Microsoft's Recall Preview Expands To AMD And Intel Copilot+ PCs, Are You In Or Out?
Recall was among the first advanced Copilot+ features Microsoft revealed earlier this year, but it miscalculated how much people wanted a robot looking over their shoulder. The pitch is that Recall captures screenshots of your machine every few seconds, turning the NPU loose on that data to create a searchable database of everything you've done on your PC. It comes off as a bit creepy, even if it could also be very useful in some instances.
Microsoft had to pull the early demo of Recall after realizing it was insufficiently secured. Recall has been in testing on Snapdragon machines over the last few months, and you can now join the preview to test it on Intel and AMD as well. We're still in the early days here, so you do have to join the Dev Channel on your PC. You'll find that under Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program. As of Windows 11 Build 26120.2510, the Recall feature will work with AMD Ryzen AI 300 and Intel Core Ultra 200V (Lunar Lake) chips.
The data collected by Recall allows you to ask the AI about almost anything you've done on the machine. Was there a useful snippet of text on a website or in a Slack chat? You don't have to dig around to find it—just ask the AI and it will recall the data. It's potentially useful, but Microsoft has moved aggressively to make the feature more secure, making it a bit less convenient. The computer needs to be using either BitLocker or Device Encryption, and it must have Windows Hello biometric support with an IR camera or fingerprint sensor. This is necessary because Recall verifies your identity before every use.
Setup is a bit clunky in preview, requiring the user to download numerous files to make Recall work. You'll also need to rope off 50GB of storage space for Recall's screenshots. With that done, you can begin outsourcing your memory to Windows 11. In addition, Microsoft recommends updating all your system drivers to ensure Recall and other new features work correctly.
Even though Copilot+ machines have been on sale promising extreme AI prowess for half a year, Microsoft has been slow to develop and release AI features for this new generation of PCs, and the company's flagship feature still isn't done. Recall will be tested with Insiders over the coming months in advance of a full release next year, but Microsoft doesn't have any specifics on the timeline. During the preview, just a tiny fraction of eligible machines will run Recall. We might not see what this feature can really do until it's widely available.
