You can remove Recall from Windows if you do not want it (Update: or not)
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 unveiled Recall back in May when it showcased the new Copilot+ breed of PCs. Recall was the major feature of Copilot+ PCs.
The feature was on by default to take a screenshot of the entire screen every five seconds. Only a few apps were exempt from having screenshots taken. Users could then interact with the Recall feature to interact with the content.
Natural questions, e.g., what was the name of the website that I bought that nice pair of shorts on, would be answered by the AI. While that sounded useful to some, it sounded creepy to others.
It did not help that the database that Recall used was not secured properly. The fear of malware snatching the entire database and thus a user's activity on the PC turned out to be real.
Back then, I said that Microsoft needed to make Recall opt-in. This would have meant, that Recall would not start taking screenshots immediately on all systems. Users who wanted to use it could enable it, everyone else and their activities and data was unaffected otherwise.
Microsoft pulled Recall two weeks later to go back to the drawing board. The company announced that it would improve security of the feature and look at other improvements as well.
Microsoft announced this month that it would release Recall in October. This time, it would not bypass development builds of Windows, but launch Recall in Insider builds first. The decision keeps Recall from entering systems as part of the Windows 11 24H2 feature update.
Recall will be opt-in and you can uninstall it
Update: Microsoft told The Verge that users won't be able to remove the Recall app after all. Microsoft said that the listing was a bug and that it would remove the app from the features menu in the future. End
Microsoft admitted already that Recall would launch as an opt-in feature. While it remains to be seen how Microsoft markets it, it is a good move.
Our colleagues over at Deskmodder have discovered that Recall can also be uninstalled from Windows. Up until now, administrators could only block Recall or deactivate the feature in the Settings.
The update KB5041865 for Windows 11 version 24H2 brings the option to remove it. This is done via the installed features window, and not the installed apps settings page.
You find it by typing features when you open the Start menu. There you should see Recall listed as one of the features that you may install or remove.
Note: Deskmodder operates from the European Union. It is unclear at this point whether users from other regions will also be able to remove Recall from their Windows systems.
What is your take on Recall? Do you plan to use it or is this something that is of no interest to you? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
Herr Brinkmann, Mycroshoft bares it teeth, to prove it is the most potent of potents!
Hiding it’s henchman “gift” sleeper cell spy Recall in plain sight, yes-yes. And the €uropean union thing lapdog, just rolls-over for them. Both are deceivers. Most lazy-greedy and blind for gold…
Liars, creating the “illusion of truth”, e.g. “feature, not bug, and privacy is totally safe”. They preach AI propaganda, in the same ways, as did that most infamous Austrian manthing-leader with the Kaiser moustache – not Charlie Chaplin.
Recall AI will try to eat-swallow us alive; make feeble-minded zombie users, gobble-shallow your computer data and resources every 5-seconds. Bringing ruin to us and making its Recall nightsoil. AI: 💩
Truth happens to be a revelation.
For me, Recall was literally the last straw. Advertising in the OS was bad enough. Recall was what changed my mind. I bought a new laptop for personal use recently and installed Linux on it. I’ve been a Microsoft user since MS-DOS 1.1 (Yes, really). I’ve experimented with various Unixes and Linuxes over the years, but I have always primarily been a Windows user. Until Now.
If I really need Windows for some application where wine won’t work, I’ll run it as a VM, with only the applications I need to get the job done. I’m sorry Microsoft, I’ve stuck with you through thick and thin, but this is a step too far.
Pretty funny, sick and twisted that we have wound up in a world where they can arbitrarily download and install whatever they feel like onto your PC whether you actually want it or not, and then classify it as a bug if you have the ability to get rid of it. At some point in this relationship, things took a very, very wrong and dark turn.
Also, something being “incorrectly listed as an option” is the phrase of the day.
“…Update: Microsoft told The Verge that users won’t be able to remove the Recall app after all. Microsoft said that the listing was a bug and that it would remove the app from the features menu in the future. End”
Unacceptable. A feature like this should never be baked into the operating system in the first place. By having an infostealer baked into the operating system, an attacker will be able to enable it at any time and as it’s a legitimate operating system feature, no antivirus is going to alert the user this has been enabled. It will just sit there silently collecting everything indefinitely.
The sooner Microsoft fade into obscurity the better. Scumbags.
I don’t know but current news on this says that MS confirmed that this is just a bug and it will not let people uninstall Recall.
Yes I read that too. I update the article.
Really sad. Perhaps for European Economic Area users?I thought Microsoft finally came to their senses. Hopefully EU fines Microsoft in the billions if not.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU commissioner who forced Apple to repay €13bn in tax benefits to the Republic of Ireland recently has announced that she intends to retire at the end of this year having led the team since 2014. I’m sure both Apple and Google are over the moon about that, but to date nobody has been appointed to replace her.
The problem with this aspect though is that even with the Digital Markets Act in place it can take years to implement any decision regarding a Gatekeeper’s wrongdoing and even then they can appeal which lengthens the wait by at least another three years. In the meantime we all have to suffer.
Update the title to say “Debunked”
Search for “disable recall via registry”
Although European, I still can’t uninstall Edge (without an external solution)… and Microsoft wants to make me swallow this?
Just disable anything edge related from scheduled tasks and startups. Sysinternals Autoruns will help.
Belga, yes MS wants you to swallow it, and just like John G. wrote, finally you will surrender.
Unless you switch to LINUX
groeten vanuit ergens in belgie
Groeten ook Paul !
I wanted to uninstall Edge in the past, and even Defender. However, I was completely unable to uninstall them without breaking something. So I left them and after a while I didn’t care anymore. It’s amazing how someone can adapt himself to the insidious odor of the unwanted software.
@John G.
Edge can be removed easily with MSEdgeRedirect and cleaned up with O&O AppBuster. It did not break anything on my computer if you keep Edge Screen subprogram or whatever it called when you use HTML based apps.
Defender can not be removed. You can disable it in its settings first. Then clean up with O&O ShutUp and to finish disable Defender related IPs in host file. I would recommend installing third party antivirus just in case if you did not before (Just avoid Avast/AVG/Norton/Kaspersky/Symantec and few others because they are as bad or worse for one or other reason).
Kaspersky is good, even the best maybe. It wven has an on-demand scan tool for Linux now with GUI and everything. It’s file name is “kvrt.run”. I tried it a few times, it’s cool, because if you don’t start it for a month, upon launch it says it’s outdated so you have to download the new up-to-date one from the website. But on Linux I have never encountered viruses so far.
It’s funny John G. You have been on this website for many years.
And you still don’t know how to uninstall Edge Browser.
Must be that learning curve you have problems with.
Thanks for the Lulz Again.
I am quite interested in the details of all of M.$’s spyware as my games don’t run well, or at all, under linux.
Let’s hope that it can be removed from computers in the United States as well.
Finally, a good move from Microsoft. Now can we remove all the other BS in the OS no one asked for?
I’ve never looked at optional features before. One thing amused me – Steps Recorder on a desktop machine ?
Yeah like steps to carry out a task, it’s an old workflow documentation tool, or you can use it to document how a bug is reproduced. A legacy thing but I think it still works.
I’m really worried for future generations, they’re gonna be in real trouble… the word you’re looking for is pedometer.
The problem with windows is it can change with the next feature update and you don’t have a say at all. When im installing an OS i should b able to pick what programs/features I want installed. If all I want is a base OS then that’s all that should be installed, not one drive, an office trial, email client, candy crush or any of it. I should be able to select the programs/features I want installed at the beginning of the process and not have to use something like ntlite . But its not about that with m$, they WILL dictate to you what is to be installed and how you will interact with its UI. In the days of XP and W7 their goal was to make the OS more granular in your ability to control its function. Now we have the settings menu to manipulate or eliminate your ability to control the OS and frustrate you with word salad vocabulary (that changes regularly) and vague descriptions to create a false illusion of control. Even gp and the registry are being tinkered with, one day something works, the next it doesn’t. They regularly change the functions of basic apps, some for the good but mostly for the bad, like snipping tool, I don’t want to press a 3-key combo to take a fkn screenshot. Who thought this would be a good idea? Well someone did and now they’re goind to shove it down your throat. This is one example of many. This is why I’m slowly transferring to Linux and now I’m stating to get that feeling back I had when first booting up XP, I’m in control and no one is spying on my clipboard or my photos or the text I type for some false convenience. If you still want to use windows, great. I’m sick of fighting m$ for my privacy or how I want my OS to function. btw, recall and copilot are going to be a nightmare and tomorrow you may not be able to remove or disable them.
XP+LINUX = Q4OS Trinity
“Don’t worry folks, it’s all done completely locally and 100% offline!” Says the company obsessed with forcing everyone and everything into the cloud and regularly getting criticized by both the press and enraged users alike for uploading personal, private files to Onedrive without asking whether this is something people actually want to do.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2376883/attention-microsoft-activates-this-feature-in-windows-11-without-asking-you.html
https://www.neowin.net/news/windows-11-is-now-automatically-enabling-onedrive-folder-backup-without-asking-permission/
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/rant-onedrive-enabled-without-consent/67c13b54-e00a-402f-99d4-155225fdf3a8
(There are a zillion threads like this last one.)
It may not be opt in for now, but I bet Microsoft is going to nag you every day you turn it on.
Thanks for the article!
I have unchecked “Recall” from Windows Features.
I HATE IT!
I have not read much about whether Microsoft has made changes to Recall to ease privacy and security concerns. Yes, this feature needs to be a uninstall feature for sure. I sure as heck don’t want it.