Microsoft's Routine Mishap: Core Recall Feature Compromised After Windows 11 Update

The Windows 11 Recall feature, a cornerstone of Microsoft Copilot+PC, offers background screenshot capture and analysis, using artificial intelligence to organize a user's activity timeline for easy access to past activities or files. However, following a recent update, some users have encountered a malfunction preventing Recall from capturing snapshots, rendering the activity timeline feature virtually unusable.

Microsoft acknowledged the issue in a blog post, attributing the malfunction to an error in the optional KB5046740 update released on November 21 for Windows 11 version 24H2, which interferes with Recall's functionality.

Fortunately, the Recall feature is currently in testing within the Windows Insider version, limiting the impact of this issue to a smaller user base. The situation could have been significantly more disruptive had Recall been officially launched.

Microsoft plans to address this issue in upcoming versions and advises users against installing the KB5046740 update before joining the Windows Insider Dev Channel to avoid disabling Recall.

For now, the feature is exclusively available to Microsoft Copilot+PC users with devices equipped with an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) that meets specific computational criteria.

Given ongoing privacy concerns, users who prefer not to use the feature can uninstall it, ensuring that Recall does not activate unexpectedly.