The new recording-all Recall is the last nail in the coffin for many Windows 11 users

The upcoming Windows 11 feature, Recall, which virtually records everything to let users access a timeline of their activity in the operating system, was arguably one of the biggest announcements of this year’s Build conference.

However, in the days following the announcement, many questioned its privacy and security issues, prompting Microsoft to release a guide about them quickly.

You should know that Recall is available on Windows 11, but only on Copilot+ PC. That means the capability won’t be released to regular PCs. Then, the feature is optional, and you can disable it entirely if you’re not a fan of it. This, of course, assumes you’ll get a Copilot+ PC.

And then, Recall will be limited in the recording: it will need a lot of space on your device (and to be honest, this should be the main concern), as it stores everything locally – so none of your data is sent to Microsoft.

Plus, the Recall won’t record everything in Windows 11: for instance, incognito browsing won’t be recorded. Down the line, I have a feeling the Redmond-based tech giant will update it to support customizable recording, as well.

In other words, aside from a few points, Recall seems to be quite safe. What are those points? Well, Recall won’t moderate content for you, and it won’t hide sensitive information either, meaning if someone (a hacker) accesses your device, somehow, it can potentially find your credentials by going through your Recall recordings. So, that is indeed a major cause of concern.

And it seems that for many Windows 11 users, it is also the reason they might entirely quit this operating system. On Reddit, many Windows 11 users are angry at the new Recall feature, calling it an official spyware.

I think I’m done. After 20 years of using Windows. This is ridiculous. What in the world are Microsoft executives thinking with this extreme spyware? Just imagine: By 2025, the only PC people will be able to buy is this Copliot+ nonsense. Most people won’t know about it or change their settings. And the security risk and attack surface of this thing is INSANE. And it won’t censor sensitive information? This is a hacker’s, law enforcement’s, oppressive government’s wet dream. I’ve been thinking about switching to Linux, but now I want to switch as soon as possible.

Reddit user

Others in threads think Microsoft is only going to make the whole Windows experience worse, by adding such as feature.

But this opens the door to another issue, probably M$ will force Windows 12 to run only on CPUs that meets the minimum requirements to run Recall, now just imagine pretty much every PC on the planet becoming obsolete because they cannot run a spyware and everyone will need to upgrade their PCs to run this spyware, it’s just absurd.

Reddit user

However, before making such drastic decisions, we need to talk about it a bit. Recall is currently only available on Copilot+ PCs because these devices have the NPU-based Snapdragon Elite X processor, which is specifically made to handle AI-based processes.

It’s true, AMD and Intel will release similar processors, later this year, as Microsoft stated, and the new devices will be made to support AI capabilities, easily, but the era of regular PCs is far from over, even if Microsoft keeps on talking about AI PCs.

Then, you also have to consider another thing: the general public doesn’t really care about AI that much. Copilot in Windows is not reaching the numbers Microsoft expected. For instance, at the beginning of the year, only 11% of users used Copilot in professional settings, while the 50% claiming to use it personally, did it out of curiosity, mostly, according to our survey.

Then, Recall requires a lot of space to function. We won’t spoil it for you now, as you can read all about it in our story, but we’ll give you a not-so-good-looking clue. For a device that has 256 GB, Recall will need 50 GB of those to work properly, and 25 GB will be worth 3 months of recording.

So, the whole situation seems like a failure from the very beginning, among users, at least. And there is no doubt, Microsoft will take these reactions into account.