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    4 min read 7 stepsMay 12, 2026Verified May 2026

    Turn Off Windows 11 Recall — How to Stop the Constant Screenshot AI

    Windows 11 Recall takes a screenshot of your PC every few seconds. Here is what it does, why people are worried, and how to turn it off.

    At a Glance

    Category
    Windows Guides
    Difficulty
    Beginner
    Read Time
    4 min read
    Steps
    7
    Topics covered
    windows 11
    recall
    privacy
    copilot plus pc
    microsoft

    In this guide (7 steps):

    1. 1.Check if your PC has Recall
    2. 2.Open Recall settings
    3. 3.Pause or turn off Recall completely
    4. 4.Delete all existing Recall screenshots
    5. 5.Exclude private apps and websites
    6. 6.Turn off Recall in Windows Features (most thorough option)
    7. 7.Check Recall settings after every Windows update
    1

    Check if your PC has Recall

    ~35s
    Recall only runs on Copilot+ PCs — these are laptops with a Snapdragon X, Intel Core Ultra (Series 2), or AMD Ryzen AI 300 chip. Most regular Windows 11 laptops do NOT have Recall. To check: Press the Windows key, type "Recall," and press Enter. If a Recall app opens, you have it. If Windows says "no results," you do not have it. And you do not need to do anything else.

    Quick Tip

    Quick Tip: If you do not have Recall, the rest of this guide does not apply. But you can still tighten Windows 11 privacy — see our guide on Windows 11 privacy settings worth reviewing.

    2

    Open Recall settings

    ~21s
    Click the Start buttonSettingsPrivacy & SecurityRecall & Snapshots. (You can also press Windows + I to open Settings.) The Recall settings page shows whether Recall is on, what apps it captures, and how much storage it uses. Take a moment to look. If you have used the PC for a few weeks, you might see thousands of screenshots already saved.
    3

    Pause or turn off Recall completely

    ~27s
    At the top of the Recall settings page, you will see a toggle for "Save snapshots." Slide it to Off. Windows will confirm you want to disable Recall — confirm yes. From this moment on, Recall will not take any new screenshots. The old screenshots are still saved on your PC, though — the next step deletes them.

    Warning

    If your PC is shared with someone else who relies on Recall, talk to them before turning it off. Their search history disappears too.

    4

    Delete all existing Recall screenshots

    ~18s
    Still in SettingsPrivacy & SecurityRecall & Snapshots, scroll down to "Delete snapshots." You have three options: delete the last hour, last 24 hours, or all snapshots. Choose "Delete all snapshots." Windows will warn you this cannot be undone. Confirm. Within a few minutes, every screenshot Recall ever took is gone.
    5

    Exclude private apps and websites

    ~30s
    If you want to leave Recall on but stop it from capturing your bank, email, or work apps, scroll to "Apps and websites to exclude from snapshots." Add: your banking app, browser windows showing online banking, password manager (1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass), tax software, and any work tools that contain confidential information. While in InPrivate/Incognito browsing, Recall automatically does not capture — but it does capture regular browsing.

    Quick Tip

    Quick Tip: Add Outlook, Gmail in browser, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Slack to the exclusion list. These often show information you would not want screenshotted.

    6

    Turn off Recall in Windows Features (most thorough option)

    ~18s
    If you want to remove Recall entirely so it cannot be re-enabled accidentally: open Control PanelProgramsTurn Windows features on or off. Find "Recall" in the list. Uncheck it. Click OK. Windows will remove the feature and restart. To re-enable later, repeat and check the box.
    7

    Check Recall settings after every Windows update

    ~18s
    Microsoft sometimes turns features back on after major updates. After any Windows feature update (the big yearly one), come back to SettingsPrivacy & SecurityRecall & Snapshots and confirm your settings are still what you want. A 30-second check every few months keeps things how you set them.

    You Did It!

    You've finished reading: Turn Off Windows 11 Recall — How to Stop the Constant Screenshot AI

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    Windows 11 has a feature called Recall on newer Copilot+ PCs (laptops with a special AI chip, mostly sold in 2025 and 2026). Recall takes a screenshot of your entire screen every few seconds. Microsoft says this is so you can later search your computer for "that thing I was reading last week" and find it instantly using AI.

    For some people that is genuinely useful. For others — particularly anyone who uses online banking, types in passwords, opens medical records, or works with confidential information — it is a privacy alarm. Old screenshots stored on the PC are a target for thieves, family members snooping, or malware. Even with the security fixes Microsoft rolled out in 2025, many people prefer to turn Recall off entirely.

    This guide shows how to check if you have Recall, turn it off, and delete the screenshots it has already taken.

    (Source: Microsoft Recall Help, support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/retrace-your-steps-with-recall-aa03f8a0-a78b-4b3e-b0a1-2eb8ac48701c)

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    recall
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    Official Resources

    Microsoft SupportHow-To Geek — WindowsGCFGlobal — Windows Basics

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