Windows 11 PCs may be stuck with Recall, after all

Microsoft’s Recall for Copilot Plus PCs is on its way. Late last month, following weeks of delays and growing uncertainty, Microsoft committed to making Recall available to its Windows Insider testers sometime this October. And while a lot of users are eager to see what this controversial tool can do, others are already thinking about how to steer clear of it. A few days ago, it looked like those in the latter camp might get the ability to uninstall Recall altogether, but now Microsoft is speaking up and dashing those hopes.

Recall, if you’ve lost the plot, is a tool Microsoft created that basically takes screenshots of your PC every few seconds, then uses AI to scrape content from your screen and make it into a searchable database. The idea is that you can then quickly use AI to sort through that data and find stuff you might have been working on months ago. That sounds quite powerful, and that’s part of the reason some people are so concerned.

The good news for them has been that Recall’s looked easy enough to disable. Users previewing the Windows 11 24H2 release saw system settings that would allow them to block Recall. But if even that wasn’t good enough, with last week’s arrival of Microsoft’s KB5041865 update, Deskmodder.de noticed that Windows was preparing to give users the option to straight-up uninstall Recall.

Before you start getting too excited, Microsoft has confirmed to The Verge that this was in error. While we still expect to have final say as to whether or not we want to use Recall, as Microsoft has said it will be opt-in, it doesn’t look like most of us will be able to fully remove it from our systems.

There’s the slightest bit of hedging there, as EU regulations may lead to Microsoft offering those users increased control over tools like Recall. For the moment, that’s largely speculative, but it would track with Microsoft’s approach to Edge browser placement, for instance.

So, sorry, Recall haters: you’ll probably have to live without being able to scrub your new Copilot Plus PC of Microsoft’s fancy screenshot tool.