pelaird pelaird

Windows 11 24H2 Controversial New "Recall" Feature

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Windows 11 24H2 Controversial New "Recall" Feature

What's Your Opinion

from Stardock Forums

"Recall" is a new feature of Windows 11 24H2 that records your PC usage by taking screenshots of your active windows every couple of seconds. This is supposed to allow you to use natural language-based searches to look through your past PC usage. It also includes visual search using AI to locate what you need from that huge library of screenshots.

Didn't Microsoft deprecate a feature called "Timeline" due to low usage numbers? "Recall" seems to be "Timeline" on steroids. Another version of "Cramming AI down our throats."

Microsoft seems to believe that we want access to our recent data. Forcing recent documents in the Windows 11 Start menu is another case.

There are definitely privacy concerns. MS says Recall data will reside locally on your PC, and they will not have access to your data. This is all well and good, but in a situation where someone gains access to your PC, either locally or remotely, this becomes a potential nightmare. I believe this is the reason BitLocker encryption is turned on by default in Windows 24H2 Home and Pro versions.

Then there is the impact on a users storage. Not only does "Recall" data use a huge amount of space on your local drive. You need at least 50 GB of free space for Recall. I'm curious what impact this has on SSD's. If data is being written to your SSD every few seconds, this will increase the TBW (Terabytes Written) exponentially, and in my opinion causing premature failure.

You have to have a Copilot + PC with a 40 TOPs NPU in order to run Recall, so I won't be able to use it even if wanted to, and believe me I don't.

I'm interested in hearing others opinions on this controversial new feature of Windows 11 24H2.

pelaird

stardock software
56,284 views 55 replies
Reply #51 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting pelaird, reply 50

Here's hoping that MS does the right thing! LOL

:rofl: :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:  

Reply #52 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting pelaird, reply 45

I just read that "Recall" may be an Optional Feature in Windows 11 - 24H2.

from Winaero - August 29, 2024

"Microsoft may allow uninstall the Recall feature with a couple of clicks. The appropriate option is now exposed in optional features of Windows 11 in Insider builds.

Evidently this is not the case after all. >:(  

In an article on Neowin,

Microsoft is not letting you uninstall Recall in Windows 11

Taras Buria @TarasBuria · Sep 2, 2024 06:48 EDT

https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-is-not-letting-you-uninstall-recall-in-windows-11/

"Last month, Microsoft released an optional update for Windows 11 version 24H2 on Copilot+ PCs. Users quickly discovered that the update delivered a new optional feature under an oddly familiar "Recall" name. This quickly led to speculations about Microsoft allowing users to uninstall Recall in the near future. Sadly, this is not true.

"A Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge that Recall in the "Turn Windows Features on or off" section is nothing but a bug, and a future update will remove Recall from there:

"We are aware of an issue where Recall is incorrectly listed as an option under the ‘Turn Windows features on or off’ dialog in Control Panel. This will be fixed in an upcoming update."

 

Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #53 from Stardock Forums Top

Lol. That's Classic MS. Either "We will" and they don't, or they have a redundant system and only turn one of the two off.

 

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Reply #54 from Stardock Forums Top

Latest iteration of Recall still saving sensitive information regardless of filter settings.

from Tom's Hardware by Avram Piltch last updated 9 hours ago

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/microsoft-recall-screenshots-credit-cards-and-social-security-numbers-even-with-the-sensitive-information-filter-enabled

...and  the beat goes on!

Reply #55 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting pelaird, reply 54

Latest iteration of Recall still saving sensitive information regardless of filter settings.

from Tom's Hardware by Avram Piltch last updated 9 hours ago

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/microsoft-recall-screenshots-credit-cards-and-social-security-numbers-even-with-the-sensitive-information-filter-enabled

...and  the beat goes on!

It's insane...and you can't win. Ever.