If you’re a Windows Insider in the Dev channel, you can now try Microsoft’s controversial Recall feature. As the name suggests, this AI-powered feature helps you recall what you were doing on your PC at any moment in the past by taking screenshots every few seconds.
Windows Recall Is Now Available for Testing
Windows Recall was first announced in May, with plans to launch it in June alongside Copilot+ PCs. However, after some serious fuss was made over the security and privacy implications of a feature that takes snapshots of your screen every few seconds, Microsoft pushed back its release.
Now, after making some changes to ease those concerns, Microsoft is releasing Recall for public testing. It’s initially only available to Windows Insiders in the Dev channel, and only those with Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs. Support for Intel- and AMD-powered PCs is set to follow.
This new version of Windows Recall does the same basic job as the original version. Which means it takes snapshots of whatever is on your PC screen every few seconds, allowing you to retrace your steps via AI-powered search or a scrollable timeline.
However, Microsoft has made changes to address the security and privacy concerns expressed by many.
For starters, Recall is now entirely optional, so you have to opt in and enable it. You can also check what screenshots are saved, and delete any you don’t feel comfortable with. You can also exclude specific websites and apps from being captured, and when Recall detects that it has captured sensitive information such as credit card details or passwords, it shouldn’t save the screenshot.
In the Windows Insider blog post announcing this preview version, Microsoft also states that “we do not send your snapshots off your PC to Microsoft or third parties, and don’t use them for training purposes”. Which is good.
A second feature, called Click to Do, comes bundled with Recall in this build. Click to Do can recognize text and images within the saved screenshots, with you able to click on them to do something (such as copy text or save the image), hence the name.
I Still Don’t Trust This Feature In the Slightest
I’m glad that Microsoft has addressed the multitude of privacy and security concerns people expressed when Recall was first announced. And, on paper at least, this looks like a much more agreeable feature in its new form.
However, I have to say that I still would not want Recall running on my PC. Sure, it may have its uses, but having screenshots of whatever is on your PC taken every few seconds would fill me with horror purely from an invasion-of-privacy angle.
