“We set out to solve one of the most common frustrations we hear — finding and changing settings on your PC — using the power of AI agents,” Navjot Virk, corporate vice president of Windows Experiences at Microsoft, said in a blog post on Tuesday. “An agent uses on-device AI to understand your intent and with your permission, automate and execute tasks.”
Ah Christ. We’ve collectively regressed so much in computer knowledge that people can’t even find a settings menu? Even I have trouble believing that one.
Finding settings in Windows is pretty hard
The last time finding settings in Windows was straight forward was Windows 95. Since the stupid dumbed down ‘settings’ app was vomited upon us, it has been nearly impossible to find the thing you know is there but has now been renamed and moved, and isn’t even indexed in the settings app search bar.
Just to be the devil’s advocate here: There are way more settings now than back then. That interface wouldn’t cut it either.
Easy way to automatically set settings that are convenient for them and disguise it as AI being AI
I actually like the ability for a local AI to help with this in theory. I don’t think it’s an excuse for unintuitive UIs though.
Wow, a take that isn’t just “AI bad?” Wild.
Yeah I thought it was weird that it couldn’t do this in windows in the first place when you had to click a button to allow the AI to change your computer from light to dark mode or something. It was right 99% of the time in my brief testing, and just include an undo button in case it isn’t.
All of that said, I’m glad to be on Linux where there isn’t any AI built into my OS, but I’m also not the target audience for needing an AI to change my settings for me.
Just put the search results in under the search bar, bro.
I dumped Windows about 18 months ago, before their recall and copilot BS. There are many Linux distros out there. They are free and there is almost nothing you can do with Windows that can’t be done on Linux. These days, most games for Windows can be played on Linux using Proton and Wine. There is no reason to keep Windows and plenty of reasons to dump Windows, like not wanting your personal data stolen or monitored by corporations and governments.
just a simple search feature works.
Glad to be using Linux on all my computers
Because coming up with a UI that doesn’t suck is too much work
They really are trying to drive away their user base huh
No, we’re just not their target market. Most of their users, inexplicably, actually like changes like this.
Yea, but in my experience most people just dont care.
Quick! I need a guide on how to disable this.
Oh no you don’t
[deletes wuaueng.dll because windows update has turned itself back on like 5 times]
Maybe if you didn’t split settings into that half-baked settings app, then leave control panel in place with the remaining settings, but make control panel increasingly difficult to get to, we wouldn’t need a stupid AI agent to help us change settings.
Yes! I really feel all this copilot bullshit is to hide the fact they released windows 11 broken as fuck and here 2.5 years later it’s still a pile of shit. It’s just fucked. I have to use it daily for work and clients and it’s done nothing but prepare me to install W10 LTSC this summer or move to Linux. Problem with Linux is a have an Nvidia GPU and don’t like having to fuck with that, otherwise Zorin it will be. Windows 11 pushes me everyday to hate it more and more. Seriously. Daily fucking updates for broken shit and shoving AI down our throats. Fuck windows.
I have an nvidia GPU and it worked out of the box.
I’m dualbooting CachyOS with windows, no issues with my rtx 4070 super.
CachyOS rocks. I settled on it after trying many Linux distros and CachyOS won. All distros had pros and cons CachyOS was easy to update. Easy to install and remove programs without the terminal. Proton and Wine run great on it so most of my Steam and Epic games are playable and all media types play without tinkering. That was an issue with Fedora.
I’ll look into it again this summer. It’s on the list, just not at the moment
Windows 11 actually released 3.5 years ago!
I’m in a similar situation, though I’ve already got a dual boot set up so it’s just a matter of only using Windows when I just absolutely have to.
Earlier today, I tried to zip a directory on Windows 11 with the context menu, and it wouldn’t do it! It’s a feature that’s been in Windows forever and is even in Ubuntu, but somehow over at Microsoft they’ve managed to break it. Incredible.
If you’re unlucky enough like me that you still have to use win 11 for work…
The shortcut Win + x is your friend here. It opens this menu.
Ot you can just right click the start menu
Is Microsoft trying to kill itself?
Yes
Hopefully
Perhaps you could just make them easier to find by putting them in one location… You could call it a “control panel”.
They even killed wmic. It was like control panel but in the command prompt.
That functionality is built in to powershell now, that’s why they retired that.
Have you actually ever used Control Panel?
Misses the point.
Firstly they still have the control panel.
Secondly they are slowly transitioning everything relevant from the control panel to the settings app.
Thirdly even having everything in the control panel didn’t make it easy to find exactly what you wanted.
This makes it so you can just say “set my power profile to balanced” and it would do so. That’s a nice, welcome addition.
I know what the point is. It sucks.
Firstly they still have the control panel.
For now
Secondly they are slowly transitioning everything relevant from the control panel to the settings app.
The settings app is half-baked dog shit.
Thirdly even having everything in the control panel didn’t make it easy to find exactly what you wanted.
It was certainly easier than the current state of things.
This makes it so you can just say “set my power profile to balanced” and it would do so. That’s a nice, welcome addition.
Sure assuming the AI understands your request and the setting you want hasn’t been removed because they wanted to put everything in the settings app and the one you wanted conflicts with their data gathering and add presentation and it’s not running in the background bogging down your system all the time or trying to interject itself into whatever you’re trying to do without involving it.
For now
Yes, for now. I even said as much, because Microsoft have made their plans on getting rid of it very clear and open. It’s slowly being replaced by moving everything to the settings app.
The settings app is half-baked dog shit.
You could say that it’s slowly getting all the features added to it, couldn’t you? What is “half baked dog shit” about it?
It was certainly easier than the current state of things.
What was easier to find in the control panel than it is in settings?
Sure assuming the AI understands your request and the setting you want hasn’t been removed because they wanted to put everything in the settings app
You think that the AI would not have access and knowledge of the settings app? They made no mention of the AI Agents only being able to make changes in the control panel.
and it’s not running in the background bogging down your system all the time
You’ve never actually used windows 11, have you?
What is “half baked dog shit” about it?
The fact that they’re moving things over slowly instead of just fucking finishing it before they deploy it all at once. They’ve been doing this since Windows 10 came out, they have a trillion dollars. There’s no excuse to have it be half assed for so long especially considering “Settings” isn’t even an improvement.
What was easier to find in the control panel than it is in settings?
Literally everything? You don’t have to click through 14 different menus to drill down to what you’re looking for. It’s all on one window in Control Panel. Just look at Devices and Printers in Control Panel vs. Devices in settings or Programs and Features vs. Apps and features the newer versions have far less information available at a glance.
You’ve never actually used windows 11, have you?
I use it every day on my work PC. It runs like ass.
The fact that they’re moving things over slowly instead of just fucking finishing it before they deploy it all at once.
I’ve already been over this, as have MS many times.
There’s no excuse to have it be half assed for so long especially considering “Settings” isn’t even an improvement.
Making any change to legacy systems in Windows is a massive risk and requires a lot of work. Win32 for example isn’t good and should have been removed a loooooong time ago, but here we are still with it.
Literally everything? You don’t have to click through 14 different menus to drill down to what you’re looking for.
Got any examples of this? Settings are generally at most 3 levels deep from the main settings screen.
Just look at Devices and Printers in Control Panel vs. Devices in settings
What am I looking at? The “Bluetooth & Devices” settings page is good. What’s wrong with it?
It runs like ass.
It’s not even debatable though - it’s the most performant windows ever lol. It doesn’t “run like ass” unless you’re using “ass” hardware and/or software, at which point any prior windows would be running even worse.
Bullshit to all those points. If you couldnt find it in the control panel before, you sure as shit cant find it now.
Also, they’ve been “slowly” transitioning for over two years, wtf? We waiting for the next OS at this point?
I do NOT need voice activation, I know how to use a keyboard and mouse, the core components of input for a computer.
You want to use your voice, talk to your mom cause I’m done with her.
j/k on the mom part
If you couldnt find it in the control panel before, you sure as shit cant find it now.
Oh you’ve tried this new AI Agent that can change the settings for you, have you?
Bullshit to all those points.
Which points are “bullshit”? That they’re slowly moving everything out of the control panel to the settings app? This is literally what they’ve been telling us they’re doing, and what we’ve seen them do.
That they still have the control panel? Nope, not bullshit, it’s still there.
That being able to ask Copilot to change a setting would be helpful? How is that bullshit?
I do NOT need voice activation
Good thing it’s not MANDATORY then. You can keep using your mouse and keyboard. Also you don’t have to use your VOICE for copilot - it’s much easier to use the mouse and keyboard. That’s how most people use it.
Also, they’ve been “slowly” transitioning for over two years, wtf? We waiting for the next OS at this point?
This stuff takes time unfortunately. If they change everything at once they get even more anger and pushback. This way it’s just a slow and easy move away from the control panel - 1 thing here, 2 things there, and before you know it hey look! Everything is in the settings app now!
Oh good mum joke big fella! So clever and badarse.
I’d rather they spend time fixing all the things theyre “working on” rather that introduct more half baked shit into the os for fucks sake. There is a huge list of things that keep people from upgrading so instead they said “now you have to”. Fuck that. Just fix your shit and people will upgrade willingly.
Fuck windows. They had a great thing going with Windows, then the reneged. They said windows 10 was going to be the last major OS for windows. How do we trust anything from Microsoft now?
now it’s going to cause people to trash their working device because it’s only 7th gen and doesn’t have TPM 2.0. greedy little piggies who want to track their users and throw privacy out the window.
Cant argue with a Linux user, just leave
I’m a windows user, but I can call shit when I see shit.
How to make game go on Lunix
Steam has some good options. And, if you can play it on the Steamdeck, it will probably work on a Linux desktop.
But, if you have specific gaming needs, please check those first. Some games just don’t work, and I wouldn’t want your to trade OSes (which all have their own frustrations) and then find yourself unable to game.
Preferably find someone local that already uses Linux and is willing to help you out some. LUGs (Linux User Groups) used to be a thing; maybe there’s one near you. A lot of Linux users like gaming these days, though plenty of them still dual-boot.
