Windows 11 Recall Feature: How to Uninstall or Reinstall for Enhanced Privacy

This guide explains how to remove or add the Recall feature in Windows 11.

Recall & Snapshots is an AI tool that acts like a digital memory. It takes pictures of your screen to help you find things you looked at earlier. It snaps a new photo every 5 seconds if the screen content has changed.

Why: You might want to remove this to save storage space or to keep your screen activity private.

What happens when done: Your computer will stop saving these snapshots, and the feature will be removed from your system.

You can turn this feature off in your settings by going to Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots. You can also explore other options like disabling saving snapshots, temporarily pausing, filtering applications, websites, and deleting snapshots. With the latest KB5041865 Windows 11 build 26100.1591 (24H2) update, Recall is now an optional feature you can fully remove.

Add or remove Recall using Windows Features

You can manage this feature through the Windows Features menu.

1. Open the Windows Features menu by running OptionalFeatures.exe.
2. Find Recall in the list.
3. Uncheck the box to remove it, or check the box to add it back.

Click OK to save your changes. Note: This step requires administrator privileges.

Uninstall or Reinstall Recall using Command

You can also use the command line to manage this feature.

Note: These steps require administrator privileges.

First, open the Windows Terminal as an administrator and select the Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt tab.

To install the feature, run this command:

DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:"Recall"

To remove the feature, run this command:

DISM /Online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:"Recall"

Alternatively, you can use PowerShell by opening the Windows Terminal as administrator and selecting the PowerShell tab.

To install the feature via PowerShell, run:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName "Recall"

To remove the feature via PowerShell, run:

Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName "Recall"

You may need to restart your computer for these changes to take effect.

Summary

The Recall feature in Windows 11 captures snapshots of your screen to help you search your history. If you prefer not to use it, you can easily turn it off in your Privacy settings or remove it entirely using the Windows Features menu or command-line tools like DISM and PowerShell. Always restart your computer after making these changes to ensure they are fully applied.