Microsoft has officially announced the rollout of its contentious Windows Recall feature, nearly a year after its initial unveiling. This feature is now available to the general public, as highlighted in a recent post on the company’s Windows Experience Blog. The Recall feature will be exclusive to Copilot+ PCs, which are a specific subset of Windows 11 systems sold over the past year.
The Windows Recall feature continuously captures screenshots of user activities on the PC, storing them and extracting text to create a searchable database. This capability raises significant security and privacy concerns; unauthorized access to this database could potentially expose all user activities on the device. The initial attempt to launch Recall faced substantial backlash due to security vulnerabilities and privacy implications, prompting Microsoft to reassess its approach.
Recall's journey to its official release has been tumultuous, characterized by a rushed initial rollout, severe criticism regarding its security protections, multiple delays, and a comprehensive overhaul of its underlying architecture. The feature underwent extensive testing in Microsoft’s Windows Insider beta program for five months before being deemed ready for public use. Two weeks prior to the rollout, Microsoft indicated that Recall had reached the near-final Release Preview channel.
Testing conducted by Ars Technica and other security researchers revealed that Microsoft has made significant improvements to Recall’s security features. Many original complaints regarding data protection have been addressed, and enhanced automated content filtering has been introduced to limit the storage of sensitive information. Importantly, Microsoft has shifted Recall to an opt-in feature, allowing users to choose whether to enable it, with the option to completely remove it if desired.
While Recall is the primary highlight of this rollout, several other enhancements are being introduced for Copilot+ PCs. A revamped Windows Search function now offers contextual understanding of words and phrases, making searches more intuitive across the Taskbar, File Explorer, and the Settings app. Additionally, a new feature called Click to Do allows users to copy text from images, search on-screen content, and quickly summarize or rewrite text by pressing the Windows key and clicking.
To utilize Copilot+ features, PCs must meet specific hardware requirements beyond standard Windows 11 specifications. A key requirement is the inclusion of a neural processing unit (NPU) capable of processing over 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS). This advanced processing enables faster execution of AI and machine learning models on the device, thus safeguarding sensitive personal data from being sent to Microsoft’s servers.
Currently, the only consumer processors that support Copilot+ are Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and Plus chips, Intel’s Core Ultra 200V-series laptop chips (codenamed Lunar Lake), and AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 series. Notably, Copilot+ features have been rolling out first to Arm-based Qualcomm PCs, followed by x86-based Intel and AMD systems. Recall and the enhanced Search functionalities are available for both Arm and x86 architectures, whereas some Click to Do features are currently exclusive to Arm systems.
The official launch of the Windows Recall feature marks a significant milestone in Microsoft's ongoing effort to enhance user experience on Windows 11, but it also serves as a reminder of the critical balance between innovation and user privacy.
