There are issues with the take a look at setup of Microsoft's “Recall” photograph storage search

Microsoft's recall feature is available for testing for users of Copilot+ PCs with Qualcomm Snapdragon chips.

Jordan Novet | CNBC

Microsoft on Friday started letting people test recall, its so-called photographic memory search function for the latest Copilot+ PCs. It doesn't work perfectly, that's an initial assessment.

It will also be a long time coming. Microsoft first touted Recall in May as a standout feature that would only be available on cutting-edge Copilot+ PCs running the Windows 11 operating system, like the latest Surface Pro. Executives said Recall would use artificial intelligence to take screenshots of your computer screen as you use it, so you can later use keywords to search for words or objects present in images you've seen before.

However, a backlash from cybersecurity experts over Recall's potential risks prompted Microsoft to revise it. The company encrypted Recall's underlying database and set the feature to be disabled by default. In August, Microsoft announced that the recall would reach testers in October.

Now the feature is available to certain Copilot+ users. Those whose computers contain Qualcomm Snapdragon chips and neural processing units for AI tasks can download and install a build that comes with Recall. To be eligible, PCs must be enrolled in the Windows Insider Program development channel. Copilot+ PCs with AMD or Intel Chips are out of luck for now.

Microsoft releases such pre-release versions of software to give early adopters a chance to try things out and fix defects before they are released to the general public. Recall doesn't work with some accessibility programs, and if you choose not to have Recall save content from a specific website, it may still be captured when you use the built-in Edge browser, a blog post says.

These are not the only problems. Here are other issues I noticed:

• Although you can expect your computer to record everything you watch once you enable Recall, several minutes can pass between snapshots being taken, creating gaps in the timeline.
• With Recall you can prevent screenshots from being taken when you access certain apps. However, some apps installed on my Surface Pro don't appear in this list.
• When you enter a search string to search for words, the results may be incomplete or incorrect. Recall clearly had two screenshots that mentioned “Yankees,” but when I typed that into the search box, only one of them came up as a text match. I typed in my last name, which appeared in eight images, but Recall only returned two text matches.
• Recall took a screenshot while I was scrolling through posts on the BlueSky social network, and one includes a photo of a New York street scene. You can see a traffic light, a chimney and street signs. I typed them all into the search box, but Recall didn't find any results. Even after trying slightly different terms like “light” or “character,” Recall still couldn't show me what I was looking for. However, Recall showed the screenshot when I typed “one way”.
• The search function is fast, but scrolling through snapshots in Recall is not. The screenshots may take a few seconds to load if you swipe between them.

Microsoft did not immediately comment on this article.

Despite the initial problems, Recall can be helpful and interesting if positive results are achieved. And if you want to go back to the app or web link you were viewing at the time you took the screenshot, clicking a button below the image will take you right back to that point in time.

REGARD: Microsoft will release the controversial Windows Recall AI search feature to testers in October