[Software] Sorry, Windows 11 users, but you’re not escaping Microsoft’s all-seeing Recall feature that easily

[protaa]

Windows 11 won’t offer an option to uninstall the divisive Recall feature after all, it seems, when clues in a preview build appeared to suggest it might – at least in some regions, anyway.

Deskmodder, a German tech site, recently flagged up the option in a new preview for Windows 11 24H2, the big update due to land later this year.

This prompted Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc, who is Windows senior product manager, to contact The Verge with a statement to clarify: “We are aware of an issue where Recall is incorrectly listed as an option under the ‘Turn Windows features on or off’ dialog in Control Panel. This will be fixed in an upcoming update.”

So, presumably the next build of 24H2 will have this option removed from the Control Panel.

Windows 11’s Recall feature is essentially an AI-powered search that takes regular screenshots of the activity on your PC, and uses them to find things, going way beyond the scope of a typical Windows search (and no, that isn’t difficult, we’d agree).

The trouble is Recall has been making serious waves and causing a whole bunch of concerns to be aired since it was first announced, to the point that Microsoft pulled plans to debut it (in preview) with Copilot+ PCs, and then yanked it from test builds of Windows 11. It is now coming back to testing, mind, in October – so ready your surfboards for more waves of controversy (no doubt).

We should also note that Recall is only for Copilot+ PCs, although down the line, it’s likely a lot more computers will have the requisite NPU (and security) in place to be classified as such a device.

 

https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/sorry-windows-11-users-but-youre-not-escaping-microsofts-all-seeing-recall-feature-that-easily