The Recall saga continues. As it seems, Microsoft’s controversial AI function can’t be uninstalled, though that was noticed as an possibility within the latest version of Windows 11 24H2.
The potential to uninstall it was initially noticed by Desk Modder as part of the “Turn Windows features on and off” menu in Control Panel, however Microsoft has now confirmed to The Verge that it was merely a bug. The assertion to The Verge says that being listed in that menu is a matter that “will be fixed in an upcoming update.”
That would possibly sound innocuous, however the potential to uninstall Recall would have offered some quantity of reassurance within the wake of its ongoing safety kerfuffle.
To be clear, you’ll be able to nonetheless disable Recall. It was initially introduced as on by default for brand spanking new Copilot+ PCs, however after considerations about some safety vulnerabilities have been raised, it was modified to an opt-in function, and finally delayed completely. The replace to Recall will present some extra security measures when it will definitely launches, together with requiring Windows Hello and being absolutely encrypted.
The function is predicted to launch in preview in October, nevertheless it is probably not till a lot later that it formally rolls out. Microsoft says Recall requires a strong and environment friendly neural processing unit ( NPU) with at the least 40 Tera Operations Per Second (TOPS), which means older PCs — and even current-gen “AI PC” Intel laptops — received’t be supported.
Recall was initially bought by Microsoft as the first use case for the extra highly effective NPUs within the Copilot+ line of laptops, together with extra minor artistic options like Cocreator in Paint.
Fortunately, these first Copilot+ PCs have been powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Arm chips, offering a significant step up in battery life and effectivity to be marketed on.