Fellow Windows 11 users: how to disable newly-installed Microsoft AI!

Folks, with the new updates that've come down recently, Microsoft has installed its "Copilot" AI app on your machine. It apparently cannot be removed.

But it can be disabled.

ETA: first of all, try these less-invasive/difficult options via @sky-blaze:

The slightly more complex and risky approach (as regedit is never entirely safe) comes via the excellent Pihko Misit, aka @smokepaw.bsky.social over at Bluesky). I've just done this to my own desktop machine, and all's well with it now.

Here's what to do:

(1) You need to have Admin rights for the machine and be logged in to the administrator account.

Now, right-click on the Start menu (Windows logo on the Taskbar.) A menu pops up; about half way down it you'll see Terminal and Terminal (Admin). Click on the Terminal (Admin) option.

(2) A DoS-like box will open. (For those of you who've never interacted with a Windows terminal window before, it looks like this:)

On the command line (i.e. the first empty line), copy and paste this:

reg add HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot /v TurnOffWindowsCopilot /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Then hit Enter.

If successful, you'll see a line pop up saying so. Congratulations! But you're not quite finished.

Now you need to close all programs and fully shut down the machine. A restart isn't enough, it needs to be fully powered down and started back up.

"And now," Pihko says, "ou have a NSA-like AI spy dormant on your machine. Stay vigilant, odds are it'll turn back on with future updates! Big Corporate wants you to be compliant. Don't be!"

I have never in my life had a kitten react this negatively to swaddling. Fully feral 8 week olds tolerate it better than this 10 day old kitten. Warning: he is LOUD and sounds like he's being tortured.

You can imagine how much fun tube feeding him is right now....

This is the same baby that was growling at me so it appears to be a native personality thing. He's going to be a delightful adult cat at the vet.... Maybe I should change his name to "eternal gabapentin"

wahwah

We had a patient last night who was a textbook case of electrolytes imbalance as a result of nausea and vomiting. And I didn’t say this to the patient because I didn’t think they’d appreciate it, but it’s kinda great when the way you are so so sick is like exactly like the textbooks say it’ll be. Like not good that you’re having sudden new onset muscle weakness and tingling, but buddy this is gonna get sorted out with an efficiency you won’t believe. We fixed like 85% of the stuff wrong with this patient by midnight and we marveled the whole time about how this patient was seemingly concocted in a lab so I could walk my trainee through a highly manageable crisis

It also meant I got to share with my trainee what is my absolute favorite part of the job: when you take someone who is So Miserable and you make them feel So Much Better that they start once again having a personality beyond suffering and crying. It’s like seeing a plant perk up after finally getting watered. Suddenly they’re joking, they’re laughing, you’re talking about stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with puking or tingling or bleeding or burning. They’ve got a bag of potassium phosphate going into their arm, and we’re cackling like banshees because your friend at bedside who has been so worried just made a really stupid joke. There is no sillier place in the hospital than the room where someone is giggling with the giddy joy you get when you feel pretty okay after just one hour ago everything sucking so, so, so, so bad.

This was me a few years ago when I had my first major POTS event (like, stood up and blacked out, couldn't lift my own head up, could barely move my hands to call for help), and Urgent Care sent me to the ER in a panic because I was so disorientated and out of it and just kept asking, "Why can I feel my pulse in my stomach?" they thought I was potentially having an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

The ER were also a bit panicked until they ran some tests and went, "Oh Jesus, you have like no sodium in you," and proceeded to hook me up to multiple IV bags over the course of several hours while also giving me salty snacks to eat.

Turns out cutting out salt like my old doctor told me to hadn't been a good idea. Anyway. Can confirm, when you're dealing with an electrolyte imbalance it literally feels like you're gonna die but the minute you get that IV into you it's like being resurrected.

Your whole brain comes back online. Birds start singing again. You can remember the taste of strawberries and the way the sun kissed the green hills of the Shire.

You may or may not quote this line from LotR out loud on accident and momentarily render the nurse switching out your IV bag helpless with laughter because it's been a long day, and your loopy-ass is making up for it because they were able to fix you and any day you can help a patient so noticeably is a good one.

I always look for marsh rabbits when I am out and about in the wetlands because I have a particular interest in their ear notches. Rabbits can get these scars from disputes with other rabbits and they make it pretty easy to identify individuals. So I keep an eye out and sometimes I’m able to recognize a marsh rabbit and track them over several seasons. Here’s a few from my collection to show how the notches normally look

But on my most recent trip I saw something totally new! Behold this interesting looking creature I spied

This marsh rabbit lost his ears entirely! Must have been one hell of a fight but this little guy seems to be doing just fine. I always love finding a true survivor in the wild; what a tough little beast. Can’t get over what a funny unique look he has

Bunny Heritage Post

EVERYONE STAY CALM THEIR ARE NEW WOLVES

Also the black wolf it got cut off in my screenshot I think

wellm wellm wellm

how serendipitouse that youm would be sittinge down to a deliciouse meal at the precise momente which im storvinge to death

🐱 Domestic Shorthair

📸 Nicole Hall

🎨 Black Tabby Bicolor [possible de novo mutation]

✨ Please reblog the polls to make them reach out to as many people as possible, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people listen to the music with an open mind 💖 Artists and titles will be revealed after the poll's conclusion, check the original post for an update! ✨

"low support needs disabled people are often not believed to have a disability at all and therefore struggle to get accommodations."

"high support needs disabled people's accommodations are often seen as 'too much' and therefore are not met."

"neurodivergent people's needs are often dismissed because nothing is physically wrong with them."

"physically disabled people people often cannot physically access buildings and people refuse to do anything about it."

"invisibly disabled people are seen as lazy by society."

"visibly disabled people are ostracized from society."

IT'S ALMOST LIKE THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE DISABILITY

make a cohost account, make a blue skies account, make a pillow fort account, make a artfol account, share your discord, make a back-up account, make another account, make another account, make another account-

Werewolf boyfriend

Dude that is too much slop for him

it's kinda comforting to me when my friends are a little annoying or longwinded or abrasive or tired and inarticulate, or they don't do the exact politest thing in every interaction, and stuff, because I know I'm sometimes annoying, or take up a more than my share of conversational space, or forget to ask them questions, etc etc, and... like, I'm always working to be nice to my friends and to get better and better at friend-ing, but it just makes me feel more human about it :}

anyway I love you friends plz know I'm not counting, in fact I feel great affection toward you even (especially) when conversations go less than Perfectly Ideal

I'm not proud to say it but this line from a 60 year old detective novel made me re-think some things about friendship

Doggie has some skills!