Microsoft recently announced a new lineup of Copilot+ Plus PCs that take things a few steps further than the AI PCs launched earlier. Among announcements like amazing speed and performance, on-device AI models, etc., Microsoft introduced a few new AI-centric features for Windows 11 exclusive to these PCs. And it's safe to say that Recall has stolen the show, though not entirely for good reasons.

People are worried about their entire user activity being recorded and stored for anyone (with access to their PC) to see. However, there's no denying that it could also come in handy when you quickly want to find something you saw earlier on your PC without digging through your files or folders, browsing history, emails, etc.

The good news is that you have a huge degree of control over how to use Recall. While you can turn off the feature permanently or pause it temporarily, you can also filter out specific apps or websites from Recall while otherwise using it normally.

How to Turn Off Windows Recall AI Feature in Windows 11 Copilot Plus PCs
Windows Recall AI feature inspiring more worries than excitement in your mind? It’s easy to turn it off.
All Things HowSakshi Garg

To turn off Recall for specific websites, you must be using one of these browsers:

  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Google Chrome
  • Opera

For these browsers, Recall can block activity for specific websites along with not taking snapshots when private browsing mode is on. For other Chromium-based browsers, it only stops taking snapshots when private browsing mode is on and specific website filtering is not supported. For other browsers, you can add the browser itself to the list of apps to filter out.

  1. To filter out specific apps or websites, open the Settings app.
  2. Go to 'Privacy & Security' from the menu on the left.
  3. Next, go to 'Recall & Snapshots'.
  4. To add an app, go to the 'Apps to Filter' section and click the 'Add app' button.
Source: Microsoft
  1. Then, select the app you want to filter out from Recall's snapshots.
  2. To add a website, click the 'Add website' button next to the 'Websites to Filter' option.
  1. Enter the URL of the website and click the add button.
Source: Microsoft

If you like the Recall feature in the new Copilot+ PCs but don't want it to capture certain apps or websites, you can easily filter them out from the Settings app. You can add any sensitive websites such as banking websites to the list of websites to filter out, especially if passwords or other sensitive information is not hidden using standard cloaking mechanisms. Recall does not perform any content moderation, so it won't hide any passwords or financial account numbers.