Microsoft has canceled the wide release of Recall – the controversial tool for Copilot+ PCs that takes regular snapshots of a machine to create an overview of everything users do with their machines – and will instead only make it available for the foreseeable future to Windows Insiders.
Recall was announced on May 20, when Redmond touted it as a useful tool to help users do things like remember the name of that great website they visited last week but hadn’t bookmarked, or find the e- email they had sent The register with a very good tip. Recall uses AI to unravel searches that should, in theory, find that website or email – or anything else users have been doing on their PCs and want to dig up.
That idea was not received with enthusiasm. Instead, it quickly sparked controversy after an FAQ was unearthed in which Microsoft admitted that the tool could also record passwords or personal data, such as bank account numbers. The prospect of anyone who can log into a PC running Recall having access to such data has clear privacy implications.
The criticism came thick and fast.
Recall was announced on the same day as the Copilot+ PC – Redmond’s term for a machine equipped with a 40-TOPS NPU tuned to handle AI applications – and was presented as a demonstration of the power of those machines.
However, Tinkers soon discovered that Recall could run on more modest hardware, meaning more PCs could be at risk once the tool was widely released.
Microsoft’s problems only got worse when it was discovered that the tool was on by default, and disabling it required a trip deep into the Windows settings. There are dragons.
A pile-up followed. Analysts suggested that Microsoft had made a big mistake. Science fiction author Charles Stross – who occasionally mentions The register in his work – opined that Recall is a delight for lawyers, as the fact that it records everything means that every action performed with a PC can be discovered while preparing for a lawsuit.
Microsoft firmly supported Recall for 17 days, but on June 17, the mega-developer relented and announced that the tool would be made opt-in instead of default, and also introduced additional security measures, such as only producing results from Recall after authentication, and never decrypt the data the tool has stored until after a search.
These decisions did not end criticism of Recall, as it was felt that Microsoft’s ignorance of privacy issues did not reflect well on the company’s culture.
On Thursday, the wounded software titan took another step back: An update to the announcement of Recall’s return to opt-in brought news that the tool won’t be delivered to all users of Copilot+ PCs starting June 18.
Instead, Recall will be offered to members of the Windows Insider program “in the coming weeks.”
Once the dedicated Windows enthusiasts have had their way with Recall and provided feedback, a preview will be “coming soon to all Copilot+ PCs,” according to Microsoft’s corporate veep for Windows+ devices, Pavan Davuluri.
Delaying Recall’s debut is not welcome for Microsoft, after it decided to strike out on its own by coining its own term – Copilot+ PC – at a time when its key silicon partners Intel and AMD were raving about “AI PC.”
However, the first Copilot+ PCs announced were powered by Qualcomm silicon – a significant step for the chip design company that dominates mobile devices but has struggled to crack the PC market.
In the weeks since Recall caused such a stir, it, and now Qualcomm-powered PCs, have been a much more common topic of discussion than the merits of those new machines.
And now the best Qualcomm players don’t immediately get the app that Microsoft shows them, at their best.
It could take months for them to do that. Due to the small size of the Windows Insider community relative to the entire Windows user base and the fact that Recall requires a Copilot+ PC, not many people will be able to put the tool to the test in the coming weeks. ®