Microsoft total recalls Recall totally to Copilot+ PCs
- Reference: 1744413224
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/04/11/microsoft_windows_recall/
- Source link:
In May last year, at its Build developer conference, Microsoft [1]introduced Recall, a feature that silently takes screenshots of your desktop every few seconds and stashes them in a local database so you can later scrub through the footage to recall – get it? – what you were doing on your PC at a particular point in time.
The functionality was set to grow to allow you to rummage through that database, using AI, to pull up specific actions based on search terms, as well as take snapshots of application activity, instant messages and other communications, websites viewed, keystrokes, and any other data available, so that it could all be, well, [2]recalled using that AI-powered search .
[3]
If you were doing something last week and couldn't quite remember the details, you could pull it up and replay it using Recall. At the time, [4]Microsoft said the functionality would ship enabled by default on its upcoming Copilot+ PCs. The AI would run locally alongside the database, using the PC's hardware acceleration.
[5]
[6]
The upside is that you can jump back to work or study you were doing days ago, which can be handy. The downside, one of them at least, is that your PC is now literally logging everything you're doing, so if someone were to compromise or steal it, and be able to use it as you, they could not only monitor future activity, they could replay your earlier actions.
Redmond tried to calm the inevitable privacy uproar by claiming its AI would automatically redact sensitive info, such as passwords and financial data, in the browser, but only if you were using Edge.
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Microsoft Research chief scientist Jaime Teevan [8]was wheeled out to pitch Recall as a necessity for the AI age. Meanwhile, security researchers such as Alex Hagenah casually sidestepped the software's data protections with a proof-of-concept tool dubbed [9]TotalRecall , which could extract and display data from Recall's SQLite database.
Following the [10]backlash from infosec pros, IT admins, privacy advocates, and everyone in between, Redmond [11]paused the launch last June.
But you can't keep a bad idea down, it seems. By November, Microsoft was quietly trying again — this time with Recall turned off by default and limited to Copilot+ PCs running Windows Insider builds in the Dev Channel, specifically those powered by Qualcomm silicon. Support for Intel and AMD Copilot+ machines followed later.
OpenAI seems keen though
Having an application to remember your actions and analyze them isn't just Microsoft's bag it seems - OpenAI is getting in the game as well.
"We have greatly improved memory in ChatGPT - it can now reference all your past conversations!" [12]said cofounder Sam Altman.
"This is a surprisingly great feature IMO, and it points at something we are excited about: AI systems that get to know you over your life, and become extremely useful and personalized."
This is now turned on by default for Pro users and will be coming to Plus users soon.
On Thursday, Microsoft dropped Windows 11 Build 26100.3902 into the Release Preview channel - the final stop before mainstream release - and yes, Recall made the cut. Redmond [13]said Recall will be an opt-in feature that "will roll out gradually," so you may have to wait for it to be activated for your PC.
[14]Microsoft Research chief scientist has no issue with Windows Recall
[15]Now's your chance to try Microsoft's controversial Windows Recall ... maybe
[16]Windows 11 roadmap great for knowing what's coming next week. Not so good for next year
[17]Defiant Microsoft pushes ahead with controversial Recall – tho as an opt-in
"Recall (preview) will be available starting early 2025 in most markets, rolling out to the European Economic Area later this year. Optimized for select languages (English, Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, and Spanish)," the release's footnotes state.
The latest Recall build works with major browsers including Edge, Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome. Snapshots and the contextual data extracted from them, and seemingly other apps being used, are saved and encrypted locally. Accessing your screenshot archive requires Windows Hello authentication, and you'll need one of Microsoft's Copilot+ PCs with an NPU to handle the AI processing demands.
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Redmond insists the data all stays on your PC's local storage.
"Recall does not share snapshots or associated data with Microsoft or third parties," it said, "nor is it shared between different Windows users on the same device.
"Windows will ask for your permission before saving snapshots. You are always in control, and you can delete snapshots, pause or turn them off at any time. Any future options for the user to share data will require fully informed explicit action by the user."
Maybe these changes will be enough to reassure anyone outside of Microsoft management meetings that Recall is a good idea, but we doubt it. Many users may be ready to "consider this a divorce," to quote a certain Austrian-American. ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/21/qualcomm_windows_microsoft/
[2] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/retrace-your-steps-with-recall-aa03f8a0-a78b-4b3e-b0a1-2eb8ac48701c
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z_nlZS3w13fGpm55lPh_7AAAAYY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/22/windows_recall/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z_nlZS3w13fGpm55lPh_7AAAAYY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z_nlZS3w13fGpm55lPh_7AAAAYY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z_nlZS3w13fGpm55lPh_7AAAAYY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/06/microsoft_research_recall/
[9] https://github.com/xaitax/TotalRecall
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/04/microsoft_analysts_recall/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/14/microsoft_recall_release_delayed/
[12] https://x.com/sama/status/1910380643772665873
[13] https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2025/04/10/releasing-windows-11-build-26100-3902-to-the-release-preview-channel/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/06/microsoft_research_recall/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/22/microsoft_recall_release/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/28/microsoft_windows_11_roadmap/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/07/microsoft_recall_changes/
[18] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z_nlZS3w13fGpm55lPh_7AAAAYY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Sorry, maybe I didn't make myself clear
What part of "fuck off and die in a fire, you arseholes" did you not understand?
DO NOT WANT
Resistance is futile
" Jaime Teevan was wheeled out to pitch Recall as a necessity for the AI age "
No wonder She won the [1]Borg Early Career Award (2014)!
[1] https://cra.org/cra-wp/jaime-teevan/
Why not make it a downloadable app
And see how many bother to install it and keep it beyond a 5' trial. Is M$ afraid to be deceived by how little interest this piece of code raises and realize users would rather see it spend time on fixing Windows bugs? Alas, just fixing code is less fun than writing new stuff, even if it's useless.
Awesome!
My home-built PC without an AI-ready CPU is looking even better!
That's it. I'm done. I've already been using a Linux laptop as my daily driver for the past year anyway, but I still have Windows 10 on my desktop for gaming and a few other apps that don't play well on Linux. I'd been resigned to having to have a Windows machine no matter what, but this is the straw that broke the camel's back. I've had it with Redmond insisting my hardware is their playground. If there's still stuff that I can't get to run in WINE, I'll set up a fully sandboxed Win 10 VM with no networking so there's no security issues with it, and move everything else full Linux by October. I'll still have to use their crap at work, but I reckon I can convince the resident BOFH that this stuff is a massive security threat and get it disabled across the board, assuming they're not already on board with that opinion. Also going to move ahead with getting their cloud service needles out of my veins. I was already irked that they tried every trick in the book to make me pay for Copilot services neither me nor my family use, need or want - but this is ridiculous.
To me, this is just a nail-in-the-coffin reason to say "Oh hell no!" to anything and everything on the market with a supported or potentially supported in the future "New Pocket Unloader."
And if they try to use my Nvidia card to support "Recall EVERYTHING YOU DID on your favorite gambling, porn, chat, dating, banking, tax account, retirement portfolio, etc for easy access by LEO requests remotely from our always on, always connected, backdoored Windows Hello AI PC.", well then, it would just be time to shift back to LMDE 6 and say "Screw Satya and the USG three letter agencies!" for one final time...
Trust us. we're Microsoft after all.
Ha ha ha.
Still waiting on the popcorn icon
Guess I'll go for the horse piss icon instead, or just pretend it's really a lovely glass of whiskey.
This whole "you WILL buy new machines so we can use your equipment to better spy on you, you'd damn well better buy machines fast enough so that we don't have to waste our time waiting on you, and if we see something we don't like we'll rat you out to the plod" attitude is what drove me away. I'm not computer literate enough to try and keep ahead of them. I also do not have the time to keep going back and unassing the system every week after they force an update which also forces everything back to their default vacuum settings, except it also moves where those settings are so you have to do the entire tour every week to find where things are hidden this time. We all know the reason why, the harder they make it to unass the system, the more likely it is that you'll just give in and let them have the store.
Nope, I'm out. I closed the store, burned it to the ground and left the county. I'm just glad there's enough like-minded people to keep an alternative going. Quite frankly, if it was M$ or nothing these days I'd just go back to pre-computer living.
Don't worry
This is _Microsoft_ that we're talking about here. They'll fuck it up. It depends on WinHell... ah, that is, Windows Hello, which they just fucked up on Patch Tuesday. More of the same to follow.
Now, how do you create a stand-alone admin account again? No MS Account, no WinHell. No WinHell, no Recall.
Trust in MS incompetence. They haven't let us down about _that_ yet.
Re: Don't worry
Speaking of Windows Hello, you've reminded me...
Earlier today, I got a (blue, small, fairly unobtrusive by Microsoft's standards) popup on my corporate-issued work laptop, inviting me to try logging in with Windows Hello facial recognition. "Try it! It's cool and fun and very 'now' and exciting!", that sort of cheery tone beloved of Microsoft.
Thinking - and surprised - that perhaps our IT dept had eased off their security paranoia, I went to Settings to try it.
Nope. "This setting is disabled by administrative policy" or words to that effect.
Oh, Microsoft. Left hand can't talk to right hand, even within the same product. Why advertise and urge me to try a feature that you (should) know is disabled by policy?
SMH, as the kids say.
Recall does not share snapshots or associated data with Microsoft or third parties
That task is delegated to the Windows telemetry subsystem, nothing to do with Recall at at all.
Remember, the original story was "We Can Remember It For You, Wholesale" - and Microsoft always sticks to the word of PKD[1]
[1] The Thirty Three Stigmata of Windows Eleven?
Re: Recall does not share snapshots or associated data with Microsoft or third parties
Remember, the original story was "We WILL Remember It For You, and sell your data Wholesale" - and Microsoft always sticks to the word of PKD[1]
FTFY
Re: Recall does not share snapshots or associated data with Microsoft or third parties
The statement could have been "Recall snapshots and associated data remain on the computer" if they weren't intending to allow weasel room.
Ha. Ha ha.