- Someone already bypassed the requirements to get Windows Recall working on unsupported hardware.
- Officially, Recall is exclusive to Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon X CPUs with NPU, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD.
- The workaround allows you to run the AI feature on older ARM64 CPUs with less than 4GB of RAM.
Although it’s not something you want to do, someone has already discovered out how to activate Windows Recall AI on Windows 11 devices without an NPU. @thebookisclosed on X has discovered a way to get around the requirements so that the feature can be used on unsupported hardware, even though the requirements state that you must have a Copilot+ PC with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X series processor with an NPU (Neural Processing Unit), 16GB of memory, and at least 256GB of storage.
Although it may not work on AMD and Intel processors, this workaround is effective on ARM-based devices. @thebookisclosed was able to get the feature to function on a machine with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c+ Gen3 without an NPU and 3.4GB of RAM for this experiment.
The solution lets you open or pause the capability by enabling the Recall app interface together with the Taskbar icon and the System Tray menu.
Windows Recall AI has the ability to capture screen activity, albeit not all of the features function as intended. Selecting a snapshot allows the screenray feature to interact with the elements, including copying text, and the timeline option allows you to go back in time.
Action buttons can also be used to remove the snapshot, launch the program from the snapshot, and more. Additionally, the search feature is functional, and executing a query will display the most pertinent results.
Additionally, @thebookisclosed shared a brief movie on X that showed off the Windows Recall feature. He pointed out that while many websites claim that utilizing incompatible hardware is the reason for the slowness, the feature’s recording method was actually the culprit. Nonetheless, the experience will function more smoothly if the timeline AI feature is used on hardware that satisfies the specifications.
One of the main worries about the Windows Recall feature is still what happens in the background and whether or not it uploads data to the cloud, despite Microsoft’s loud assurances about privacy and security. Nevertheless, @thebookisclosed points out that during his testing, the processing takes place locally, even if the PC is not connected to the internet.
If you can run Recall on hardware that isn’t supported, why is Microsoft restricting it?First of all, it’s critical to realize that while this workaround enables you to use the functionality, it doesn’t function as planned.
This is because Windows Recall depends on several language models that need to operate simultaneously on the device, such as Screen Region Detector, Optical Character Recognizer, Natural Language Parser, and Image Encoder. The NPU is essential to this functionality since it has been engineered to accelerate the AI tasks more effectively than a GPU and CPU, even though they may operate on more conventional processors.
Although it’s intriguing that someone has managed to activate Windows Recall on incompatible hardware, you shouldn’t use it on a machine that doesn’t have the necessary specifications.
Microsoft intends to make Windows Recall, a new feature of Windows 11 24H2, available only on Copilot+ PCs as of June 18, 2024. Although the feature is already included in the most recent operating system preview via the Release Preview Channel, it cannot be enabled without this workaround because there are no devices with compatible hardware.
Keep in mind that the June 18 update is exclusive to Copilot+ PCs. The feature update will be made available to everyone else in September or October of 2024.
Version 24H2 will provide more AI features than only Windows Recall. It is anticipated that Microsoft will launch more features that also call for an NPU, including Windows Visual Effects, Live Captions, and Voice Clarity.
Copilot, which functions as a standard application, will also receive an update as part of the feature update. This feature update will also include support for Wi-Fi 7, the new Energy Saver mode, and Sudo for Windows. File Explorer will allow you to build 7-zip and TAR archive formats. There will be a new setup experience with this version. More devices will be able to use Device Encryption. Among the many printer updates is the addition of Windows Protected Print Mode. Among many other things, you may configure color profiles from within the Settings app.