Microsoft Says Maligned Recall Feature Is Returning to Copilot+ PCs, Eventually

The AI-centric Recall feature is being recalled back to Copilot+. Still, it may be a while before most Windows users on the latest ARM-based PCs can use it. Microsoft said Wednesday that the feature will first be available to Windows Insider beta testers in October in anticipation of a wider release. For those still wondering if it leaves a hole for hackers to access their PC, the company promises users won’t have to worry about their device’s security.

Microsoft updated its blog post on Wednesday that first announced it was making the auto-screenshotting Recall feature opt-in. Now, two months after the Redmond, Washington tech giant delayed the feature, Microsoft said Recall is going to arrive on Copilot+ PCs for those in the Windows Insider beta group. This “preview” experience is coming sometime in October, though there’s still no word when it could get a broader release.

Recall was supposed to be the headline feature for Copilot+ PCs using the new Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips. The built-in program takes a screenshot of users’ PCs every few minutes, then collects them for easy perusal. The program uses AI to identify words or images in the screenshots, then lets users return to any web pages they were browsing or programs and documents they had open at that time. Microsoft billed the feature as a kind of “time machine” to let those with bad memories remember key sites or documents they were previously working on.

Skeptical Windows users made their concerns known. From the get-go, there were troubling signs. For one, Recall automatically screenshots sensitive information like passwords and financial information. While it restricts screenshots on most browsers’ incognito mode, users need to manually set sites they don’t want screenshotted during normal use. The feature came pre-installed on all new Copilot+ PCs and was initially supposed to be on by default. Microsoft first claimed all users’ records were safely secured on-device, but weeks before release, security researchers found that the OCRed plain text recorded by AI was stored loose in the PCs’ AppData folder. Researchers feared that if a bad actor gained access to the PC, they could siphon out loads of potentially devastating user data. 

Now it’s a question of whether we’ll see a wider Recall release by the end of this year. On Wednesday, Microsoft said, “Security continues to be our top priority.” Microsoft has proposed using Windows Hello biometric sign-in to access its Recall snapshots. Users will also have the option to turn the feature on or off when they do their initial Windows sign-in. By default, Recall is now switched off.

We don’t know if Microsoft has made any other changes to the program, and we’ll have to see more once we finally get our hands on it. Without Recall, Copilot+ PCs like the Microsoft Surface Pro and the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x were powerful and relatively fast, but they simply haven’t lived up to their big AI-centric promises.