Artificially crippling an OS and now the products it runs by restricting hardware, what genius

for any new "feature" MS comes up with: How can we switch it off?

And I don't want to see any watermarks, either.

This warning serves no purpose other than creating more tech-junk. If someone wants to use install or use an AI feature, that would be the time to warn them their hardware doesn't support said feature. Putting a display notice, from a software update that will be shoved out to anybody running Windows 11, is only going to make the panic-monkeys that think they need every last ounce of power throw away perfectly usable systems in order to get "support" for features they probably aren't using anyway.

I know PC sales have slowed down since we hit a point where new generations aren't really giving us that much more than previous generations. That said, I don't think the "solution" to that is to force-feed yet more hardware to the scrapyards.

Microsoft could make a killing at this point if they decided to release a somewhat more expensive version of Windows without all the crippleware, full-screen ads, and tracking enabled. Why can't the OS just be an OS? Stay out of the way and let us do what we need to do with the system. Stop telling us we aren't compliant with Microsoft's "we own your soul" vision. We don't care. We just want to use our god damned computer to get our work done, play a game, or surf the web.

Somehow I picture this as a scarlet letter "A" taking up at least a quarter of the screen real estate.

Linux made it waterproof, now to figure out a way to make it coffee_proof

I dont want AI bullshit shoved down my throat

Maybe I'm just getting too old for this sht, but why would I need AI features in my windows environment? What can it do for me when using windows? I mean, I never even use ChatGPT, but that's online, so no need to have integrated into my windows. Even as a developer I still don't use co-pilot or things like it.

Will that bring the year of Linux on desktop?

I guess anyone who can afford will just buy a new, better, compliant computer... a computer compliant with the last MacOS.

An operating system's primary function should be to run uaer applications with minimal overhead. Not a tech demo to glorify M$

So are these boosted minimum requirements the previous boosted minimum requirements, or did they just now pull a new set of minimum requirements out of their asses again? I lose track since they started changing shit mid-version. Might as well just buy a new computer and throw it directly in the trash these days.

So what exactly CPU features is it that this glorious AI shit needs? ... Right, there isn't any actual CPU feature.

And what does this AI shit give me anyway? ... Right nothing anyone wants or needs.

Most office PC's used in business aren't going to be used for AI. They're for users running in house software, word processing, web browsing, accounting and other mundane business tasks. How is AI going to increase a worker's productivity typing out a memo?

For home users, using AI for little Johnny's term paper will just get him an F.

MS needs to release a non-AI version for just plain workloads.

I'm going to quote a comment I posed on another Windows story:

> I've been saying for years, to paraphrase: “Windows 11 is an ad delivery service, given away as shareware.”, this new Microsoft BS, takes that statement and doubles down on it. Windows 11, or Windows in general, is meant to be an Operating System, which means after installing it, I should only have enough tools and applications to get going. Anything else is my responsibility, including making sure I have the licenses I need to use the products.

>

> Go and grab a professional Operating System like Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Solaris, FreeBSD, or several others and install them, what do you notice? What you'll notice is that bloat, and the crap, are gone. When I open the application's selector in Gnome 46 on Fedora 40, what don't I see? I don't see Ads, I don't see links to download applications with privacy abuse records that make North Korea smile, I just don't see garbage. I might see LibreOffice installed, I'll see some default applications that range from good to “why, I guess.”, but I don't see useless, pointless, nonsense crap.

>

> To paraphrase another quote I say often: “Windows is for people who pretend to do work, Linux / Unix are for people who have to get work done.” Microsoft keeps position Windows as the OS for laughs and to be discredited, and it's discredited, it's one step away from door knocking to explain it's a child predator (and it is a predator of children).

So Ads + AI = Two things that shouldn't be in an operating system by default! If I want to install all the flashy stupid nonsense AI crap, let me, but no one trying to get serious work done is ever going to use that shit. AI is a joke, it's in its infancy, and miles away from anything you might think of using in a professional setting for professional work.

Without the required features, that version isn't even supposed to boot up, according to the article, so the watermark won't appear unless you trick the OS into running on unsupported hardware. Non-story.

Yet another validation for my ditching Windows. Thank you Microsoft for affirming my path is divine.

Analysis by others seems to point out that the most fundamental requirement will be SSE 4.2 and the popcnt SSE instruction specifically, paired with the most fundamental requirement being TPM 2.0/Secure boot this is basically any CPU in the last six years or so (rough estimate there), but that's mostly the TPM requirement holding you back. SSE 4.2 is about 12 (? I think I didn't look up the age, I'm just guessing here) years old in CPUs, I think the standard is 15 years old. Anyway, the bare minimum requi