Windows Recall Is Here: Here's Everything You Need To Know

Microsoft’s infamous Windows Recall feature is making a comeback. Rolling out to all Copilot Plus PCs, it’s like a time machine for your computer, helping you recap the things you have done. So, whether you are suffering from amnesia or are simply forgetful, you can take advantage of this new Recall feature. Here’s everything you need to know about the Microsoft Recall and how it works.

Microsoft Recall Feature: Here's Everything You Need To Know

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What Is Windows Recall Feature?

The Microsoft Recall feature lets you recall everything you have done till date. By taking screenshots of your screen frequently, it can show all your past activity. This includes all the apps you have opened, websites you have visited and more. Once you find what you need, you can simply click on it to jump back into that specific moment.

For example if you were looking for Pizza recipe but don’t remember the website where you saw it. Simply type pizza in the box and it will show all the instances involving a pizza. Thanks to semantic search, it can find any photo, message or link.

It’s basically a more advanced version of Windows Search that can understand images and content in a natural way. If you are a busy person or just forgetful like me, it’s a handy feature to have. Think of a time machine but for your computer.

But What About My Privacy?

An app that takes screenshots of your activity is of course can be a major privacy nightmare. If you deal with sensitive info or confidential things, it can become a cause of concern. Thankfully, it’s an opt in feature now and Microsoft has addressed some of the privacy concerns.

You can filter out specific apps and websites that you don’t want Recall to include. Furthermore, you can also pause Recall if you are engaging in sensitive stuff. And if you are worried about your sensitive information, there’s sensitive information filtering.

The sensitive information filtering is enabled by default. With this mode enabled, Recall does not take screenshot of passwords, credit cards and more.

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Although things like browser history, tabs opened in the foreground, and embedded content can still appear in snapshots. But any sensitive information like passwords, national ID, and credit cards will be hidden from Recall.

Also, Recall won’t save snapshots when you are using a remote desktop client like VMWare, MSTSC, or Azure Virtual Desktop. You can delete content for a specific app or website in Recall if the app accidentally captures it.

All the data is stored on the device and is end to end encrypted Microsoft claims it cannot access your Recall data and it’s stored on a virtual machine, so are safe from Malware.

Furthermore, accessing Recall requires Windows Hello with biometrics; This means even if someone gains access to your PC, they won’t be able to open Recall.

How To Use Windows Recall?

You can enable Windows Recall by pressing the Windows+ J buttons. Alternatively, you can open Recall by tapping on the taskbar icon or opening the Recall app from the Start menu.

Do note that you need to authenticate yourself using Windows Hello each time you open Recall. You can secure it using face, fingerprint or PIN.

Microsoft Recall is an opt out feature and you will need to enable it. If you have updated your Copilot+ PC to the latest version, a new screen will appear once you restart your PC.

Now follow these steps:

Press “Yes, Save” when the Recall screen appears after you restart your computer
Now tap on the Open Recall button in the bottom right corner of the screen
Go through the explanation and press on Open Recall button
Secure it using Windows Credentials, and Recall will start working

Windows Recall Features

1. Timeline: Scroll Through Past Activity

Microsoft’s Recall is just like a gallery app. You can scroll through the timeline to find the snapshots of different apps. This can help you recap activity throughout the day. Not only can you view activity from the present day, and the past week. You can view snapshots from up to the past 180 days by configuring it in the Settings.

2. Search: Find Anything You Want

What if you wish to find something specific for a burger recipe or a restaurant you found online? Just use the Search bar at the top of the screen, and you’re good to go. You can find anything as specific as a tweet from your favourite creator or an image of a product you found on a random website. There’s also a microphone option that lets you look up things using your voice.

Think of it as an OCR database of everything you have done throughout the day. Furthermore, you can also search for snapshots from a particular app like Slack, Chrome, or Outlook, so you can show your boss that you were working all day. It shows two matches: text matches and visual matches, with the ones that are related shown first. There are also close and related matches.

3. Select Text Or Images In Snapshots

Microsoft’s Recall feature lets you select text or images from any app that you visited. Just like an OCR extractor, you can copy text or an image within the app. For instance, I can go back in time and select the contents of a particular tweet. Moreover, you can also save the text in Notepad or any other app, or even search it on the internet.

4. Delete Snapshots From A Specific App

Wish to get rid of Snapshots containing personal details? Well, apart from deleting individual snapshots, you can also delete a snapshot from a specific app. What’s cooler is the fact that you can even delete apps from a specific website within an app. For example, instead of deleting all Chrome snapshots, I can choose to delete all the X (Twitter) snapshots.

5. Filter Out Specific Apps And Websites

Wish to exclude a specific app from Recall? Well, you can easily do so in Settings. Just press the Recall icon in the toolbar and press More Recall Settings. Here you can choose which apps to exclude from Recall, and it will stop taking snapshots for the app. Furthermore, you can also enable which websites to filter out, which can be handy for banking or government websites containing your sensitive information. By default, Recall has the filter sensitive information option, where it doesn’t save snapshots containing details like passwords, credit card details, and more.

6. Pause or Disable Recall

Indulging in sensitive work and wish to pause recall? You can do so by tapping the Recall button in the taskbar. Just select the “pause until tomorrow” button, and it will stop taking screenshots. Furthermore, a slash icon will appear next to Recall, hinting it isn’t taking screenshots anymore. If you wish to disable Recall permanently, you can turn off the feature or uninstall it.

Windows Recall System Requirements: Will It Work On My Computer?

Currently, Microsoft Recall only works on Copilot+ PCs, and you will need a compatible system for it. An easy way to identify a Copilot+ PC is if it has a dedicated NPU or Copilot button on it. The feature doesn’t work on regular PCs that don’t support Copilot.

Here are the minimum system requirements for using the Recall feature:

A Copilot+ PC with a secure core standard
40 TOPs NPU
16GB RAM
8 logical processors
256GB storage capacity
50GB of free storage
BitLocker and Device Encryption are enabled
Windows Hello Enhanced signing with biometrics

Do note that if your device has less than 25GB of storage space, it will automatically stop taking screenshots. Also, Windows Recall currently works with Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, and other Chromium-based browsers.

While private tabs are filtered out in all browsers, you cannot filter specific websites in unsupported browsers like Brave. The minimum storage size that you can configure for Windows Recall is 30GB, and the default is 150 GB.

How Can I Uninstall Windows Recall?

If you wish to get rid of Windows Recall entirely, there’s an option for that. Apart from disabling the feature temporarily or permanently, you can also uninstall it.

To uninstall Windows Recall, you just need to follow these steps

Tap on the Windows Search bar and type “Turn Windows features on or off.”
Select the first result and scroll down until you come across Recall
Uncheck Recall and restart your computer.

This will completely uninstall Windows Recall, and you won’t see it again.

Windows Windows Recall

Windows Recall Is Here: Here’s Everything You Need To Know