Microsoft confirms that Windows 11 Recall AI is not optional — a glitch made it appear so in the Windows 11 24H2 KB5041865 update
Windows senior product manager Brandon LeBlanc says, "This will be fixed in an upcoming update."
Early this morning, Microsoft confirmed in a statement to The Verge that last week’s Windows 11 24H2 update, KB5041865, had not added the ability to uninstall Recall in the “Turn Windows features on or off” dialog and that its addition to that menu was a bug that will soon be fixed. It should be noted that this bugged option to uninstall Recall was also added before Recall itself, so it had no actual functionality besides (seemingly) being a way to opt out ahead of time. Once shipped, Recall will also be something Windows users can disable but not entirely remove.
For those still holding out hope that Recall may be utterly removable once it’s added, Microsoft’s comments may discourage. However, past regulations have forced it to compromise on this question before it could uninstall Microsoft Edge in European Economic Area (EEA) countries. And, of course, the backlash to Recall and its security concerns contributed to Recall’s rollout being delayed in the first place, which may also encourage Microsoft to allow its complete removal once released.
Microsoft’s comments indicate that Recall will roll out to Copilot+ enabled PCs starting next month for Windows Insiders, as planned. However, if it can’t be genuinely uninstalled instead of just disabled, one could see how Copilot+ devices could become blacklisted in specific corporate or government environments.
In any case, Microsoft’s willingness to directly comment to The Verge on this matter so quickly should correspond to the bug fix update being here reasonably soon, mainly since the bug is just showing an option with no functionality.
Once added, it’s likely that the new version of Copilot will also have the Copilot Screenray feature that was added shortly before the original preview was disabled. While Copilot would take and save periodic screenshots of your desktop, this feature goes the extra mile by giving real-time screen analysis of whatever is on your desktop, for example, translating an email in real time. The privacy concerns of both Recall and Screenray Copilot features combined are severe, so hopefully, Microsoft will make it easy for end users to disable or remove these functions securely.
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Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.
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ex_bubblehead How is it that I'm not convinced this wasn't intentional on Microsoft's part. They've always been slimey.Reply -
thestryker I've never really understood the irrational angst regarding Edge. That's one of those things where if you don't like it just don't use it. I don't use Edge for anything other than websites that don't behave in Firefox, but it's nice to have for exactly that reason. Generally speaking when it comes to Windows programs/services so long as whatever it is isn't actively running/pulling telemetry I don't tend to care.Reply
With regards to Recall so long as it can actually be completely disabled I don't see a problem. That is the key though it has to be able to be completely disabled, and not enable itself with Windows Update which is where my concern comes in. Of course those of us in desktop land are largely safe due to lack of hardware, but that isn't guaranteed going forward. -
Alvar "Miles" Udell This absolutely makes sense. Microsoft doesn't need people uninstalling things on Insider builds as it defeats the thing Insider builds are meant for: To find bugs before they go into wide release. When it comes time for the wide release and especially by 24H2 it will most likely be either be explicitly Opt-In, as they were prepared to do before they pulled it from release, or able to be fully disabled.Reply
No real reason to get your dander up. -
hotaru251
yup. Same way people got rid of cortana in WIN10 back in day before MS let you do it legit yrs later.USAFRet said:3rd party function to disable/delete coming in 3..2...1....
TBHI will just avoid ever using a PC w/ an NPU that way I will not meet its min req and not have to worry about it until there are work arounds to get rid of/disable it. -
ThatMouse The issue is every time I open a PDF I get Edge. For whatever reason Windows makes it a pain to change the default functionality, i.e. tell it what you want the default apps to be. And it will nag you until the end of time and even switch it back to a Microsoft app whenever it feels like it.Reply -
ThomasKinsley Windows always struggled with viruses, but now MS is putting them in the OS as features.Reply -
russell_john And Microsoft actually wonders why Windows 11 is bombing and 65% of users are still on Windows 10 three years later .......Reply
Windows 11 = Windows 8 = Windows Vista = complete garbage -
USAFRet
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/windows-11-skips-past-50-market-share-milestone-in-latest-steam-surveyrussell_john said:And Microsoft actually wonders why Windows 11 is bombing and 65% of users are still on Windows 10 three years later ....... -
Alvar "Miles" Udell USAFRet said:https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/windows-11-skips-past-50-market-share-milestone-in-latest-steam-survey
If you use a much broader source though, Windows 11 has about 32% market share vs Windows 10's 64%.
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/worldwide