Microsoft’s Recall feature, which creates screenshots of basically everything you see or do on a Copilot Plus computer, has been mired in controversy since it was announced earlier this year. After security researchers discovered that a pre-release version of the Recall database was not encrypted, Microsoft moved to delay the feature and overhaul it with a heavy focus on security.
Recall isn’t yet available to test on Copilot Plus PCs, but an old-fashioned fear, uncertainty, and suspicion is swirling around Microsoft allegedly secretly installing it in the latest version of Windows 11.
IT manager and YouTuber Chris Titus first discovered that Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 update, version 24H2, has references to Recall that confusingly make it look like it’s enabled in the operating system. “Recall is being installed on every single system 24H2,” Titus claimed in a YouTube video claiming that Recall is mandatory. “Furthermore… it’s a dependency on File Explorer. That should alarm a lot of people.”
I saw the video on YouTube and immediately started to see what was going on. Microsoft has been very clear that Recall will be an optional experience once it returns, and can even be completely uninstalled by users. So why would a Recall feature appear to be enabled on 24H2 installations?
“Since the Recall security fiasco in the summer, all domestic and production builds lack Recall completely,” explains Windows watcher Albacore, in messages to threshold. Albacore created the Amperage tool that allowed Recall to run on older Snapdragon chips. The references we’re seeing in actual 24H2 installations are related to Microsoft making it easier for system administrators to remove or disable it. “Ironically, Microsoft is moving forward [Recall] the easiest takedown is going back to AI/spying/whatever trickery,” says Albacore.
Microsoft’s open removal of Recall over the summer seems to have led to some bugs in the way the feature is displayed and controlled. Users of Titus’s Windows Utility had reported crashing issues with File Explorer if the Recall feature was disabled for new installations of Windows 11, version 24H2. An uninstall option for Recall also appeared in September, and Microsoft called it a bug before later revealing that Windows users would, in fact, be able to uninstall Recall.
Recall is not part of Windows 11, version 24H2
“Microsoft has a relentlessly complex and lengthy system for integrating development changes into a mainline model, optional configuration work pieces will most likely not merge immediately, and thus produce crash loops in very specific scenarios that failed the test,” explains Albacore. .
I asked Microsoft to explain the references to Recall that appear in 24H2, but the company would only reinforce once again that Recall is an optional experience and you can remove it.
“The Recall preview for Copilot Plus PCs has not yet been made available to Windows Insiders,” said Brandon LeBlanc, senior Windows product manager, in a statement to threshold. “However, the information on Recall shared on David Weston’s blog from September, including the confirmation that Recall is an optional experience and that users can also remove Recall, remains true.”
Fears about installing or secretly enabling Recall in Windows 11 have now spread all over YouTube, with many videos offering ways to “remove” the feature that isn’t even present in the 24H2 version of Windows 11. “Recall is implemented by package of the AIX user experience, and in all current builds the package is just a stub,” says Albacore.
Now we’re waiting for Microsoft to issue a recall to Windows Insiders, something it promised to do in October, so that security researchers can test Microsoft’s latest changes and see how the opt-in and uninstall processes work. With just a few days left until November, Microsoft is cutting that fine if it’s going to release a preview of Recall in time.
