Apps Enable or Disable Recall Feature in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the Recall feature for all users in Windows 11 on home (personal) or managed (work or school) Copilot+ PCs.

Starting with Windows 11 build 26120.2415 (Dev) on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, you can try out the Recall (Preview) feature.

Starting with Windows 11 build 26120.2510 (Dev), Microsoft is expanding the preview of Recall to Windows Insiders on AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs.

Recall is an optional feature for Windows 11. It is available by default for devices that aren’t managed by an organization or school.

Recall was introduced earlier this year, with the ability to enable you to quickly find and jump back into what you have seen before on your PC. You can use an explorable timeline to find the content you remember seeing before. You can also use semantic powered search and just describe how you remember something and Recall will retrieve the moment you saw it. Any photo, link, or message can be a fresh point to continue from.

To use Recall you need to opt in to saving snapshots, which are screenshots of your activity. Snapshots and the contextual information derived from them are saved and encrypted to your local hard drive. Recall does not share snapshots or associated data with Microsoft or third parties, nor is it shared between different Windows users on the same device. Windows will ask for your permission before saving snapshots. You are always in control, and you can delete snapshots, pause or turn them off at any time. Any future options for the user to share data will require fully informed explicit action by the user.

If you opt in to the feature, then as you use your PC, a snapshot of your active screen will be saved every few seconds and when the content of your active window changes. Snapshots are also protected with Windows Hello, so that you are the only signed in user can access Recall content. Recall allows you to search for content, including both images and text, using the clues you remember. Trying to remember the name of the sustainable restaurant you saw last week? Just ask Recall and it retrieves both text and visual matches for your search, automatically sorted by how closely the results match your search. Recall can even jump back into the content you saw.

To help maintain your privacy, Recall processes your content locally on the Copilot+ PC and securely stores it only on your device. Snapshots are encrypted by Device Encryption or BitLocker, which are enabled by default on Windows 11. Recall doesn't share snapshots with other users that are signed into Windows on the same device. Microsoft can't access or view the snapshots.

You're always in control of what's saved as a snapshot. You can disable saving snapshots, pause temporarily, filter apps and websites, and delete your snapshots at any time.

The Allow Recall to be enabled group policy allows you to determine whether the Recall optional component is available for end users to enable on their device. By default, Recall is disabled for managed commercial (ex: work or school) devices. Recall isn't available on managed devices by default, and individual users can't enable Recall on their own.

• If this policy is not configured, managed end users will have the Recall component in a disabled state. Home users will have Recall in an enabled state.
• If this policy is disabled, the Recall component will be in disabled state and the bits for Recall will be removed from the device. If snapshots were previously saved on the device, they will be deleted for managed end users when this policy is disabled. Removing Recall requires a device restart. This will also disable and remove Recall for home users, but it will not delete the home users saved snapshots.
• If the policy is enabled, managed end users will have Recall available on their device. Depending on the state of the DenyAlDataAnalysis policy (Turn off saving snapshots for use with Recall), managed end users will be able to choose if they want to save snapshots of their screen and use Recall to find things they've seen on their device. Home users will also have Recall available.

You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable the Recall feature.

References:

The Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

All editions can use Option Two to configure the same policy.

1 Open the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc).

2 Navigate to the location below in the left pane of Local Group Policy Editor. (see screenshot below)



3 In the right pane of Windows AI, double click/tap on the Allow Recall to be enabled policy to edit it. (see screenshot above)

4 Do step 5 (enable) or step 6 (disable) below for what you want.

This is the default setting.

7 Close the Local Group Policy Editor.

8 Restart the computer to apply.





1 Do step 2 (enable managed users), step 3 (enable home users), or step 4 (disable) below for what you want.





(Contents of REG file for reference)

This is the default setting for "Not Configured".

(Contents of REG file for reference)





(Contents of REG file for reference)

5 Save the REG file to your desktop.

6 Double click/tap on the downloaded REG file to merge it.

7 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

8 Restart the computer to apply.

9 You can now delete the downloaded REG file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn Brink