How to Completely Disable Windows Recall & AI Telemetry in Windows 11

Microsoft introduced Windows Recall as an AI feature that periodically takes encrypted snapshots of your active desktop screen to help search your past activity. While convenient for some, many privacy-conscious users, enterprise IT admins, and developers prefer to completely block snapshot recording and eliminate background AI telemetry data collection on Windows 11.

• Privacy & Confidentiality: Prevents sensitive personal data, passwords, and banking info from being captured in desktop screenshots.
• Resource Overhead: Saves CPU cycles, NPU allocation, and SSD storage space consumed by continuous screenshot logging.
• Enterprise & Regulatory Compliance: Ensures endpoints strictly meet security standards and data handling policies.

The fastest graphical method to disable Recall snapshot recording is directly through the Windows Settings app:

• Open Settings by pressing Win + I.
• Navigate to Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots.
• Toggle Save snapshots to Off.
• Click Delete snapshots and select Delete all to remove all previously captured screen history.

For Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions, Local Group Policy provides a system-wide lock that prevents users or updates from re-enabling Recall:

• Press Win + R, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter.
• Navigate to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows AI
• Double-click Turn off Recall.
• Select Enabled, click Apply, and then click OK.

If you want to strip out the Windows Recall package entirely so it cannot execute in the background, use DISM in PowerShell:

Dism /Online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:Recall

To disable AI data analysis policy keys and restrict Windows 11 diagnostic data to the absolute minimum, open PowerShell as Administrator and execute the following script:

# Disable AI Data Analysis
New-Item -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows AI" -Force | Out-Null
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows AI" -Name "DisableAIDataAnalysis" -Value 1 -Type DWord -Force

# Restrict Diagnostic Telemetry
New-Item -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection" -Force | Out-Null
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection" -Name "AllowTelemetry" -Value 0 -Type DWord -Force

# Disable Telemetry Collector Service
Stop-Service -Name "DiagTrack" -WarningAction SilentlyContinue
Set-Service -Name "DiagTrack" -StartupType Disabled

• Open Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots — it should display a notice stating "This feature is disabled by organization policy".
• Check Task Manager services — verify that DiagTrack (Connected User Experiences and Telemetry) is Stopped.

By combining the Group Policy toggle, DISM package removal, and Registry telemetry blocks, you achieve 100% control over your Windows 11 system privacy without compromising core OS functionality.