Windows Recall Feature

[GrahamLees]

Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

Windows Recall, an AI-powered feature in Windows 11 that takes regular screenshots of your desktop to help you remember and retrieve information you’ve seen on your PC. It allows users to search for content using natural language and requires specific hardware and security settings to function.

This is so dangerous and - as if any other reason exists to dump Microsoft and Windoze - this must be it!

Microsoft have built a feature called Recall for Windows 11. Every 5 seconds it takes a photograph of everything on your screen. Your banking. Your passwords. Your private messages. Then it stores all of it in a searchable database. Microsoft called it an explorable visual timeline.

A WIRED reporter called it what it is. Spyware, installed before you ever opened the box. A security researcher warned that if a hacker gets into your PC, they don’t even have to look for your passwords any more. Your computer already photographed them.

After the backlash, Microsoft backed down. They delayed it, made it something you have to turn on yourself, and said you can remove it. Even the Signal app had to add special protection to block Recall from your chats.

My question is… have you checked if Recall is on in your settings?

If you just bought a new Windows computer… you needed to see this.

From a personal perspective, I have just purchased a reconditioned mini PC which had Windoze installed. First job was to install Debian 13 on it and completely wipe the nvme clean of any trace of Windoze including the partition which allows Windows to be reinstalled.

How in the name of any God you care to mention anyone could possible live with using a Windoze system these days is beyond belief. The issues I had trying to defeat the fast boot arrangements which insisted I comply with their vision of how computer systems should perform was incredibly annoying and once Widoze was completely gone, so was my ire.

How people put up with this beggars belief. Little wonder that Linux is now gaining ground in so many sectors.

[easyt50 (Howard)]

According to an AI;

Microsoft subsequently revised the implementation prior to release:

• Opt-in default: It is no longer enabled automatically during setup.
• Encryption: The database and search index are encrypted via Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS), decrypting only when the user authenticates.
• Access isolation: The service processes data within a Virtualization-based Security (VBS) Enclave to prevent other processes—even those running with elevated administrator rights—from reading the memory directly.
• Exclusions: Sensitive content like InPrivate browsing sessions and DRM-protected media are excluded automatically, and users can manually exclude specific apps or domains.

[GrahamLees]

I’d prefer to opt out entirely by not using Windoze in any circumstances. Can you honestly expect that they would respect your wishes where AI is in control? I wouldn’t - period.

[nevj (Neville Jackson)]

@GrahamLees

Every 5 seconds it takes a photograph of everything on your screen

That would amount to a huge amount of storage space. … about 10MB per minute uncompressed.
Does it store it locally?

I agree with everything you say. It is like having a security camera in your bedroom.

[callpaul.eu (Paul)]

@nevj

Does it store it locally

Imagine if its transmitted to microsoft or a server

[easyt50 (Howard)]

I don’t use Windows, so I care little what MS does to it.

@nevj

huge amount of storage space

From reading about it on AI;

The underlying architecture uses video compression standards (like H.264/H.265 frame-differencing) combined with local AI models running on the Copilot+ PC NPU (Neural Processing Unit).

Storage ceiling & automatic pruning: Microsoft caps Recall’s maximum disk allocation by default (typically set to 25 GB on a 256 GB drive, adjustable by the user). Once the cap is hit, older snapshots and index data are automatically purged on a rolling basis.

[GrahamLees]

Dem yanks are full of kinks

[easyt50 (Howard)]

From what I read, you have to have a PC with a NPU processor being one of the requirements to enable Recall.

NPU is a Neural Processing Unit.

[GrahamLees]

@easyt50

NPU

Isn’t that what Trump claims to be in possession of?

[cat-man (Mikael)]

Its no suprise that more and more countries turn to Linux,Microslop knows about conutries security and state secrets if they use microslops windows and its so way out of line its scarey. when in gods name will people understand what garbage windows is and what they know about what everyone has on their windows pc. and im so very happy that i trough out windows from my pc and starting to use Linux.

[easyt50 (Howard)]

@GrahamLees

Isn’t that what Trump claims to be in possession of?

Of a NPU? No, I have not read or hear about that. A NPU is a processor inside of a PC.
Maybe you could provide more information.

[nevj (Neville Jackson)]

@easyt50

(typically set to 25 GB

Lets say it compresses to 10%. At 10MB per minute uncompressed , that would be 1MB per minute compressed, which would fill the 25MB in 25 minutes, so it would rollover after 25 min.
That is a very short term memory. Not a useful backup or history.
What is it intended to be useful for?

[Manuel_Jordan]

Big thanks for this post

Through Google support I did do the following:

• Win + i
• Privacy & Security

And try to go to the following option

• Recall & snapshots

But it does not appear. The most similar option is “Call History”

[easyt50 (Howard)]

@Manuel_Jordan

And try to go to the following option

• Recall & snapshots

You have to have a fairly new PC to have a NCP installed on it. From what I read the PC would have to be only 2 or 3 years old. If the PC does not have a NCP, it does not have the option for Recall.

[easyt50 (Howard)]

@nevj

Not a useful backup or history.

I had to go back to AI for a good answer because I don’t run Windows with a NPU or even use Windows except on rare occasions. The short answer from AI was that it would “provides a rolling window of weeks or months of searchable history,” Below is what Gemini answer was in much more detail.

Recall does not save continuous high-rate video streams or massive raw buffers; it takes periodic static screenshots (typically every 5 seconds, and only when on-screen content changes), compresses them, runs OCR to extract plain text, and converts that text/image metadata into compact vector embeddings stored in a local SQLite database.

Because an individual screenshot compressed alongside sparse text data takes only tens of kilobytes (rather than megabytes per minute), a few gigabytes of disk space allocated to Recall provides a rolling window of weeks or months of searchable history, rather than 25 minutes.

It is intended to serve as a local, semantic search engine for your past activity—allowing you to query natural language terms (e.g., “that blue chart about revenue I looked at last week”) to locate specific documents, websites, or images you previously viewed.

[nevj (Neville Jackson)]

@easyt50

Recall does not save continuous high-rate video streams or massive raw buffers; it takes periodic static screenshots (typically every 5 seconds, and only when on-screen content changes), compresses them, runs OCR to extract plain text, and converts that text/image metadata into compact vector embeddings stored in a local SQLite database

Wow, the compute load is massive. No wonder it needs an NPU.
I could think of better uses for an NPU.

What I would have done is keep a history of the actions that a GUI initiates … like a CLI command history only including command actions like file changes etc. … a DE log if you like.
What you see on the screen is not everything that happens, and it is in a very inconvenient form for storage or interpretation.

[easyt50 (Howard)]

@nevj

it is in a very inconvenient form for storage or interpretation.

Maybe not. I have not used it nor do I plan on using it because 1-I don’t use Windows and 2-I have an older PC.

But it sound like the information off the web pages are stored in a database that allows you to perform a search on. When a match is found (or maybe a close match) the web page is retrieved from the web.

Kind of like a bookmark but with tags of the information that was on it plus the ability to perform a search on it. Not only that bookmark but search all bookmarks.

Not likely to know for sure how well it works until a Window user reports back to us. Kind of a very long shot on that this being a Linux forum.

[nevj (Neville Jackson)]

@easyt50

Kind of like a bookmark but with tags of the information that was on it plus the ability to perform a search on it.

Ok for finding browser content maybe . But what about moving or renaming files or compiling something … I cant see it helping there.
Time will tell

[GrahamLees]

@easyt50

A NPU is a processor inside of a PC.

errr, it was intended to be satirical

At a recent event with the Tech-bros, of AI, he (the Trumpster) pointed to his head and said something like “you need one of these to control AI” fact is though, his cognitive abilities fall well short of anybody older than about 5 years of age…