What you need to know
- Microsoft has unveiled a host of next-generation AI features that will ship with Windows 11 exclusively for Copilot+ PCs with powerful NPUs.
- A user bypassed these strict requirements and made Windows Recall work on Arm64 hardware.
- The feature works surprisingly well on unsupported hardware, but you’ll likely have a better experience on computers with dedicated NPU hardware.
While Microsoft’s strict requirements limit its new and controversial Windows 11 Recall feature to Copilot+ PCs with powerful NPUs such as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips, Windows Detective Albacore has seemingly found a workaround that allows the handy feature to work on traditional Windows 11 PCs, spotting Arm64 hardware (via TechRadar).
Making the big progress of enabling Recall on current Arm64 hardware, no fancy X Elite in sight! ✨Theoretically it should work on Intel/AMD too, OEMs have only received Arm64 specific ML model packages so can’t do much yet. Here’s a little demo video showing a screenshot 🪄 pic.twitter.com/w57fF1LxiNMay 23, 2024
According to a video by a famous Windows hacker albacore, the feature works exactly as Microsoft explained. However, it’s clear that much of the Windows Recall experience doesn’t actually require the NPU. As you may know, the NPU (Neural Processing Unit) is designed to offload processing power from GPUs and CPUs in PCs to a dedicated chip designed to handle these AI workloads.
The video highlights how the screenray feature will work on Windows 11 Recall. Screenray is when you enter context-sensitive mode and take advantage of Windows 11’s Recall capabilities to track your steps.
RELATED: 5 reasons why you should (and shouldn’t) use Windows Recall
Albacore added that the feature “should theoretically work on Intel/AMD as well; OEMs have only received Arm64-specific ML model packages, so there’s not much they can do yet.”
While Windows Recall seems to work without an NPU, it’s probably not something you’d want to enable on a computer that doesn’t have one. With the NPU present, some features of Windows Recall will be transferred to the NPU, freeing up your CPU and GPU for other tasks.
Windows recall raises security and privacy concerns
“One of the dreams we’ve always had is how we’re going to introduce memory,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said while talking to The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern about Windows 11’s new and controversial AI feature, Windows Recall. “Is that so? Photographic memory in what you do on the computer? And now we have it.”
During Microsoft’s special event for Windows and Surface, the company announced a host of next-generation AI features that are coming to Windows 11 as part of the Windows 11 2024 Update (24H2 version), including Live Captions, Windows Recall, and more. The latter stole the show, raising concerns among users about security and privacy issues.
Windows Recall runs in the background of your computer and takes snapshots of everything you see and do, allowing you to search for everything you’ve ever done on your computer in natural language.
Microsoft promises that the feature is 100% privacy focused since it runs on the device via the NPU. It is presented to users as an opt-in experience, and users can disable it at any time through the settings.
Moreover, you can restrict the feature from capturing screenshots from certain apps or websites (which are stored locally on your computer). Users can also choose how long they want screenshots to be stored and how much space is dedicated to this feature.
READ MORE: How to use Windows Recall in Windows 11
Interestingly, the only way to get the new recall feature is to buy a new Copilot+ computer. Microsoft has been tight-lipped on if/when it plans to deliver next-gen AI features to traditional Windows 11 PCs without/with less powerful NPUs.
Windows 11 Recall is impressive and controversial, but at the same time, there is so much it can help you achieve. And despite Microsoft’s promise to focus 100% on privacy and run the feature natively with the NPU on the device, users have openly expressed their reservations about the feature.
Some users have even indicated that they will soon switch to other operating systems like Linux as support for Windows 10 threatens to end. Elon Musk even compares the AI ​​feature to an episode of Black Mirror. Meanwhile, Britain’s data watchdog is investigating Microsoft’s controversial new artificial intelligence feature to determine safeguards to protect user privacy.
