Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders
23 comments
·November 17, 2025xzjis
Mmh, I've always wanted my gaming PC to run a useless background agent to eat up CPU cycles that could have been used for my game. Oh well, if I didn't want that, I could just consider using a Steam Machine, which Valve just announced.
dralley
Honestly you don't need Valve hardware or SteamOS to make Proton work really well
mrbungie
You don't, but oh boy, the experience is worth it. Bazzite[1] has it quirks but it mostly works fine in desktops.
daedrdev
for real
appstorelottery
Is this happening for EU users?
FridayoLeary
>Agent workspace is a separate, contained Windows session made just for AI agents, where they get their own account, desktop, and permissions so they can click, type, open apps, and work on your files in the background while you keep using your normal desktop. Instead of letting an agent act directly as you, Windows spins up this extra workspace, gives it limited access (like specific folders such as Documents or Desktop), and keeps its actions isolated and auditable. Each agent can have its own workspace and access rules, so what one agent can see or do doesn’t automatically apply to others, and you stay in control of what they’re allowed to touch.
The headline is very clickbaity. This is not quite the privacy destroying anti feature CPU eater. It's more like a feature some people may enjoy and others an annoying nuisance that they have to remember to disable. It's likely going to be so resource heavy and a privacy concern that i can't imagine they would ever enable it by default.
bn-l
It is only a matter of time before recall is shipped quietly in an update
malfist
I disagree that the headline is clickbaity. It's true. The agents run in the background and have access to your personal data.
I don't care how "auditable" an agent is, I don't want my personal information slurped up by AI and shipped out to microsoft's servers. Full stop.
This is just another spying data exfiltration but with a hype con built into it.
Just because I can see what it read and shipped off, doesn't mean I can undo that or claw it back.
leptons
This should be an installable application for those who want it, not part of the operating system.
This is exactly why I'm switching every one of my computers over to Linux, and I'm going to recommend others do the same.
jmclnx
I could not get into the article, but the wayback machine can
https://web.archive.org/web/20251118002918/https://www.windo...
If people do not want this spyware, we all here know what OS they can move to :)
tapper
I can't tell you how mutch I don't want this!
I know there will be some smart arse out there saying "Just install Linux" Pleas don't I have to use a screenreader called NVDA to read the screen to me as I am blind.
There is a screen reader in Linux but it just is not that good. If it was better then I would think about it. I have tried!
adam1996TL
This is the most critical comment in the entire thread.
Your point about NVDA vs. Linux screen readers isn't a side issue; it's the entire crux of the problem.
The "Just install Linux" crowd ignores the reality of ecosystem lock-in. For millions of users with specific, mission-critical needs (like robust accessibility, Adobe Suite, enterprise compliance), there is no viable alternative to Windows.
This isn't a failure of users for not switching. It's a failure of the market that has produced a monoculture.
Microsoft knows this. They are not competing for your data; they are leveraging a monopoly. This isn't a 'choice' to accept an AI agent; it's a monopoly tax on a captive audience.
xzjis
It's a real pain that accessibility features are always integrated into proprietary OSes first. Like the live captioning feature in Windows 11 (for the hearing impaired), it wouldn't be hard to implement it on Linux with Whisper, but it still hasn't been done.
throwawayffffas
You can try apple stuff, i don't know how good their screenreader is but I assume better than the linux one.
shakna
Nope. It ranges from same to worse.
VoiceOver is... Well, it has some AI layers that can sometimes rewrite the text it is reading. So... Think AI subtitles, but interacting with them.
JAWS and NVDA are basically Windows-only, because no one else has a decent accessibility story.
th0ma5
I am immensely sorry to hear your experience. What is lacking? I totally believe you that this is the case, I'm sorry.
shakna
Everything is lacking.
Wayland hasn't even stabilised their accessibility hooks, and in the name of privacy have undercut what accessibility tools can see.
X server has always had an awful accessibility story. The server can break and swap node handles as you're using them.
mlnj
I've been aggressively firewalling Windows machine for ages now. Something like https://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php makes it easy to deal with.
Any executable like Copilot will never get access to the internet.
globalnode
but what i dont understand is if windows is such a disaster with their privacy policies, why would you trust their built in firewall to stop them? its all about trust.
It's an agentic OS now. It acts as an agent on behalf of Microsoft and its business partners, and against your interests.