Here's a summary of the key details from Ars Technica's article about the public rollout of Windows Recall:
Windows Recall Release Overview
- Windows Recall has been rolled out to the public, about a year after it was first announced by Microsoft.
- It is only available on "Copilot+ PCs," which are a subset of Windows 11 systems sold within the last year or so.
- Recall works by taking continuous screenshots of everything you do on your PC, saving these, extracting text, and storing them in a searchable database.
- This feature has significant security and privacy implications; if someone gains access to your Recall database, they can see nearly everything you've done on your PC.
- The release faced several challenges:
- The initial launch attempt was criticized for lacking security protections.
- It underwent several delays and a major overhaul.
- Five months of Windows Insider beta testing helped Microsoft improve Recall.
- Microsoft has added:
- Stronger security controls.
- Automated content filtering (though filtering for sensitive info isn't perfect).
- Most importantly, Recall is now an "opt-in" feature—you have to activate it, rather than deactivate it if you don't want it. It can also be completely removed.
- The same release brings:
- An improved Windows Search that supports natural-language search.
- "Click to Do," which allows users to copy text from images and quickly summarize or rewrite on-screen text.
- Copilot+ PCs must have a neural processing unit (NPU) capable of 40+ TOPS (trillion operations per second). This enables more on-device AI processing.
- Currently supported chips include Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite/Plus, Intel Core Ultra 200V (Lunar Lake), and AMD Ryzen AI 300.
- Copilot+ features often appear on Qualcomm (ARM) devices before Intel/AMD (x86), but Recall and enhanced Search are now available on both platforms.
- Some Click to Do features remain ARM-only for now.
Source: Ars Technica Category: Tech
Last edited:
