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Microsoft warns that Windows 11's AI could install malware [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2025-11-18  

Windows 11 comes with an "agentic AI" feature, which is to say a built-in chatbot that can make changes. Microsoft warns that it might install malware on your PC: "Only enable this feature if you understand the security implications."

Microsoft has issued an important warning about its upcoming agentic AI capabilities that are coming soon to Windows 11. In a new support document, the company warns that users should "only enable this feature if you understand the security implications," and has confirmed that because of the potential dangers, it'll be off by default. For months, Microsoft has teased that Windows 11 would slowly evolve into an agentic OS, much to the dismay of users online. Still, the company has pushed ahead with its vision, and we're now at a point where the first truly agentic capabilities are launching on the platform.

No-one seems to want this, except perhaps stock market speculator types. Least of all users of Windows.

But some heavy users are really unhappy, saying that these tools are still slow and not yet useful at all. Parmat even goes so far as to say that we're witnessing the enshittification of Microsoft's desktop platform. "We have ads, pop-ups, reliability issues, frequent Blue Screen errors, and PCs getting stuck at BitLocker, among other critical issues. At the same time, Microsoft is adding AI features to Windows 11 and is lately pitching Windows as an agentic OS," he said. When Windows boss, Pavan Davuluri, said on X a week ago that Windows is evolving into an agentic OS, the responses were mostly furious.

How does it work? For system administrators, the stuff of nightmares.

Any given agent will have its own account in Windows 11, separate to the user's account, and it'll be able to run in parallel to whatever the user is doing, completing tasks autonomously alongside them.

Floating in the widening gyre, waiting for a gargantuan wave.

Previously: Windows 11 now has pop ups straight-up telling users to get rid of Google

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/11/18/microsoft-warns-that-windows-11s-ai-could-install-malware.html

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