Microsoft Recall saves periodic snapshots of a user’s active screen only after the user opts in to Recall & snapshots and enables Save snapshots. Windows analyzes the snapshots locally so users can search text and visual context, while app developers can make results more useful by linking them back to the right app content or excluding sensitive windows from capture.
What Recall captures—and when
Recall is a Windows feature for retracing activity across apps, documents, and websites. It does not continuously record a video. Instead, after the user opts in, Windows periodically saves still images of the active screen when its content changes. Microsoft Support describes the cadence this way: “If you opt in to the feature, then as you use your PC, a snapshot of your active screen will be saved every few seconds and when the content of your active window changes.”
That distinction matters when designing an app. A screen state may be represented in a snapshot, but Recall is not an app-owned history database, a guaranteed record of every interaction, or a mechanism developers use to retrieve the user’s snapshots. The app’s primary integration opportunity is to help Windows return the user to the relevant content—and to prevent selected window content from appearing in snapshots.
How Recall interprets snapshots
Recall analyzes snapshots on the PC. Its processing combines local OCR, screen segmentation, image recognition, and contextual indexing. As a result, searches can use clues from both text and visual content rather than relying only on an app’s title or a visible string. Microsoft describes the developer experience as using Microsoft Foundry on Windows for searching across apps, documents, and websites.
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Recall also supports Click to Do, which can analyze a selected snapshot and offer actions such as copying text or sending an image to an app that supports JPEG. This is a separate user interaction from the app’s own capture or export functions. Microsoft says DRM content is not stored in Recall.
Snapshots and associated contextual data are stored locally and encrypted, according to Microsoft. Windows Hello confirmation is required when launching Recall or changing its settings. Users can pause, delete, or disable snapshots, and Microsoft states that snapshot data is not shared with Microsoft or other users on the device.
What developers need to test Recall
The developer prerequisites documented by Microsoft specify a Copilot+ PC from Qualcomm, Intel, or AMD, running the April 2025 Windows non-security preview update or later. The same developer documentation lists Arm64EC as unsupported. Treat those as documented prerequisites, not a guarantee that every Recall capability will behave identically on every serviced Windows build: availability and behavior can change with Windows updates.
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- Use supported hardware and Windows. Confirm that the device is a Copilot+ PC and meets the documented Windows build baseline.
- Check availability on the test device. Recall may not be available to the user because of device support, Windows servicing, or organizational policy.
- Have the user opt in. In Windows Settings, open Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots and enable Save snapshots. Users control this setting; administrators cannot silently enable snapshot saving on their behalf.
- Test the full user journey. Check how app content appears in Recall, whether a result can reopen the right app state, and whether sensitive windows are excluded in the workflows where protection is required.
Microsoft lists English, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish as languages optimized for Recall. Content and storage limitations also apply, so do not assume identical search coverage for every language or an unlimited snapshot history.
Make a Recall result reopen the right app content
Use the UserActivity API to provide app relaunch metadata and deep links. The goal is not to duplicate Recall’s snapshots; it is to let a user who selects a result return to the originating app at the relevant document, page, or state. This is the central app-side integration described in Microsoft’s developer overview.
Design the destination to be useful when the user arrives later, not just when the activity is first created. A deep link should identify the content or state your app can meaningfully restore. The exact destination and restoration behavior depend on the app. If the original page, document, or session is no longer available, provide a sensible fallback rather than leaving the user at an unrelated home screen.
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Keep the boundary clear: UserActivity supplies relaunch context; Recall owns its snapshot experience and storage. Do not design a feature that assumes your app can browse Recall’s local snapshot store or that a user’s snapshot consent guarantees a particular result will be indexed.
Launch Recall with the ms-recall protocol
Microsoft documents the ms-recall protocol URI as a way for an app to invoke Recall. Calling it opens Recall and takes a snapshot of the screen, which is the default behavior when Recall is launched. This makes it an invocation surface, not a substitute for UserActivity relaunch metadata or a way to control the user’s snapshot settings.
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- Two USB-C / USB4[4] ports and a microSD card reader for fast charging, big file transfers, or hooking up to three 4K monitors when you want a full desktop. Wi-Fi 7 keeps you online and fast wherever you are.
Exclude sensitive windows from capture
For content that should not appear in Recall or other screenshot applications, Windows provides SetWindowDisplayAffinity. Microsoft documents two relevant modes:
WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTUREkeeps the window content out of Recall and other screenshot applications.WDA_MONITORkeeps the window visible on a monitor but makes it appear blank elsewhere.
Microsoft’s wording for the exclusion flag is explicit: “By setting the flag WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE, the window content won’t show up in Recall or any other screenshot application.” Choose the mode based on what the user should see and what your application needs to protect; the two modes are not interchangeable.
Apply protection at the window level and consider the state of each window as the user moves through the app. A window containing credentials, payment details, health information, or regulated data may need a different policy from a general browsing view. Also plan for workflows that change sensitivity: a private browsing mode or a sensitive step in a transaction may call for temporarily suspending capture or using a stronger exclusion policy. Microsoft specifically warns that clients without screen-capture protection can be saved by Recall.
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- Power that lasts all day – With 20 hours of battery life[3], the new Surface Laptop powers through your entire day, so you can create, work and stream from morning to night without reaching for a charger.
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- Built-in AI Companion – Work smarter, create freely, and communicate with confidence—Copilot[5] on Windows 11 is always there to help.
Display-affinity protection addresses screen capture; it does not replace your app’s authorization, data handling, or privacy controls. Test each protected window in the actual user flow, including transitions into and out of sensitive states. Do not infer from one protected window that all app content is protected.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Enterprise policy and related integration surfaces
In managed organizations, Microsoft says Recall is removed or disabled by default until IT policy allows it. Administrators can control whether users may enable Recall and configure policies for snapshot saving and data-loss-prevention providers. They cannot enable snapshot saving on a user’s behalf. An app should therefore handle Recall being unavailable or disabled without treating it as an application failure.
Microsoft documents additional surfaces for specialized needs: a Recall DLP Provider API for data-loss-prevention vendors, browser activity APIs for website filtering, exported-snapshot decryption guidance, and Click to Do interactions. These are separate from the basic UserActivity and window-protection integrations; they have their own consent, identity, and policy requirements. A typical app should not assume it needs to implement them simply to provide useful relaunch links or protect a window.
A practical implementation and test plan
- Map app states. Identify the documents, pages, and workflows for which returning from a Recall result would be valuable. Separately mark screens that contain sensitive content.
- Add relaunch context. Use UserActivity to associate a useful deep link with relevant app content. Verify that selecting a result returns the user to the intended item or state.
- Set window protection deliberately. Use
SetWindowDisplayAffinityfor the relevant window and chooseWDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTUREorWDA_MONITORaccording to the desired capture behavior. - Test consent and policy variations. Check behavior with saving enabled, paused or disabled, and with Recall unavailable under managed-device policy. Do not assume your app can turn snapshot saving on.
- Test real content and transitions. Exercise sensitive and ordinary views, window changes, relaunches, and the app’s fallback when a deep-linked item cannot be restored.
- Recheck after Windows servicing changes. The documented prerequisites and behavior can evolve; validate against the Windows version and policies used by your target users.
Troubleshooting common development issues
- Recall is missing from Settings or will not launch. Check whether the device is a supported Copilot+ PC, whether its Windows build meets the documented baseline, and whether organizational policy allows Recall.
- No snapshots appear. Confirm that the user opted in and enabled Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots > Save snapshots. Also check whether snapshots are paused or disabled. An administrator cannot enable saving on the user’s behalf.
- A result does not reopen the right screen. Review the app’s UserActivity metadata and deep-link handling. The relaunch destination should identify the intended content and provide a fallback if that content is unavailable.
- Sensitive content appears in a capture. Verify that the relevant window—not merely another window in the app—uses the intended display-affinity mode. Reproduce the capture in the sensitive workflow and confirm the setting remains appropriate through state changes.
- Search behaves differently across devices or languages. Check the Windows build, device support, language, and content or storage constraints. Microsoft identifies six optimized languages, and does not establish identical search behavior outside those conditions.
Or skip the browser setup
Recall is for Windows activity snapshots; it is not a website screenshot API, and ScreenshotNeo does not integrate with Recall or set Windows display affinity. If your separate task is capturing a website from code, ScreenshotNeo offers a one-request alternative to setting up and controlling a browser yourself. Its cookie/consent-banner, popup, and chat-widget removal steps run before capture; bot checks, blank pages, failed loads, timeouts, and cache hits are not billed. It also provides an MCP server with take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf tools for AI agents.
cURL example, using the documented endpoint and parameters (ScreenshotNeo API documentation):
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webpPython:
import requests
r = requests.get("https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot", params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://stripe.com"}, timeout=90)
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)Node.js:
const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://stripe.com' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);ScreenshotNeo includes 1,000 screenshots per month on its free plan with no card required; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000. See ScreenshotNeo or sign up for 1,000 free screenshots a month, no card required.
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