Back in January Microsoft encrypted all my hard drives without saying anything. I was playing around with a dual boot yesterday and somehow aggravated Secureboot. So my C: panicked and required a 40 character key to unlock.
Your key is backed up to the Microsoft account associated with your install. Which is considerate to the hackers. (and saved me from a re-install) But if you've got an unactivated copy, local account, or don't know your M$ account credentials, your boned.
Control Panel > System Security > Bitlocker Encryption.
BTW, I was aware that M$ was doing this and even made fun of the effected users. Karma.
They desperately wanted to eliminate personal computers and replace them with dumb terminals running over the net.
When the public rejected this idea
THIS is their response. They are still insisting on total control of our computers.
Just wait until you learn about Intel's Management Engine...
I don't know about that.
Dumb terminal concept was more what Chromebook was doing.
Microsoft is doing something even stupider.
MS execs blathered about "the age of software running locally being over" long before Chromebooks.
I think they want you to only use Windows and pay for cloud storage.
By enforcing BitLocker and Secure Boot, they are trying to eliminate dual-booting (you don't need to dual-boot Windows/Linux anyway, as you can just use WSL2 /s).
By enforcing disk encryption, in general, they try to force the use of cloud storage, by making data recovery nearly impossible. Most people are probably too lazy to buy external storage, and manually copy their files over.
This guarantees 2 money streams. One from Windows's tracking/advertising and the other from OneDrive subscriptions.
Exactly, as I can just wipe the disc and install OpenBSD.
Data recovery isn't impossible. You can easily back up the recovery key. This is just typical Microsoft shit design.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/back-up-your-bitlocker-recovery-key-e63607b4-77fb-4ad3-8022-d6dc428fbd0d
My parents wouldn't even notice that their computer decided to encrypt their files. And they will blame the service guy for not being able to recover their photos, in case of hardware failure.
I mean, for a lot of people they're fine especially if they're priced appropriately. Especially with a lot more software as a service out there. My problem is that all of them have a built in drop dead date on when they're going to stop getting updates and there's not really a great option for the devices post ChromeOS.
ChromeOS certainly can be a good system. I still have my old CR-48 from when I got selected to test the OS and even when it was in its infancy, it was solid. I used it for a lot of my college career because it was better than my Asus eeePC which had Ubuntu on it.
I had an Intel Chromebox that I ran galliumOS on. The problem is locked bootloaders which should be illegal
If my Chromebook could run Linux or even pure Android, I'd probably use it way more often. But it being a locked down distro with android bolted on is useless to me.
It feels like the worst of both worlds. It's fine for people who use a laptop/OS as a bootloader to a web browser, its not fine for weirdos like me.
Funny thing is that a cheap netbook has stats that would be fine for anything we did in the 90's maybe even some games too
The Chromebook I have, is overall fine. It runs ChromeOS pretty well, and most web pages don't make me beg for more RAM or CPU. ChromeOS does a fine job, to the point I wonder if I ran Arch or something on it, it's a crapshoot.
I think most laptops these days, even the cheap ones, are probably fine when you run a light OS on em. I've used computers that were 10 years old and ran most things decently well.
I've got an entry level desktop from 2009 I'm gonna throw arch on and run some stuff
Not to mention DRM. They want to own your computer and prevent any kind of modification so that movie producers give them money.
Movie producers?
Yeah, shit like HDCP is pushed by the film and TV industry.
Good thing PCs aren't locked into Windows.
yet
Good luck locking loose mainboards sold for the DIY market, which don't come with anything installed by default, to a given OS, the only way that could maybe work is forcing the OS in ROM.
Another way would be to discontinue the socketed desktop form factors and replace them all with mini PCs that are as locked down as the current Macs.
Thinking for two seconds:
MS pays Google to start enforcing some device verification thing so you can only view a good chunk of the Internet if you pass verification? (Assumes Google goes even harder making the web Chrome-focused)
Ooh Cloudflare could be invited to the party here too. Constant CAPTCHAs if youβre not on an MS AUTHENTI-PC! device. (Think Private Access Token)
β¦fill in the gaps friends π you know MS has already debated all your βsuggestionsβ anyway
Google already does precisely that with their "open source" mobile OS. People underestimate how easily these guys can ruin stuff
:( tell me more?
First off, Google has made agressive deals with phone manufacturers to ship spyware with their phones by default, and some of the stuff can only get taken out by rooting/jailbreaking the phone. By doing so, they acquired nearly 100% of the app store market share, and then used it to make "useful features" such as integrity checks that are tied to the Play Services app (which is an always on spyware background app).
The end result is, even if you manage to root your phone and install a custom ROM (which is not always available to every model), a bunch of apps will refuse to work properly because you fail the Google Play fingerprinting steps and are assumed to be a security vulnerability. If I'm not mistaken there's also some shady stuff with certificates, too
Ohhhh ya so not all bank apps work on e.g. Graphene making it dead in the water for people who, say, wanna have a single device that can do anything while traveling. Super bogus.
Thanks :)
This is already part of the trusted computing spec its called "remote attestation" I would actually expect it more targeted at multimedia who are hot to keep you from copying their stuff and banks.
So you're suggesting MS will somehow block non-Windows OSes from installing, even on hardware like loose mainboards for building your own PC with, or even on barebones mini PC kits or certain laptop SKUs, which don't ship with an OS installed to begin with and expect the user to install it themselves? I mean, unless something extreme happens like changing the entire PC platform to be like the current Macs, that won't be feasible.
Also, doing that would kill the Steam Deck which I doubt Valve would take sitting down.
Ah no
/
Get Google & Cloudflare to make the internet suck if you didnβt pay Microsoft[βs vendors] βenoughβ for hardware
Just sounds great doesnβt it?!
SecureBoot pretty much does this. There is nothing preventing motherboard manufacturers from blocking adding non-MS keys if they wanted to.
Except AFAIK loose mainboards aimed at the DIY market, as well as barebones kits, don't ship with SecureBoot turned on by default and an off switch for that is mandatory to the PC spec.