There's a fine line between convenience and privacy, and Microsoft's new Windows Recall feature straddles that line. On the one hand, it's supposed to be a groundbreaking addition to Windows, designed to help you retrace your steps and find anything you've previously viewed or worked on. It's like your browsing history, but across your entire computer.
On the other hand, this ability to 'remember' everything you've done naturally raises privacy concerns. That's because Windows Recall works by constantly taking screenshots of your screen. But if that doesn't sound convenient, useful, or entirely safe, it's pretty easy to check if the feature is active on your computer.
Check Windows Recall status
Is it running on your PC?
The beauty of Windows Recall is that it's not enabled by default. Microsoft designed it this way so you can control whether or not it runs in the background, so unless you accidentally accept the prompt to enable Recall during setup, it's unlikely to work.
If you're curious if Recall is running on your PC, there's a simple way to check. All you have to do is open Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell with admin rights and type DISM /Online /Get-Featureinfo /Featurename:Recall and press Enter . Windows will then display the current status of the Recall feature on your system. If you see the feature listed as Enabled , then Recall is active and taking screenshots periodically. If it says Disabled , then the feature is inactive and you can rest assured that nothing is being recorded.
It's worth noting that while Recall is only available on Copilot+ computers, you can try running the same command on a computer without Copilot+ and it will show up as enabled. However, that doesn't necessarily mean Recall is working. As mentioned earlier, this feature is exclusive to Copilot+ computers, which are equipped with an NPU (Neural Processing Unit). If your computer was purchased before June 18, 2024, it won't have Windows Recall.
But if you find Recall enabled and want to disable it, the process is just as simple. Just run the DISM /Online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:"Recall" command in the same Command Prompt or PowerShell window with admin rights.
Remove Windows Recall
Take back control of your computer
If you decide that Windows Recall isn't for you and have disabled it, you should delete any existing snapshots it may have taken. You can do this by navigating to Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots , then selecting the Delete all snapshots option . This ensures that no old data is stored on your PC.
If you want to go further and completely remove the Recall feature from your system, there is also a simple way to do it. In the search box on the taskbar, type Turn Windows features on or off and press Enter . From the dialog box that appears, find the Recall entry , uncheck it and then restart your PC . After the system restarts, the Recall feature will be completely removed.
Privacy is already a big issue on Windows PCs, and features like Recall only exacerbate the problem. While Windows Recall offers a lot of powerful features, it can sometimes be a bit too much. The good news is that Microsoft allows you to turn it off if you feel it's not right for you.