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Monday, August 11, 2025

Windows 11 - Disable the controversial Recall feature

If you wish to stop the Recall feature from getting installed:

Step 1: Get PowerRun. This gives us TrustedInstaller privileges to basically do whatever we want.

Get VoidTools Everything - Best free search app for Windows.

Get RegCool - Best free Registry editor.

Get the Take-Own script - Install the reg script. This will add "Take Ownership" to the Context Menu in Windows 11. 


Step 2: Open CMD from PowerRun and paste:
schtasks /End /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsAI\Recall\PolicyConfiguration"
schtasks /Change /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsAI\Recall\PolicyConfiguration" /Disable
schtasks /End /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsAI\Settings\InitialConfiguration"
schtasks /Change /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsAI\Settings\InitialConfiguration" /Disable

Or, if you prefer - Open Powershell from PowerRun and paste: :

Stop-ScheduledTask -TaskPath "\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsAI\Recall\" -TaskName "PolicyConfiguration"
Disable-ScheduledTask -TaskPath "\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsAI\Recall\" -TaskName "PolicyConfiguration"
Stop-ScheduledTask -TaskPath "\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsAI\Settings\" -TaskName "InitialConfiguration"
Disable-ScheduledTask -TaskPath "\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsAI\Settings\" -TaskName "InitialConfiguration"

NOTE: If you have the Scheduled Tasks window open, refresh it (press F5) to see the change.


Step 3 (Optional - for advanced users): Use Everything from VoidTools, and search for %windir%\ UserExperience-Recall | userexperience-aix

It will list CAT and MUM files. They should be located under C:\Windows\servicing\Packages\ , under C:\Windows\System32\CatRoot\ and under C:\Windows\WinSxS\ .

Right-click and take ownership of these files (NOTE: taking ownership is limited to 15 items at a time)

Now you can actually delete these files. 


Step 4 (Optional - for advanced users): If you've deleted the files, you must also delete any reference to those files in the registry. Open RegCool, search for UserExperience-Recall-Package . Wait until the search is finished, the results should be in the bottom window. Delete all the keys that contain reference to those CAT and MUM files.


You are now Recall-free. Cheers :-)