Don’t Use Windows 11!

Even if your computer can run Windows 11, that does not mean you should let it. Windows 11 is the most demanding, most intrusive, and most advertising-filled version of Windows that Microsoft has ever shipped. Everything below is documented — Microsoft’s own pages, security researchers, and privacy regulators. The links are at the bottom.

Recall: A Screenshot Of Everything, Every Five Seconds

Recall is a feature on the newer “Copilot+” PCs that keeps a searchable history of what you have done on your computer by taking pictures of your screen. Microsoft’s consumer page says a snapshot is saved “every few seconds.” Its own guide for IT administrators is blunter: a snapshot is taken every five seconds whenever the screen has changed. Those images are stored on your hard drive.

When Recall was first shown to the public, security researcher Kevin Beaumont — a former Microsoft employee — found the snapshots sitting in a plain, unencrypted database that any program running under your account could read. He said stealing “everything you’ve ever typed or viewed on your own Windows PC” took about two lines of code, and other researchers quickly published a tool to do exactly that. The UK’s privacy regulator, the ICO, announced it was “making enquiries with Microsoft to understand the safeguards in place to protect user privacy.”

Microsoft delayed Recall, added encryption and a fingerprint or PIN check, and made it something you have to switch on yourself — but only after that backlash. And it still is not safe. A December 2024 test by Tom’s Hardware found that the “filter sensitive information” setting, which is on by default, still let Recall screenshot credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers, and passwords. The encrypted-messaging app Signal thought it was serious enough to build a screenshot blocker into its Windows app specifically to keep Recall out.

Regulators And Governments Are Backing Away

To be clear: no country has made Windows 11 illegal. But privacy regulators and governments across Europe have been moving away from it, and that is worth knowing.

Germany’s data-protection authorities concluded years ago that Windows and Microsoft 365 could not be run in line with EU privacy law in their standard configuration — chiefly because of the telemetry Microsoft collects “fundamentally for self-interested purposes.”
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office opened a formal enquiry into Recall the week it was announced.
The German state of Schleswig-Holstein is moving roughly 30,000 government PCs — courts and police included — off Windows and Microsoft Office and onto Linux and LibreOffice, and had switched about 80% of them by the end of 2025.
Denmark’s Digital Ministry, and the cities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, are doing the same, citing dependence on “very few foreign suppliers.” So is the city of Lyon, France.
The European Union forced Microsoft to add a data-export option to Recall for EU users, and to strip the promotional clutter out of File Explorer in the EU. In other words, the regulator treats the normal defaults as something people need protecting from.

It Will Not Let You Keep A Local Account

You can no longer finish setting up Windows 11 — Home or Pro — without connecting it to the internet and signing in to a Microsoft account. In March 2025 Microsoft deleted the long-standing command that let you skip that step, and in October 2025 it killed the replacement trick too. Microsoft wants your computer tied to its servers, not to you.

There Are Ads Inside The Operating System

There are advertisements in the Start menu’s “Recommended” area, in File Explorer, on the lock screen, and in the Settings app — ads for Microsoft’s own products, for game subscriptions, for OneDrive storage you never asked for. You paid for the computer. You paid for the license. And Microsoft still sells your attention back to itself.

OneDrive Backs Up Your Files Without Really Asking

Windows 11 now switches on OneDrive “folder backup” for your Desktop, Documents, and Pictures during setup without clearly asking. Files you believed were on your computer are quietly in the cloud, your desktop fills up with shortcuts, and when the free 5 GB runs out you are prompted to pay a monthly fee for Microsoft 365. Turning it back off takes several screens.

It Phones Home Before You Open Anything

A widely-circulated network capture by the PC Security Channel showed a brand-new Windows 11 machine contacting Microsoft and a long list of third-party advertising and marketing servers on its very first boot — before a single app was opened. On Windows 11 Home and Pro, diagnostic data cannot be turned all the way off; the lowest setting is still “Required.”

Forced Updates, Fewer Choices

On Windows 11 Home you can only pause updates for about five weeks at a time. The year-long deferral is a Pro feature, and on a clean install of the current 24H2 version even that is missing. Updates reboot the machine, sometimes re-pin apps you removed, and have more than once broken working printers and drivers.

And The Basics Got Worse

You cannot move the taskbar to the side or top of the screen anymore. The right-click menu hides the commands you use most behind an extra “Show more options” click. Dragging a file onto a taskbar button to open it was removed. None of this was an accident, and none of the choices were made for you.

Windows 12 Will Be Worse

This part is my opinion, not a headline. Microsoft’s Copilot AI already keeps reappearing on the taskbar after updates, and new laptop keyboards have a dedicated Copilot key where a useful key used to be. I expect the next version of Windows to build that assistant in so deeply that it cannot be removed — and I expect it to watch what you do and answer to Microsoft, not to you. I will not install it on anyone’s computer.

If You Truly Must Run Windows

Some people genuinely have no choice — a work program, a piece of hardware, a boss who will not budge. If that is you, run Windows 10 Pro, and no other version. Not Home. Not 11. And never 12. The Pro edition is the only one that still lets you switch off the ads, the forced updates, the telemetry, and Copilot through its Group Policy controls. Windows 10’s free support has ended, so keep a solid backup, treat Microsoft’s paid Extended Security Updates as a short-term stopgap, and plan the move to Linux for when that crutch is gone.

On the same hardware, Windows 10 Pro also tends to be a bit faster — mainly because Windows 11 turns on a security layer called VBS by default that costs roughly 5–15% in games (Tom’s Hardware) and, in Puget Systems’ testing, a few percent in Adobe Premiere Pro (Puget Systems).

You Don’t Have To Put Up With Any Of It

For many years I have recommended Linux Mint Cinnamon (LMC) as my favorite operating system, and I still do. No ads. No forced account. No Recall. No Copilot. It looks and works much like Windows 7, it runs beautifully on the very computers Microsoft calls too old, and it is completely free.

For only $80, I will come to your home or office, back up your files, install Linux Mint Cinnamon, put your files back, and give you an hour of training on your new system. A “house call” by itself is $60, so you are getting three hours of my work for the other $20 — and you will not find a better deal anywhere in the whole USA!

My business slogan is “When You’re With Us, You’re Family!” and I mean it. Don’t know how to do something in Linux? We are a quick, free phone call away to help you “get it done!”

Give us a call anytime — we are here to help you!

Cell: (909) 367 – 8003

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Don’t Use Windows 11!

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