This article is for people who use a screen reader program such as Windows Narrator, JAWS, or NVDA with Windows tools or features and Microsoft 365 products. This article is part of the Accessibility help & learning content set where you can find more accessibility information on our apps. For general help, visit Microsoft Support.

Recall (preview) helps you quickly find and return to content you have accessed on your PC. Using an interactive timeline and semantic search, you can locate past moments, including text, images, and links, and resume where you left off. Learn how to use a screen reader to navigate and interact with Recall effectively. 

Important: Each time you launch Recall or change any Recall settings, your device prompts you to authorize the change using your Windows Hello credentials

In this topic

Start saving snapshots and manage Recall settings 

You can enable Recall saving snapshots during device setup (OOBE) by opting in, or later from Settings. The first time you open Recall, an intro dialog appears where you confirm whether to start saving snapshots. 

Recall is an optional feature in Windows 11 and is available by default on Copilot+ devices that are not managed by an organization or school. Recall availability depends on your device and system configuration. 

Use the Windows Feature dialog to make Recall available or to remove it from device: 

  1. Press the Windows  key to open the Start menu, and type Turn Windows features on or off in the search box.​​​​​​​

  2. In the Windows Features dialog, use the arrow keys to navigate to Recall. Press Spacebar to check or uncheck the checkbox to make Recall available or to remove it from your device and then restart your PC.

    Note: If you remove Recall, any previously saved snapshots will be deleted.  

Manage Recall snapshot settings

The Save snapshots setting in Recall allows you to start or pause snapshot collection. You can change this setting at any time from Settings, Recall icon in the system tray, or Options menu in the Recall app. 

To turn on or off the Save snapshots toggle button, follow these steps: 

  1. Navigate to Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots, and press Enter.

  2. Press the Tab key until you hear “Save snapshots toggle button,” then press the Spacebar.

Notes: 

  • For more information about snapshot storage and filter list settings, go to Recall & snapshots privacy settings.

  • On managed devices, IT policy may control Recall availability, snapshot saving, storage, and filtering settings. For more information about managing Recall on Copilot+ PCs for your organization, see Manage Recall.

Tips: 

  • When Recall is saving snapshots, you can also access Recall & snapshots settings directly from the Recall icon in the system tray. Press Windows  key+B to move focus to the system tray and then press Enter. Navigate to Recall button, press Tab until you hear “More Recall settings,” and then press Enter.

  • Turning off the Save snapshots toggle from Settings or selecting Pause until tomorrow from the Recall icon in the system tray allow you to temporarily pause snapshot collection. You can turn it back on anytime to resume.

Use keyboard shortcuts in Recall

The following list of keyboard shortcuts allows you to navigate and interact with Recall more efficiently.

To do this

Press

Open Recall.

Windows ​​​​​​​ key+J

Move to the next timeline segment.

Tab or Right arrow

Move to the previous timeline segment.

Shift+Tab or Left arrow

Move to the first snapshot in segment.

Enter

Drag the timeline indicator right.

Ctrl+Right arrow key

Drag the timeline indicator left.

Ctrl+Left arrow key

Go to the beginning of timeline.

Home

Go to the end of timeline.

End

Get focus to search box. 

Ctrl+F 

To navigate the headings.

H

To navigate different landmarks on the page.

F6 or Shift+F6

Open and navigate the Recall homepage

You can access Recall at any time, easily navigating through your saved snapshots using keyboard shortcuts. 

Press Windows  key+J to open Recall. Recall includes two tabs: Home and Timeline. By default, focus is on the Home tab when Recall opens.

  • When focus is on the Home tab, use the Up or Down arrow key to move to the Timeline tab. Then press Enter to switch to the Timeline view.

  • Use Tab or Shift+Tab to move through different sections and press Enter to open it.

  • Press Ctrl+F to return to the Search box.  ​​​​​​​For more information, go to Search with Recall.

The Recall homepage shows a quick overview of your recent and top activities. To navigate the homepage: 

  1. Open Recall and use Tab and arrow keys to navigate through the following groups:

    1. Recent snapshots group

    2. Top activities group

  2. Navigate to the desired group, and then press Enter to access that.

  3. Inside the selected group, use Tab and arrow keys to explore snapshots, and then press Enter to open the desired snapshot.

  4. To open the associated app or website for that group, press Enter when you hear the name of the app or website.

Navigate the timeline

The timeline in Recall displays your snapshots organized by time. You can scroll through different segments, select a point in time, and view the content captured during that period. 

To navigate the timeline:

  • Press Windows ​​​​​key+J to open Recall.

  • Use Tab or Shift+Tab to move between major sections, such as filters, timeline, and snapshots. 

  • Use the Left and Right arrow keys to move between different time segments on the timeline.

  • To select a timeline segment and view its snapshots, press Enter.

  • Use Ctrl+Right arrow key or Ctrl+Left arrow key to move through the timeline indicator forward or backward in time.

  • Press Home to move to the beginning of the timeline or press End to move to the end.

Once a segment is selected, its snapshots appear in a list view. 

  1. Use Tab to move into the list of snapshots.

  2. After selecting a snapshot, press Tab again to enter the Snapshot Commands group.

  3. Use the Left and Right arrow keys within the Snapshot Commands group to access available actions, including:

    • Open snapshot.

    • Launch app.

    • Options button > Copy link (available for browser activity). 

    • Hide or show Click to Do.

    • Copy snapshot.

    • Delete Snapshot > Delete all snapshot or Delete snapshot. 

    • Delete all snapshots.

    • Options menu > Edit with Snipping Tool. 

Note: If Click to Do is turned on, it allows you to interact with recognized content in the snapshot. For more information, go to Use a screen reader to explore and navigate Click to do.

Search with Recall

If you’re looking for something you accessed earlier, you can search Recall using keywords or voice input. Recall organizes results into text and visual matches by using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to identify objects.  

Important: AI can make mistakes. If something doesn’t look right in your search results, please send your feedback about the issue. 

To search in Recall:

  1. Press Ctrl+F to move focus to the search box.

  2. Type a keyword related to the content you want to search for, and then press Enter.

    • To use voice search, press Tab until you hear “Microphone button,” and press Enter, then speak your query.

      Note: If the Microphone button is not accessible, voice search might be turned off due to privacy settings or system restrictions. 

When search results appear:

  • Press Tab or Shift+Tab to navigate through filters and result sections.

  • Results are grouped into Text matches and Visual matches. Use F6 to move between these sections.

  • Within each group, use the arrow keys to navigate through the snapshot results.

  • Each snapshot search result item provides options like open snapshot, open associated app, delete snapshot, and provide feedback.

    Important: When you open a search result, you’ll be moved from the Search results page to the Timeline view to interact with the selected snapshot. 

Pause or resume snapshots

If you want to temporarily stop Recall from saving snapshots, you can pause or resume the feature in the following ways:

Pause or resume snapshots using Recall icon in the system tray 

You can quickly check the current status of Recall and pause or resume snapshots from the system tray: 

  1. Press Windows ​​​​​​ key+B to move focus to the system tray and then press Enter.

  2. Navigate to the Recall button, and press Enter.

  3. Press Tab until you hear Pause or Resume button, and then press Enter.

Note: The Recall icon in the system tray helps you understand the current status of Recall. It reflects whether saving snapshots is active or paused.

Pause or resume snapshots using Recall options menu

  1. Open Recall and press Tab until you hear “Options menu button,” then press Enter. 

  2. Do one of the following:

    1. To pause snapshots, press the Down arrow key until you hear “Pause until tomorrow,” then press Enter.

    2. To resume snapshots, press the Down arrow key until you hear “Resume snapshots,” then press Enter.

  • Note: When snapshots are paused, the Recall system tray icon has a slash through it so you can easily tell that saving snapshots is turned off.

Pause or resume snapshots using Recall & snapshots settings

  1. Navigate to Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots, and press Enter.

  2. Press Tab until you hear “Save snapshots toggle button,” and then press Spacebar to turn it off or on.

Delete snapshots

At any point of the time, if you discover a snapshot that you want to delete, you can delete individual snapshots or all snapshots related to a specific website or app, or add the website or app into a list to filter out from being saved in snapshots.  

To learn how to manage filter lists, go to Recall & snapshots privacy settings.

Delete a snapshot from timeline

There are two ways to delete a snapshot from timeline: 

  1. Open snapshot and press the Delete key. A confirmation dialog opens. Follow the prompts to confirm deletion.

  2. Open snapshot, press Tab to navigate to the Snapshot commands group, Press Enter on the Delete button to open a pop-up menu.

  • Use the arrow keys to select Delete snapshot, and then press Enter to confirm.

Delete all snapshots from a specific website or app

  • Open snapshot, navigate to the Snapshot commands group, Press Enter on the Delete button to open a pop-up menu.

  • Use the arrow keys to select Delete all from website or app, and press Enter.

  • A confirmation dialog will inform you of how many snapshots will be deleted before proceeding.

Notes: 

  • When you delete all snapshots from a website or app, a dialog may appear with an option to add the associated app or website to the filter list. This prevents future snapshots from being saved for that app or website. You will be prompted to authorize the change using your Windows Hello credentials.

  • To learn how to add or remove filters for snapshots, go to Recall & snapshots privacy settings.

Delete snapshots from the search results

  1. Search for the content related to the snapshot.

  2. Navigate to the snapshot in the results.

  3. Press Tab until you reach the Delete button, then press Enter.

Send feedback

To help improve Recall, you can easily share your feedback with Microsoft. Use this option to report issues, suggest improvements, or comment on your experience with Recall.  

  1. Open Recall.

  2. Press Tab until you hear “Options menu button,” then press Enter.

  3. Use the Down arrow key to navigate to “Send feedback menu item,” and press Enter to submit your comments. 

See also

Keyboard shortcuts for Recall and Click to Do 

Retrace your steps with Recall

Filtering apps, websites, and sensitive information in Recall 

Click to Do in Recall: do more with what’s on your screen 

Manage your Recall snapshots and disk space

Technical support for customers with disabilities

Microsoft wants to provide the best possible experience for all our customers. If you have a disability or questions related to accessibility, please contact the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk for technical assistance. The Disability Answer Desk support team is trained in using many popular assistive technologies and can offer assistance in English, Spanish, French, and American Sign Language. Please go to the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk site to find out the contact details for your region.

If you are a government, commercial, or enterprise user, please contact the enterprise Disability Answer Desk.

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