After months of procrastination and contradictory promises, Microsoft has finally started rolling out the Recall Assistant that watches everything you do on your PC. But the conditions for using it are strict.
Presented as a revolution, criticized for its questionable security and finally rejected by certain users, Recall has finally started its life within Windows. In a blog post spotted by Windows LatestMicrosoft announced the deployment of its controversial functionality within Windows. Well… almost.
Indeed, the initial deployment of this functionality is being done on a very, very small scale for the moment. Probably to avoid the inevitable scandals that could happen if Windows deployed its tool on the millions of Windows 11 machines around the world.
What are the constraints for activating Recall?
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As we noted last September, Recall is coming first and foremost to Copilot+ PCs. But this whole line of PCs is not entitled to it. Here are the hardware and software requirements needed to take advantage of this feature.
- A Copilot+ PC equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon Series X chip
- A machine registered in the Windows Insider program (on the Dev preview branch)
- Latest OS version (26120.2415) installed
If your computer checks all of these boxes, then you can explore Recall today. Otherwise, you will have to wait for a wider deployment from Microsoft.
Once update 26120.2415 is downloaded and installed, you will be able to launch Recall from the Windows start menu, like any other application. Once the program is launched, it will explicitly ask you to activate the option to save screenshots, the latter being Off by default.
To go further
Windows 11 will record everything you do, should you be wary?
If you want to test the tool though, make sure you also have BitLocker enabled on your PC and the Secure Boot option set to On. You will also need to accept the use of Windows Hello to identify yourself each time you want to use Recall. All of these constraints are there to ensure that no one but you has access to the potentially private information recorded by Recall.
Speaking of which, if you want to prevent Recall from saving certain information, Windows offers a few options for that. Within the application Settingsin the “Privacy and security» and clicking on «Recall & snapshots“, you can prevent the software from recording your activity when entering passwords or credit card numbers. It is also possible to create custom rules to prevent Recall from taking screenshots when you use certain apps or browse certain sites.
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