Windows 11 Recall is officially available on Intel and AMD PCs

Microsoft is finally expanding support for its Recall AI feature to Copilot+ PCs running Intel and AMD processors, after the popular feature was brought back online following a series of reported issues during its initial rollout.

If you don't know, Recall is a new AI-powered feature introduced by Microsoft on Windows 11 at the Build 2024 event. Recall was created with the purpose of allowing users to review and control their computer activities by taking screenshots of what you were doing on your PC during your session. Whenever you perform a search using Recall, the system will browse through all these screenshots to find relevant moments in your PC's activity history that might be what you're looking for, stitching them together into a scrollable timeline.

Microsoft made Recall available for Qualcomm-only Copilot+ PCs in a Windows 11 update late last November, giving Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel access to the AI ​​feature that takes "snapshots" of your PC so you can search and look up aspects of your device in the future.

While this feature is useful in many situations, it has also raised concerns about user privacy, despite Microsoft's assertion that Recall only runs on Copilot+ computers, so data is processed entirely locally on the device and not in the cloud. That means everything from AI processing to screenshots happens on the PC.

Overall, Microsoft has been very careful about how Recall works on your device. You have to manually enable snapshots for Recall to work. You can also set how long your device will keep and delete snapshots. Finally, the feature doesn’t record important information in snapshots, such as credit card details, passwords, and personal identification numbers.

Microsoft is also highlighting the “Click to do” feature in Recall, which allows users to click on an aspect of a snapshot to trigger a desktop function, such as copying text or saving an image. The feature works using the Windows key + mouse click.

In short, Recall will be a strictly controlled, optional experience, and Windows 11 will not automatically enable the feature without explicit permission from the end user. So instead of removing Recall from the operating system, you can simply disable it and enjoy your PC Copilot+ experience without worrying about Windows 11 silently taking screenshots every few minutes.