TLDR:
Windows 11 v24H2 and beyond will have Recall installed on every system. Attempting to remove Recall will now break some file explorer features such as tabs.

YT Video (5min)

Invidious Link

Original Github Issue

  • Australis13
    link
    fedilink
    1961 month ago

    Okay, this might be a non-issue: https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil/issues/2697#issuecomment-2403792309

    To those that arrive here from any Youtube or Twitter posts, please know that disabling Recall via DISM works fine, and preserves the modern File Explorer (though some might consider this an anti-feature). CBS correctly disables it, and the disablement is preserved through reboots, just like with any other feature.

    Edit: of course, the big problem here is that it’s still present (even disabled) and hence malware could turn it back on without you realising. Ugh.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      861 month ago

      A lot of unpopular “features” and behaviors used to have DISM, policy, or registry workarounds. And MS seems to love to kill those workarounds during later updates.

      If MS isn’t letting people uninstall it, there’s a reason for it, and I’d be willing to bet that users will one day find that it has been magically re-enabled by an update.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        43
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        There will 100% be a policy to disable it. Microsoft may shit on their retail users, but there’s no way they’d force it on their enterprise clients. It’s a security and compliance nightmare and they know it.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          271 month ago

          Problem is disabling it will likely be locked behind the Enterprise edition.

          Kind of like the “Recommended” section in the Start menu. There is actually a way to disable that entirely…if you have an Enterprise license. There is no way to do it on any other version.

          I said it was back when they took Group Policy out of the Home edition: the long term goal is to make truly controlling Windows a premium feature that only corporations can afford, and you see that with the slow elimination of many of those settings.

          • bean
            link
            fedilink
            English
            11 month ago

            So how can users band together to buy enterprise licenses from each other?

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      521 month ago

      Malware could also reinstall it to be fair, or just create screenshots on its own.

      Still smells fishy that Explorer has it as a dependency, “disabled” or not.

      • Pasta Dental
        link
        fedilink
        English
        331 month ago

        Recall is malware, at least according to Malwarebytes!

        Malware, or “malicious software,” is an umbrella term that refers to any malicious program or code that is harmful to systems.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      51 month ago

      (though some might consider this an anti-feature)

      To be fair, not everyone would say that, and the only reason you would call it an “anti-feature” is if you had an accurate understanding of the issues.