’t like the organization and want to try again.”
Or
“Install all libre stuff and all of the most useful windows tools. Delete, disable, tear out, and block all telemetry from this Windows installation. There must be privacy and zero enshittification on this computer. Go through, file by file, including all hidden and file systems and services, reading through each and every binary, and decompile, rip out any spyware or telemetry, and recompile. You have a week and this system will be disconnected from the internet entirely for the duration. Go.”
This is the type of ai that would actually be useful to me. Imagine the power of being able to fully delegate lower level tasks like this.
I’d buy that for a dollar.
Someday… 🥹
I love how even this flagship feature is just one more lazy shortcut to another app that bloats the context menu 😅
Today I had to disable Copilot in Notepad.
Notepad.
The shitty word editor that you use to jot down your shitty writing before copypasting it into somewhere else to put actual work into it.
You’re telling me I can’t change the shitty line-spacing in shitty Notepad, but I can get a top-of-the-line corporate LLM to help me with my purposely shitty writing?
#keepnotepadshitty
I love notepad for deleting all formatting so word doesn’t take a massive shit when I paste things into it from other documents.
Sweet; can’t wait to try it.
Worst part is people will keep using this garbage. The brain rot is so real.
possible issues:
- blurred a part of the photo that shouldn’t be blurred, data loss
- erased the wrong object, data loss
- deleted large chunks of content in my docs/ppts/spreadsheets I wanted to keep, data loss
This is a really bad idea
But if you stick all of your files into OneDrive and turn on version history you can keep trying… /s
letting AI do whatever it wants to your files is not very good…
Four image actions are currently being tested in the latest Dev Channel builds of Windows 11, including Bing visual search to find similar images on the web, the blur background and erase objects features found in the Photos app, and the remove background option in Paint.
Only one of those things could be called AI.
This is a whole new level of data mining, which is why they want it. Now they will scan everything that’s open.
they want to justify the cost of using AI, which they admit to not generating any profit, they are trying to sell off as much data as they can, so they can offsett the cost of power/water intensive AI.
I’m so glad I’ve been moving away from windows recently
man I’m so glad I’ll never use windows again.
Obligatory “learn to use your computer and install another OS” post. You’ll probably find that your computer becomes MORE useful, not less.
Most people don’t realize how slow Windows is. When you try something else, you realize how much time you have been spending just waiting for Windows to do things. Our computers can be a lot faster than Windows lets them be.
Installing gpu drivers on linux was night and day. Everything around drivers on windows is such a hassle and I’m shocked they haven’t bothered to look into it. Sure there’s geforce experience but that software is just another form of bloat meant to collect telemetry.
A couple of weeks ago I rebooted into Windows for the first time in well over 8 months, as I needed to use a piece of software I don’t have on Linux (it’s available, I’m just refusing to pay for it and no alternative method has materialised), and getting anything done was incredibly frustrating.
First everything had to update, and I was forced to log in to a bunch of stuff. My web browser spontaneously vanished, as did Discord. No idea why. Opening Explorer consistently took several seconds because it always decided to poll my external drive before displaying anything, even if I didn’t do shit in my external drive.
Explorer being slow applies on my work PC too, and I have to use Windows on that. Every day I wonder how it’d be to put Linux on it.
Nautilus just opens the moment I click on it. Always.
This feels weird. Everything will want to update on any system if you’ve not had it online for 6 months. And the majority of the login requests are going to be your previous credentials being invalidated because they’ve been offline for so long. You’d see similar behavior on Linux.
Applications vanishing isn’t really something that happens on any OS really so I do have to question what you did to cause it. Uninstallers don’t just silently pop off at random. I’ve not even heard anecdotal tellings of that happening previously.
I’ll agree with you on Explorer though. It’s slow as molasses, and I hate utilizing it whenever I have to. It just feels bad.
I guess my point is, complain about Windows itself, and things directly tied into Windows. When you pull out “software I didn’t start for six months wants to update” as your first complaint it doesn’t really help your argument.
When you pull out “software I didn’t start for six months wants to update”
Did the software “want” to update or “force” an update? There’s a meaningful difference there and windows often doesn’t give you a choice or do anything else while it’s updating.
“Everything” implies much more than the OS and related Windows updates.
And honestly, Windows forcing updates is a good thing, as has been said time and again. Do you recall the days of Windows XP, where so so many machines were sitting on relatively ancient versions, and exposed to a huge number of vulnerabilities? That is what lead to the current update situation.
And to those that argue that users should be able to manage their own updates, there are numerous ways for a power user to do just that. But the bar for entry is “high” (no UI) to prevent normal end users who will never actually manage their updates from turning them off.
This is my personal machine that I own, there is no reason for my operating system to “hide” options from me. If I want to never update my system or delete core operating files that’s my fucking problem to deal with.
You know what else windows hides from normal users? How to disable information tracking, ads, and this AI bullshit.
I recently swapped my Dad’s Windows computer with my old machine, which I installed Linux on ahead of time.
I told him it was a faster machine - which it was just slightly in the hardware sense, a very minor upgrade. A half-truth to encourage the transition.
But of course, it’s running Linux, not Windows.
Next day he phones me up really happy that it’s “so much faster than the old machine!”
And it really is a lot faster, but it’s not the hardware. It’s just not getting bogged down with all the crap Windows constantly does in the background.
Either way, mission accomplished.
I’m having the best time computing on linux again. It had been about 10 years since I last had it since I kind of just forgot about it or thought it wouldn’t fit my needs. I hardly boot to my windows drive now except to play pubg.
If Linux was more compatible with a lot of programs/games there would be absolutely no reason to install windows ever again
might be difficult for the layperson to agree to that,
Well, you either switch and learn to use compatible software or you can keep complaining about enshittification for the rest of your life.
I’m not missing anything, even games run fine with Wine/Proton. Also, a lot of the Linux games a really fun! (I personally enjoy Xonotic and SuperTuxKart. I also like to play custom roms with mgba) The only thing I’m missing is pretty much ONE really niche network program thing which didn’t have a Linux version. Everything else either has a Linux version, is a Windows game that can be run with Wine, or has some Linux alternative (think inkscape, kdenlive, okular)
What networking program? If it’s not some proprietary protocol I bet there is a Linux tool that does it.
A VPN. I couldn’t get V2rayA (the vpn uses v2ray, there’s a win + mac app for that specific vpn but not linux) to work. I might have to have another crack at it soon…
Wine or Proton will make just bout anything you run on windows run.
Linux is compatible with a lot more than it used to be, and for those stubborn programs, there are usually FOSS alternatives, or emulation/compatibility layers. Hell, my machine runs games faster through Proton on Linux in 1440p than it did natively on Windows in 1080p.
I finally switched to full-time Linux last year and I haven’t missed anything. The only stuff that doesn’t work (and doesn’t have a good alternative) are games with invasive anti-cheat that I wanted to boycott anyway.
Most is the anti cheat games are not working on Windows either. They only give you some dubious error message.
I’ll just go by protondb.com and most what I want to play is either gold or platinum rated, or even native.
I only have 106 games in my library, and out of those 66 are native, 43 are gold or platinum and 1 is unrated. I’ve bought nearly all of then before even switching from Windows to Linux about nine months ago.
Using arch btw.
this is going to cause so much data loss…
Not if you get a Microsoft 365 family with copilot plan for only $129.99 a year ! /s
If it ran with local model(s), as in, ran on your PC entirely, I would have no problem with this.
It does appear to be local.
Sadly everything is connected to microsofts cloud services which I just don’t trust for an infinite number of reasons.
As long as the feature could be disabled as well
That too
