Microsoft’s controversial Windows Recall feature is coming back. The tech giant recently announced on its official blog that the feature will be made available to testers on the Windows Insider Program in October of 2024. Once ready, it will roll out to all Copilot Plus PCs, though no exact time frame was given.
To give you a quick refresher, Windows Recall was originally met with intense pushback when it was announced in May. It utilizes artificial intelligence to take screenshots of everything you do on a Windows 11 computer, aiming to keep a detailed record. A user could, for example, go back and locate lost files or remind them of past conversations.
The company assured everyone it was totally safe, but people weren’t buying it. They didn’t trust the brand due to their shoddy reputation of keeping user data secure. You even had cybersecurity researcher Alexander Hagenah demonstrate that it’s actually really easy for malware to steal all the data inside a Recall repository.
Microsoft then recalled (pun intended) the feature soon after.
Potential update package
Back in June, the company published an update on its website laying out everything it was going to do to the tool. Microsoft said it was first going to make it abundantly clear that users can opt out of the Recall. And it’ll be “off by default.”
Enrolling in Windows Hello will become a requirement before activating the tool, and extra layers of protection are being added. Their post states that screenshots can “only be decrypted and accessible when the user authenticates” themselves.
Microsoft briefly discusses the new user experience as well. A Recall window will be pinned to the taskbar whenever screenshots are saved, and you can delete images at any time.
Analysis: A major concern
Apart from these descriptions, it’s unknown if any more will be added to or changed with the relaunch. This was supposed to come out in the weeks following the first delay; however, those weeks quickly turned into months. Microsoft doesn’t say why they had to push Recall back even further, although they do promise to publish more details in October.
Our primary concern is how much or how little of the new package will be available to testers. There’s no guarantee testers are going to gain access to every single change. It could be all of them or just one. What’s more, the relaunch may not happen this year.
Windows Insider Program tests typically run from a few weeks to months before seeing an official release. If Microsoft needs to make a lot of adjustments, Recall might not launch until sometime next year.
While we have you, check out TechRadar’s roundup of the best laptops for 2024.