Recently I had a hiccup with my main SSD drive. I have a dual boot Win/Kubuntu setup. Linux was crashing hard and Windows was giving me blue screens. After I resolved the issue (cooling/loose connection, idk) my Linux was doing fine, but Windows was giving me blue screens. I think it was doing an update when it crashed.
After a couple of hours messing with my recovery USB and booting in safe mode, I was able to fix the bad update and reboot normally.
I tried to open Firefox and it couldn’t find the executable. Looking into the Program Files Mozilla folder, I found the .exe files had been renamed to .exe.sig???
Then looking for the Edge browser, I suddenly found out that Microsoft Copilot AI had been installed!?!?!?!?!?!?
What the actual fuck???
I never wanted that trash on my PC! That’s one of the reasons out of the many that I didn’t want to use Windows 11.
And it’s a weird fucking coincidence that Firefox was fucked. I couldn’t even rename the files to .exe because they wouldn’t execute. Looks like they were encrypted or some shit? What the fuck is Microsoft pulling?
It’s a happy coincidence because you know what? I’ve been thinking about going full Linux install since all my games and Windows applications work with Steam, Proton and Bottles now.
I really don’t see any fucking reason to keep using Windows. Fuck this shit and fuck Microsoft.
Edit: Oh and that’s on top of all the other bullshit like forcing users to create a MS account to install Windows 10 now and having to jump through hoops to have an offline installation. And also defaulting to having all your user folder documents into their fucking One Drive cloud.
I’m done.
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While I can appreciate and support the MS hate, I should probably point out that the Firefox.exe.sig file is a normal part of a Firefox install, it is not the exe, it did not get renamed or encrypted. It’s likely Firefox was in the middle of an update when your system crashed.
When the system crashed because of hardware.
Ah ok. Thanks for pointing that out.
Yup, Microsoft fucking sucks. Unfortunately some of us are stuck with them for now, because reasons.
For anyone wanting to bypass the Microsoft account bullshit when setting up Windows, here are the steps:
- Don’t plug the PC into your network
- At the WIFI setup stage, press Shift-F10
- Type oobe\bypassnro (in the command window, then press Enter)
- Reboot. Finish installation.
I’ve previously posted videos showing you how to do this, but the Dwight Schrutes of lemmy yell at me when I do that. Anyway, you can find it on YouTube (if you don’t have ADHD and appreciate actually seeing someone do the steps first).
Edit: Here’s a link to a video at the relevant time offset. You don’t have to watch the whole thing, only a minute or two:
No need to attack ADHD people and use it as a slur. Some of us just don’t feel the need for instructions that are going to be typed out anyways to be put into a video. Ffs, you just put the entire instructions in 4 sentences. Why on earth would I want a video for that?
You’re the Dwight.
Fuck Microsoft and all that, but you might have a hardware problem if Kubuntu is crashing too. It won’t install Copilot and it’s less likely to lose you files but you probably want to look into it. RAM, SSD, etc.
Yeah I definitely had an SSD issue. It’s installed right above the graphics card which can get hot. I think it may have become loose. I let the PC cool and pushed it back in and it’s fine now.
But that left some Windows files corrupted.
If you can afford it, slap a second SSD in there and mirror it with the first in Linux. If you’ve installed your OS on LVM, mirroring is trivial. If not, you can still do it with mdraid. That way, instead of getting shit on your head if something overheats or disconnects, you’ll just get warnings in the logs to fix it. :D
They don’t have to be on the same bus, or the same size, or the same brand. As long as the second one is the same or bigger in size, the above holds. I have a 512G Samsung mirrored with a 1T WD. One’s installed on the board, the other is on a PCIe riser. It would still work if I connected it via USB3 enclosure.
Once Windows 10 is unsupported I’m abandoning Windows entirely. When I always used the excuse that gaming was better on Windows, which definitely used to be the case. But these days most of the games I regularly play are compatible on Linux and the others you can use workarounds. Literally unheard of when I was a kid.
Unfortunately, my work computer has to have Windows 11 and it’s been nothing but problems. Half the software I need to use crashes or has performance issues.
That was going to be my objective as well. But I’m going to jump the gun and do it in the coming couple of weeks.
I hope you feel better after venting all that frustration, @[email protected]. Sounds like you went through hell, but you’ve been forged from fire now. 😀
I am getting ready to make the switch, but I am methodically prepping in advance of the end of life support for Windows 10. I’m currently prepping all my programs and everything I use my PC for and doing research into all the compatible programs I need to make them work, including all my workflows. My goal is to gradually cut over to a Linux install once I’m fully comfortable, which includes which distro to pick. Pop OS didn’t work out great for me when I tried it two years ago: too buggy, ran poorly, etc. So Linux Mint, endeavour, or another distro that’s popular with gamers might be right for me. My goal is to use a common, well-supported distro that won’t become hostile to users. I hear you can distro hop, which sounds scary as hell to me, but apparently is quite trivial. That is also part of my research!
Good luck with your switch!
Same. I’m practicing setting up Bazzite in a VM with all my required software before I switch. Gotta be able to VPN into work, because I don’t think they care how I feel about Windows. 😅
If you need any gaming distro recs, Bazzite is based on Fedora Atomics (immutable), and I already use it on a spare laptop. The maintainers are also pretty cool. Garuda is based on Arch (mutable). Both have many sane defaults already set up for gaming, and I like both.
A couple other popular ones are:
- Nobara
- ChimeraOS (AMD-only)
Good luck, yourself!
Good grief I’ve heard of none of those distros! Man I got some learning to do.
Nevertheless, VM is the way to go. Thanks for the helpful suggestions, I’ll add them to my research.
Here’s an article that talks about the state of gaming in Linux, if you’re interested in seeing what people are using.
Seconding Bazzite (or in general, UniversalBlue distros), but went a step further and created a dual-boot setup. Relatively hassle-free, aside from some minor, (probably) NVIDIA-related hiccups.
You might be thinking of the recall feature, but there’s been “copilot” stuff built into edge for ages. It’s just part of the browser now, and isn’t something you install separately.
“Copilot AI” isn’t any one single thing. It’s a ton of stuff because M$ keeps slapping the branding on everything they can, regardless of how relevant it is.
It’s confusing as fuck and just plain dumb.
It’s a ton of stuff because M$ keeps slapping the branding on everything they can, regardless of how relevant it is.
Every time something from MS becomes famous in a good or neutral way, they do that to dilute the brand.
Yeah I don’t use Edge. That copilot thing just popped up in my task bar.
I feel you. I somehow managed to get a free Pro key, and I don’t experience many of the issues others experience, but I just don’t want to be the product anymore—Recall was the final straw.
See you on the other (Linux) side!
I never wanted that trash on my PC!
In a few years, you won’t think much of it. And neither will almost anyone else. Windows $VERSION-1’s horrible new features have become “normal” and accepted by the herd, and so too will Windows $CURRENT-VERSION’s horrible new features.
Boiling frog, normalization, salami slicing, the tyrant’s tip toe.
Microsoft, and other big tech companies, know this well. And they will continue to exploit the public’s amnesiac memory.
Making my prediction now: In 2028+/- 1 year, anyone objecting to antifeatures specifically similar to copilot will promptly be shouted down as being a tin foil hat conspiracy theorist “OMG you’re such a schizoid, just use what everyone else is using! It’s not so bad. Sheesh!”
