Microsoft is currently preparing a second version of its controversial AI feature Recall. The company hopes to get it right this time.

A look back: When Microsoft announced Recall

A quick refresher. Microsoft introduced Recall in May when it introduced the new generation of PCs, Copilot+. Recall was the main feature of the Copilot+ PCs.

The feature was enabled by default to take a screenshot of the entire screen every five seconds. Only a few apps were exempt from taking screenshots. Users could then interact with the content using the “Fetch” feature.

The AI ​​answered natural questions, such as “What was the name of the website where I bought these nice shorts?” While that sounded useful to some, it sounded creepy to others.

The fact that the database used by Recall was not sufficiently secured did not help either. The fear that malware could steal the entire database and thus a user’s activities on the PC turned out to be real.

At the time, I said that Microsoft needed to make Recall optional. That would have meant that Recall would not immediately start taking screenshots on all systems. Users who wanted to use it could turn it on, everyone else and their activity and data would otherwise be unaffected.

Microsoft pulled Recall two weeks later and had to start all over again. The company announced that it would improve the security of the feature and also look into other improvements.

Microsoft announced this month that Recall will be released in October. This time, it will not bypass the development builds of Windows, but will release Recall in Insider builds first. The decision prevents Recall from making its way into systems as part of the Windows 11 24H2 feature update.

The callback is done via opt-in and can be uninstalled

Microsoft has already admitted that Recall will be introduced as an opt-in feature. It remains to be seen how Microsoft will market it, but it’s a good move.

Our colleagues at Deskmodder have discovered that Recall can also be uninstalled from Windows. Until now, administrators could only block Recall or deactivate the function in the settings.

The KB5041865 update for Windows 11 version 24H2 offers the option to remove it. This is done through the installed features window and not through the settings page of the installed apps.

You can find it by opening the Start menu and typing “Features.” You should see Recall listed as one of the features you can install or remove.

Note: Deskmodder operates from the European Union. It is currently unclear whether users from other regions will be able to remove Recall from their Windows systems.

What do you think about Recall? Do you plan to use it or are you not interested? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Summary

Article name

You can remove Recall from Windows if you don’t want it

Description

The latest update for Windows 11 version 24H2 introduces the option to uninstall the AI ​​​​recall feature from the operating system.

author

Martin Brinkmann

editor

Ghacks Technology News

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