An anonymous reader shares a report: While the latest update to Windows 11 makes it look like the upcoming Recall feature can be easily removed by users, Microsoft tells us it’s just a bug and a fix is coming. Deskmodder spotted the change last week in the latest 24H2 version of Windows 11, with KB5041865 seemingly delivering the ability to uninstall Recall from the Windows Features section. “We are aware of an issue where Recall is incorrectly listed as an option under the ‘Turn Windows features on or off’ dialog in Control Panel,” says Windows senior product manager Brandon LeBlanc in a statement to The Verge. “This will be fixed in an upcoming update.”

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Microsoft will meet with CrowdStrike and other security companies” on September 10, reports CNBC, to “discuss ways to evolve” the industry after a faulty CrowdStrike software update in July caused millions of Windows computers to crash:

[An anonymous Microsoft executive] said participants at the Windows Endpoint Security Ecosystem Summit will explore the possibility of having applications rely more on a part of Windows called user mode instead of the more privileged kernel mode… Attendees at Microsoft’s September 10 event will also discuss the adoption of eBPF technology, which checks if programs will run without triggering system crashes, and memory-safe programming languages such as Rust, the executive said.

Wednesday Crowdstrike argued no cybersecurity vendor could “technically” guarantee their software wouldn’t cause a similar incident.

On a possibly related note, long-time Slashdot reader 278MorkandMindy shares their own thoughts:

The “year of the Linux desktop” is always just around the corner, somewhat like nuclear fusion. Will Windows 11, with its general advert and telemetry BS, along with the recall feature, FINALLY push “somewhat computer literate” types like myself onto Linux?

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Microsoft Dynamics 365’s “field service management” tools enable employers to monitor mobile workers via smartphone apps — “allegedly to the detriment of their autonomy and dignity,” reports The Register. From the report: According to a probe by Cracked Labs – an Austrian nonprofit research group — the software is part of a broader set of applications that disempowers workers through algorithmic management. The case study [PDF] summarizes how employers in Europe actually use software and smartphone apps to oversee field technicians, home workers, and cleaning staff. It’s part of a larger ongoing project helmed by the group called “Surveillance and Digital Control at Work,” which includes contributions from AlgorithmWatch; Jeremias Adams-Prassl, professor of law at the University of Oxford; and trade unions UNI Europa and GPA.

Mobile maintenance workers used to have a substantial amount of autonomy when they were equipped with basic mobile phones, the study notes, but smartphones have allowed employers to track what mobile workers do, when they do it, where they are, and gather many other data points. The effect of this monitoring, the report argues, means diminished worker discretion, autonomy, and sense of purpose due to task-based micromanagement. The shift has also accelerated and intensified work stress, with little respect to workers’ capabilities, differences in lifestyle, and job practices. “Field service workers travel to multiple locations servicing different products every day,” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Register. “Dynamics 365 Field Service and its Copilot capabilities are designed to help field service workers schedule, plan and provide onsite maintenance and repairs in the right location, on time with the right information and workplace guides on their device to complete their jobs.”

“Dynamics 365 Field Service does not use AI to recommend individual workers for specific jobs based on previous performance. Dynamics 365 Field Service was developed in accordance with our Responsible AI principles and data privacy statement. Customers are solely responsible for using Dynamics 365 Field Service in compliance with all applicable laws, including laws relating to accessing individual employee analytics and monitoring.”

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Ash Parrish reports via The Verge: More than 500 developers at Blizzard Entertainment who work on World of Warcraft have voted to form a union. The World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild, formed with the assistance of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), is composed of employees across every department, including designers, engineers, artists, producers, and more. Together, they have formed the largest wall-to-wall union — or a union inclusive of multiple departments and disciplines — at Microsoft. This news comes less than a week after the formation of the Bethesda Game Studios union, which, at the time of the announcement, was itself the largest wall-to-wall Microsoft union. […]

The World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild is made up of over 500 members across Blizzard offices in California and Massachusetts. Despite its size — it is the second largest union at Microsoft overall behind Activision’s 600-member QA union — [Paul Cox, senior quest designer and Blizzard veteran] said that Microsoft’s labor neutrality agreement helped get the organization ball rolling. In a statement to The Verge, Microsoft spokesperson Delaney Simmons said, “We continue to support our employees’ right to choose how they are represented in the workplace, and we will engage in good faith negotiations with the CWA as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement.”

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Ancient Slashdot reader Alain Williams writes: Palestinians living abroad have accused Microsoft of closing their email accounts without warning — cutting them off from crucial online services. They say it has left them unable to access bank accounts and job offers — and stopped them using Skype, which Microsoft owns, to contact relatives in war-torn Gaza. Microsoft says they violated its terms of service — a claim they dispute. He also said being cut off from Skype was a huge blow for his family. The internet is frequently disrupted or switched off there because of the Israeli military campaign – and standard international calls are very expensive. […] With a paid Skype subscription, it is possible to call mobiles in Gaza cheaply — and while the internet is down — so it has become a lifeline to many Palestinians.

Some of the people the BBC spoke to said they suspected they were wrongly thought to have ties to Hamas, which Israel is fighting, and is designated a terrorist organization by many countries. Microsoft did not respond directly when asked if suspected ties to Hamas were the reason for the accounts being shut. But a spokesperson said it did not block calls or ban users based on calling region or destination. “Blocking in Skype can occur in response to suspected fraudulent activity,” they said, without elaborating.

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Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: “If Einstein paved the way for a new era in physics,” explains auction house Christie’s in a promotion piece for its upcoming offering of 150+ “objects of scientific and historical importance” from the Paul G. Allen Collection (including items from the shuttered Living Computers Museum), “Mr. Allen and his collaborators ushered in a new era of computing. Starting with MS-DOS in 1981, Microsoft then went on to revolutionize personal computing with the launch of Windows in 1985.”

Christie’s auction and characterization of MS-DOS as an Allen and Microsoft innovation comes 30 years after the death of Gary Kildall, whose unpublished memoir, the Seattle Times reported in Kildall’s July 1994 obituary, called DOS “plain and simple theft” of Kildall’s CP/M OS. PC Magazine’s The Rise of DOS: How Microsoft Got the IBM PC OS Contract notes that Paul Allen himself traced the genesis of MS-DOS back to a phone call Allen made to Seattle Computer Products owner Rod Brock in which Microsoft licensed Tim Paterson’s CP/M-inspired QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) for $10,000 plus a royalty of $15,000 for every company that licensed the software. A shrewd buy-low-sell-high business deal, yes, but hardly an Einstein-caliber breakthrough idea.

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Microsoft revealed that the Russian hackers who breached its systems earlier this year stole more emails than initially reported. “We are continuing notifications to customers who corresponded with Microsoft corporate email accounts that were exfiltrated by the Midnight Blizzard threat actor, and we are providing the customers the email correspondence that was accessed by this actor,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Bloomberg (paywalled). “This is increased detail for customers who have already been notified and also includes new notifications.” The Register reports: We’ve been aware for some time that the digital Russian break-in at the Windows maker saw Kremlin spies make off with source code, executive emails, and sensitive U.S. government data. Reports last week revealed that the issue was even larger than initially believed and additional customers’ data has been stolen. Along with Russia, Microsoft was also compromised by state actors from China not long ago, and that issue similarly led to the theft of emails and other data belonging to senior U.S. government officials.

Both incidents have led experts to call Microsoft a threat to U.S. national security, and president Brad Smith to issue a less-than-reassuring mea culpa to Congress. All the while, the U.S. government has actually invested more in its Microsoft kit. Bloomberg reported that emails being sent to affected Microsoft customers include a link to a secure environment where customers can visit a site to review messages Microsoft identified as having been compromised. But even that might not have been the most security-conscious way to notify folks: Several thought they were being phished.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft has made OneDrive slightly more annoying for Windows 11 users. Quietly and without any announcement, the company changed Windows 11’s initial setup so that it could turn on the automatic folder backup without asking for it. Now, those setting up a new Windows computer the way Microsoft wants them to (in other words, connected to the internet and signed into a Microsoft account) will get to their desktops with OneDrive already syncing stuff from folders like Desktop Pictures, Documents, Music, and Videos.

Depending on how much is stored there, you might end up with a desktop and other folders filled to the brim with shortcuts to various stuff right after finishing a clean Windows installation. Automatic folder backup in OneDrive is a very useful feature when used properly and when the user deliberately enables it. However, Microsoft decided that sending a few notification prompts to enable folder backup was not enough, so it just turned the feature on without asking anybody or even letting users know about it, resulting in a flood of Reddit posts about users complaining about what the hell are those green checkmarks next to files and shortcuts on their desktops.

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From the Washington Post’s “Technology 202” newsletter:

As tech giants move toward a world in which chatbots supplement, and perhaps supplant, search engines, the Microsoft executive assigned to make sure AI is used responsibly said the industry has to be careful not to break the business model of the wider web. Search engines citing and linking to the websites they draw from is “part of the core bargain of search,” [Microsoft’s chief Responsible AI officer] said in an interview Monday….

“It’s really important to maintain a healthy information ecosystem and recognize it is an ecosystem. And so part of what I will continue to guide our Microsoft teams toward is making sure that we are citing back to the core webpages from which the content is sourced. Making sure that we’ve got that feedback loop happening. Because that is part of the core bargain of search, right? And I think it’s critical to make sure that we are both providing users with new engaging ways to interact, to explore new ideas — but also making sure that we are building and supporting the great work of our creators.”

Asked about lawsuits alleging copyright use without permission, they said “We believe that there are strong grounds under existing laws to train models.”

But they also added those lawsuits are “asking legitimate questions” about where the boundaries are, “for which the courts will provide answers in due course.”

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Microsoft releases one of the most popular versions of MS-DOS as open source today. stikves shares a post:Ten years ago, Microsoft released the source for MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 to the Computer History Museum, and then later republished them for reference purposes. This code holds an important place in history and is a fascinating read of an operating system that was written entirely in 8086 assembly code nearly 45 years ago.

Today, in partnership with IBM and in the spirit of open innovation, we’re releasing the source code to MS-DOS 4.00 under the MIT license. There’s a somewhat complex and fascinating history behind the 4.0 versions of DOS, as Microsoft partnered with IBM for portions of the code but also created a branch of DOS called Multitasking DOS that did not see a wide release.

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