Microsoft’s more secure Windows Recall feature can also be uninstalled by users

In response to security concerns, Microsoft is detailing how it has overhauled its controversial AI-powered Recall feature that creates screenshots of mostly everything you see or do on a computer. Recall was originally supposed to debut with Copilot Plus PCs in June, but Microsoft has spent the past few months reworking the security behind it to make it an opt-in experience that you can now fully remove from Windows if you want.

"I'm actually really excited about how nerdy we got on the security architecture," says David Weston, vice president of enterprise and OS security at Microsoft, in an interview with The Verge. "I'm excited because I think the security community is going to get how much we've pushed [into Recall]."

One of Microsoft's first big changes is that the company isn't forcing people to use Recall if they don't want to. "There is no more on by default experience at all - you have to opt into this," says Weston. "That's obviously super important for people who just don't want this, and we totally get that."

A Recall uninstall option initially appeared on Copilot Plus PCs earlier this month, and Microsoft said at the time that it was a bug. It turns out that you will indeed be able to fully uninstall Recall. "If you choose to uninstall this, we remove the bits from your machine," says Weston. That includes the AI models that Microsoft is using to power Recall.

Security researchers initially found that the Recall database - that stores snapshots taken every few seconds of your computer - wasn't encrypted, and malware could have potentially accessed the Recall feature. Everything that's sensitive to Recall, including its database of screenshots, is now fully encrypted. Microsoft is also leaning on Windows Hello to protect against malware tampering.

The encryption in Recall is now bound to the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) that Microsoft requires for Windows 11, so the keys are stored in the TPM and the only way to get access is to authenticate through Windows Hello. The only time Recall data is even passed to the UI is when the user wants to use the feature and authenticates via their face, fingerprint, or PIN.

"To turn it on to begin with, you actually have to be present as a user," says Weston. That means you have to use a fingerprint or your face to set up Recall before being able to use the PIN support. This is all designed to prevent malware from accessing Recall data in the background, as Microsoft requires a proof of presence through Windows Hello.