Recall was the biggest highlight of Copilot+ PCs at Microsoft’s 2024 Dev event. It would record your every action to make it searchable and revisable using snapshots. However, after heavy controversy, Microsoft removed the feature from the latest Windows 11 24H2 Build 26120.961.
The KB5038575 update for the Dev channel upgrades the Windows 11 24H2 PCs to build 26120.961. In our tests, Windows Latest spotted that Microsoft has removed the Recall app and its related settings with the update.
This move comes after the company admitted that Recall has potential security and privacy risks. Yesterday, Microsoft also updated its official “Recall feature for Copilot+ PCs” page to reflect the upcoming changes for its most-hyped feature.
Earlier, Recall was planned to arrive on Copilot+ PCs as a preview experience. It was supposed to be broadly available for everyone on June 18, 2024.
Now, it will first ship to the Windows Insider program users and gradually reach all Copilot+ PCs.
The Redmond giant touted “privacy and security” as the biggest reasons for this change and conveyed that it wants the feature to meet the highest standards. It is clear that the initial feedback about Recall wasn’t as good as Microsoft hoped, and some genuine concerns appeared in the last few weeks.
In a recent incident, a Microsoft AI scientist responded to privacy issues with the Windows 11 Recall feature. Recall stores all the related data locally; alas, many questions remained unanswered in this conversation.
Upcoming changes to Recall
You will see a new page while setting up your Copilot PCs for Recall. It isn’t auto-enabled; you must enable it while setting up the PC or after booting it to the desktop.
Windows Hello is mandatory to set up and use Recall. You must confirm your identity whenever you want to access the timeline and other Recall features. After the user authenticates with Windows Hello, the Recall data decryption happens on the PC using the “just in time” decryption technique.
There is also the Microsoft Pluton security processor, which uses zero-trust principles to preserve user data, even if there’s a malware infestation. All these privacy and security approaches are reassuring for Recall users.
Microsoft will publish a new blog post about Recall’s availability in the Windows Insider program. Still, you can only try it with a Copilot+ PC, which packs an NPU with 40 TOPs power and meets other hardware requirements.
There are several unanswered questions about the feature, but releasing the feature to Insiders first is a great idea to weed out more concerns.
