The software is labelled Beta, but is being pushed out to existing PCs anyway because… well… why not beta something in prod, it’s 2025 after all.

It appears in Game Bar, which is accessible from Windows Key + G. You may not have it yet as they are staging deployment. I’m not in Windows Insiders, but I have it installed — so it looks like the roll out is becoming wide. Note that I had uninstalled Copilot from my PC… but Gaming Copilot silently installed anyway.

It is similar to Recall, except not all the processing is done locally — it relies on the cloud. It screenshots gameplay, and then extracts elements of the screen (such as symbols and text) to work out what the player is doing. The idea is it can help you game, e.g. you can ask questions about what you’re doing in the game at a given moment.

  • viking@infosec.pub
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    6 days ago

    I’ve just switched from Windows 10 to Windows 10 IoT LTSC (long term support channel), designed for IoT means there’s no AI garbage, game bar and any other crap installed, and I get updates until 2032.

    Quite happy with it, after a disastrous experience with Windows 11 that essentially killed my system.

    And no, I can’t switch to Linux due to company requirements. I work in finance and some of the banks we use operate by hardware tokens that only have Windows drivers.

  • reksas@sopuli.xyz
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    7 days ago

    such stupid thing to sell that spyware with, makes me think of earlier people “buying” gold and gems from natives for worthless baubles because they didnt know better about value of either. And even if it doesn’t gather any information you care about someone taking, its still taking something valuable for no compensation > the training data and information in general that might be of use to someone at least and thus makes microsoft more money.

      • RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 days ago

        It isn’t air gapped, I just have a program that can block internet access to anything running. My internet is bad enough I can tell when something is using almost anything, and I’ve blocked most windows processes. It’s just another check box to click

  • jstin86457@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    I’m happily typing this from a Linux machine but it pisses me off that the vast majority of people will be OK with this, won’t know about it, or won’t care.

    Big Tech has learned how to perfectly boil the frog.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      the vast majority of people will be OK with this

      I don’t think the vast majority of Windows users are even aware of the Xbox Game Bar to begin with, let alone all the features there.

    • piskertariot@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      I intentionally installed the Xbox Game Bar a few years ago. After doing so, it associated my Xbox login with my Windows PC, and linked the 2, switching my Windows10 user to my Xbox login.

      Hard pass.

      My response was to switch to Linux.

    • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au
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      7 days ago

      I feel like you don’t even understand what this is going by what you just said. Unless you literally turn this feature on, then open the Xbox game bar and go to the widget and select to use it - it’s not just some “always on” thing, you have to open it to use it - then it doesn’t do anything.

      Where is the issue?

      • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Unless you literally turn this feature on, then open the Xbox game bar and go to the widget and select to use it - it’s not just some “always on” thing, you have to open it to use it - then it doesn’t do anything.

        “You can disable the Gaming Copilot widget from the game bar, however from experimentation so far the network traffic is still running with the user interface not open — I don’t know if this is a feature or a bug.”

    • a1studmuffin@aussie.zone
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      8 days ago

      At some point tech companies stopped focusing on what customers want/need, and started chasing their own delusions on what the next big thing is that will make them money. Solutions in search of problems, with billions of dollars of hype and marketing behind them. Crypto, NFTs, the metaverse, AI… it’s sad to see.

      • hume_lemmy@lemmy.ca
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        7 days ago

        It’s not just a tech company thing. Companies are utterly divorced from what customers want now. The only thing that matters is shareholders, and shareholders run on vibes and delusion. From chip makers to coffee makers, if actively pissing off the customers made the stocks go up, they’d do it.

    • utopiah@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      One of the most useless feature I’ve ever heard of.

      So far! Check the “news” again in 5min and be prepared for worse.

    • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au
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      7 days ago

      It’s basically game guides available at your fingertips while you’re playing games. Seems pretty useful to lots of people that play games and get stuck and need help, no?

  • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org
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    7 days ago

    Windows is just malware at this point. No matter how much spyware junk you turn off, there is always more to come in the next update.

    • ohlaph@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Yeah, or simply stuff you uninstalled and they reinstalled it. I have uninstalled Teams several times now.

  • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I have been balls deep in some copilot studio stuff over the past week. It is legitimately one of the worst applications I’ve use in my life. In a business environment, there is no security unless you pay for premium licenses for every user that touches a managed environment. That’s $30 per user per month for basic security. If you have one agent that 1000 employees may use, that’s baseline $30k per month. If you don’t have a managed environment, the anybody in your organization with a copilot license (not copilot studio) can login to the default environment, create agents, and share them indiscriminately. There is no middle ground.

    Fuck everything about Microsoft. I really hope that AI kills them.

    • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au
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      In a business environment, there is no security unless you pay for premium licenses for every user that touches a managed environment. That’s $30 per user per month for basic security. If you have one agent that 1000 employees may use, that’s baseline $30k per month. If you don’t have a managed environment, the anybody in your organization with a copilot license (not copilot studio) can login to the default environment, create agents, and share them indiscriminately. There is no middle ground.

      This is all 100% incorrect btw.

      https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/microsoft-365-copilot/pricing/enterprise

  • ISOmorph@feddit.org
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    8 days ago

    To all the people in this thread hyping Linux. Please remember that those screenshots capture you as well if you play with windows users. If this becomes a staple and you refuse to be AI fodder, then multiplayer is pretty much dead to you.

    • utopiah@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I don’t think it’s AI related. If you play on a public server, you should expect your data to be public anyway.

      If you play on a private server then there might be rules to be defined.

      All that said, I’m not sure what information would actually be problematic to share but if that’s a problem, sure,

      • play only of private servers than ban such AI tools (basically consider it cheating, which is arguably IMHO but I agree on the negative side effects)
      • make a new account for multiplayer that has no public link with your identity
    • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au
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      7 days ago

      What information exactly do you think copilot would be capturing about someone else in an online multiplayer game that is cause for concern that isn’t already being captured by companies?

    • Attacker94@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Could you expand a bit, I understand that their systems are compromised, but how does that provide information to them about you if you play a game together. Unless you are just referring to the information that a server host or your friend would know anyway.

      • ISOmorph@feddit.org
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        7 days ago

        Of course I am referring to info my teammates would know too. Are you inferring that it’s fine that big corporations are profiling you based on what you’re chatting with your friends about?

        • Attacker94@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          I’m not saying I’m OK with it, but I am saying that this data collection on game servers can be negated by not sharing information over in game chat. The rule I follow is that game chat is for talking about specifically the game or a discussing what platform we should communicate on instead; the unfortunate thing is that this ai would potentially compromise other services like your preferred messaging app. All in all, there doesn’t appear to be any reason to stop using cross play servers from a data privacy perspective.

      • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works
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        7 days ago

        automated screenshots when your username is visible, like player lists or above your character when in front of a compormised player

        • Attacker94@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          If that is what was meant, this is nothing new, server hosts have had this information and more for ages, and your gamertag is by no means priveledged information. I am having trouble trying to figure out how this change affects my willingness to play on cross play servers, as others have pointed out however I would be wary of compromised devices with privelidged data like banks or HR which I realistically have no way to protect myself from.

          • ISOmorph@feddit.org
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            7 days ago

            Having this info because of legitimate needs to provide a service and a third party processing it with AI without explicit consent for their benefit is a huge difference.

            • Attacker94@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              I fail to see how this ai isn’t a legitimate service, sure me and a lot of other people don’t want it, but there is an actual use case for it. It is very obvious to most of us here that it is a data collection scheme, but the data that a game server has on you should be unimportant, if it isn’t that is a failing on you for either playing such an invasive game or a failing on the game developer for making such information easily obtainable, either way this is not an issue for gamers who restrict the private information they share.

  • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    That’s great we really need to get the AIs playing the game for me so I’ll have more time to spend on things I enjoy: like standing in the bread line.