Paranoid about Windows 11’s Recall feature even being on your PC? Here’s good news: you can uninstall the program completely
After apparent back-and-forth about the issue, it appears that Microsoft will allow Copilot+ PC owners to use the controversial Recall feature from their Windows 11 devices.
In fact, the choice was to remove Recall recently noticed by keen-eyed observers of Windows 11 preview builds, but Microsoft quickly provided clarity that this possibility was in fact a mistake or some kind of bug.
Confusingly, it turns out that this was not a mistake after all, and that as part of Microsoft’s announcement that Recall is coming to Copilot+ PCs in Novemberthe company noted that the feature will not only be strictly opt-in (rather than enabled by default), but will also be completely removable.
Microsoft wrote that: “Users can also remove Recall completely by using the optional feature settings in Windows.”
Windows Central reports that Microsoft clarified that the option to remove Recall as a bug merely referred to it being incorrectly included in the specific preview build in which it was noted – and that the company did not mean that future builds would not have the option to remove Recall. (Although, for what it’s worth, Microsoft’s wording at the time hardly suggested this).
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How do you remove Recall then? Well, for those who have a Copilot+ PC – which are the only devices Recall will have on (at least initially) – you’ll find the option in the ‘Turn Windows features on and off’ menu (find that via the taskbar search box). And yes, that’s exactly where it was seen in testing.
Once you find the ‘Recall’ option in that menu, you can disable it and click OK. Your system will prompt to reboot, after which Recall and all associated processes will be removed from your PC. That will greatly add to the enjoyment of those who are particularly paranoid about privacy and don’t want Recall on their system at all, even if it is disabled.
Windows Recall, for those unfamiliar, is an upcoming AI-powered Windows 11 feature that will take regular snapshots (screenshots) of your device activity and make them searchable.
When it was first revealed, Recall was not well received at allwith Windows 11 users and security experts alike rightly raising some major security and privacy concerns. That led to Microsoft putting Recall’s implementation on hold it has only recently been revealed that the feature will be tested again next month – following a rollout to Copilot+ PCs in November, as mentioned (or that’s the current plan).
Microsoft has promised that it has made some big changes to Recall, and has outlined a host of different security and encryption-related improvements, which together represent a big step forward to be fair to the company.
All in all, Microsoft seems to be giving users full control over Recall, not just by disabling it, but by removing the feature from Windows 11 entirely. Especially considering the icy reception Recall has received thus far, Microsoft has a lot to prove when it comes to how useful and useful it is, and how secure Recall is when it comes to keeping user data safe.
