Technology Miraj Islam October 24, 2026 0 Comments

Windows 11 could have a very different take on Recall, but the Context Vault feature doesn’t seem likely to persuade AI skeptics

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Windows 11 has an alternative version of Recall in testing
It’s an app called ‘Context Vault’ that offers a similarly powerful search experience.
However, in this case, you must manually add content to the vault; There are no automatic, periodic screenshots of activity on your PC.

Do you hate the idea of Recall in Windows 11? You wouldn’t be alone, which is why Microsoft is trying to put a new spin on the idea of an AI-powered supercharged search that’s much more limited than Recall, although initial reaction has still been pretty negative.

Windows Latest discovered that Microsoft is working on Project Pantheon, currently called ‘Context Vault’, and instead of being built into Windows 11 like Recall, it needs to be installed from the Microsoft Store.

So this isn’t just an optional feature, it’s an app you have to actively look for, and it works very differently than Recall in that it doesn’t automatically take regular screenshots (snapshots) of the activity on your PC.

Analysis: is a new version of Recall going to work?

Microsoft’s Recall feature has not proven popular overall (Image credit: Microsoft)

On the one hand, the user’s full control over the content that Context Vault can access compared to Recall could be a big selling point. On the other hand, using the cloud to run AI processes is obviously more of a privacy concern (although it’s not necessary to go that route to be fair).

Windows Latest has been led to believe that Microsoft is considering other ways to make Context Vault more secure, including encryption and per-app access controls, as well as requiring a Windows Hello login to access (as Recall does) to protect the vault from potential local attackers jumping to your device.

As noted at the beginning, the reaction to this idea in testing is generally skeptical, with many people simply seeing it as “even more AI” that Microsoft is stuffing into Windows 11 (although it’s not actually confirmed that this is coming to the operating system, of course).

As one Redditor says, this is a classic case of “solving [a] problem [that] does not exist.”

Another agrees: “Yeah, Microsoft can’t even be creative in coming up with something that’s even marginally useful in an extremely implausible scenario. I’ve literally never in my life felt the need or wanted a tool like Recall or this equally sexy version. This problem was solved around 2000 with bookmarks and Word/Excel documents. Don’t be whatever complicated garbage it is.”

To be fair, others are more positive and there are Recall users. A commenter on the same thread says: “I use Recall all the time, it’s been a game changer for me, I just wish it would sync between my devices so I could search for something on my desktop that I saw on my tablet.”

The only thing that seems quite clear is that the anti-Recall people will not be swayed by a different vision of the same concept, not even one that represents a fairly radical change.

The type of people this might persuade are those who probably won’t be drawn to comment on this idea by trying it one way or another. I think it’s certainly an alternative worth trying for Microsoft, as long as it’s implemented safely enough, of course.