Disable Microsoft Recall

Microsoft Recall is a new AI-powered tool for Windows 11 that allows users to search and retrieve anything they’ve seen or done on their PC, functioning like a personal historian. It logs activities across apps, tracks communications in meetings, and remembers websites visited, all accessible through an explorable timeline interface. 

It does so by taking screenshots every few seconds, analyzing them with AI help, and making the data searchable using natural language. And here is where Big Brother became outright creepy for me. 

This feature was supposed to be only in the Copilot+ PCs, but this week, it mysteriously showed in non-Copilot+ PCs. For the time being, if you are concerned about privacy, you can disable it with a few commands.  Keep in mind that Microsoft may automatically enable it with any of their monthly updates. 

Open a command prompt with Administrator privliges. 

To check if Recall is enabled on your PC, type the following:

dism /online /get-featureinfo /featurename:recall

You will get the following result: 

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool

Version: 10.0.26100.1150

Image Version: 10.0.26100.2033

Feature Information:

Feature Name : Recall

Display Name : Recall

Description : Recall application.

Restart Required : Possible

State : Enabled

To turn off Recall on your PC, type the following: 

dism /online /disable-feature /featurename:recall

You will get the following result: 

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool

Version: 10.0.26100.1150

Image Version: 10.0.26100.2033

Disabling feature(s)

[==========================100.0%==========================]

The operation completed successfully.

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