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Microsoft has told users not to read too much into Windows’s new “Recall” feature appearing on a menu of features users can disable entirely in recent Windows 11 beta build, The Verge reported.
Recall is a feature in which Windows indexes continual screenshots of a user’s activity to fuel AI inferences. Microsoft’s initial decision to enable the feature by default on Copilot+ PCs meeting hardware requirements, and the lack of any official option to fully uninstall it, alarmed security experts who warned Recall logs could be a treasure trove of information for hackers. Researchers also found that Recall stores its data locally in a plaintext SQLite database.
In June, Microsoft announced Recall would now take screenshots on an opt-in basis and contain additional security features such as encryption. German blog Deskmodder recently discovered a Windows 11 24H2 preview build (KB5041865) added Recall to the “Turn Windows features on or off” menu, implying users could prevent the Recall service from running at all.
Not so, Microsoft has clarified—it’s a bug.
“We are aware of an issue where Recall is incorrectly listed as an option under the ‘Turn Windows features on or off’ dialog in Control Panel,” Windows senior program manager Brandon LeBlanc told The Verge, IT Brew, and other outlets, in a statement. “This will be fixed in an upcoming update.”
“We remain on track for previewing Recall with Windows Insiders on Copilot+ PCs starting in October,” LeBlanc added.
As Windows expert Paul Thurrott had observed on his website, the inclusion of the option was odd in the first place. Microsoft hasn’t packaged Recall in any builds for public consumption yet, and has said it won’t until October.
“Weirder still, I’m seeing this change on my x64-based PCs running Windows 11 version 24H2, and not just on my Snapdragon X-based Copilot+ PCs,” Thurrott added. “Recall will not be made available on those PCs whenever it does ship to the public.”
Microsoft reassured users in June that users could disable Recall’s ability to take screenshots. The company wouldn’t clarify if it will make any further concessions to users who want to delete it entirely, according to The Verge.
The distinction between turned off and uninstalled is notable, as disabled features can still be hijacked by hackers. The Recall program itself also requires tens of gigabytes of hard drive space, potentially adding to Windows’s bloatware problem.