The move appeases European privacy regulators and maintains the privacy elements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Just days after deprecating it, Microsoft has wiped the API off the map. This feature once allowed Cortana—Microsoft’s ill-fated assistant from a bygone era—to access 24 hours of location data, provided it was enabled.

With Cortana long dead, Microsoft has now swept away the last vestiges of its existence. According to the company: "With the removal of the Location History feature, location data will no longer be saved locally, and the corresponding settings are also being removed from Settings > Privacy & security > Location page."

In another move designed to appease regulators in the European Economic Area (EEA), Microsoft disables account-based content in File Explorer for Entra ID users. Users will no longer see Recent, Favorites, Details Pane, or Recommended content.

The logic is clear—these sections rely on user data to provide a tailored experience, but GDPR compliance is king. Microsoft has decided it’s better to strip out these features than risk a regulatory smackdown. This means that the File Explorer will be arguably less useful but at least slightly decluttered, with a possible minor performance boost since it no longer has to collect and display user data.

Beyond the usual pile of fixes, Microsoft is rolling out a feature that lets users resume OneDrive files from a phone to a PC with a single click. In a move that will no doubt enrage users, the company also warned that an imminent update to Recall will wipe all existing snapshots. Microsoft dared to call this purge "an important update that will improve your experience."

As always, there’s no guarantee when or if these changes will make it to the general Windows 11 release. Users tinkering with Dev and Beta channels can switch between them, but stability is never a sure thing—even in Beta.