Windows 11’s Recall feature can run on unsupported CPUs

A few days after the announcement of “Recall” for Windows 11, a developer demonstrated that it can run on unsupported CPUs. Currently, “Recall” is designed to work on so-called Copilot+ PCs. However, it seems that this is more for performance reasons than compatibility.

This month, during its Build conference for developers, Microsoft announced “Recall” as an AI-powered Windows feature. Basically, it constantly takes snapshots of what you are doing on your PC during the day. The device stores the snapshots in a timeline that will later serve to remind you of what you did at some point if you need it. For example, you could ask your PC to find a presentation you were working on on a specific day, or remind you where you saw an image of a certain color of shoes, using natural language.

The fact that your PC will be “monitoring” everything you do during the day raised privacy concerns. However, Microsoft claims that the feature will work 100% locally. That is, in theory, nothing will leave your device to external servers. This is also why Recall is only compatible with Copilot+ PCs. These devices include chipsets with powerful NPUs (currently Snapdragon X chipsets) that can handle the high requirements of local AI processing.

Windows 11 Recall is (barely) compatible with unsupported CPUs

However, developer Albacore proved that you can enable Recall on Windows devices with unsupported CPUs. The video attached to their post on X shows the feature working on a device powered by non-compatible ARM64 hardware.

Making great progress enabling Recall on current Arm64 hardware, no fancy X Elite in sight! ✨
Should theoretically work on Intel/AMD too, OEMs only received Arm64 specific ML model bundles so there’s not much I can do yet.

Here’s a small demo video showing off screenray 🪄 pic.twitter.com/w57fF1LxiN

— Albacore ☁️ (@thebookisclosed) May 23, 2024

That said, the video also shows why Recall is designed to work on Copilot+ PCs. It is notable that the feature is working in a lagging or slow way. This is because the device used does not have a powerful enough NPU to satisfy AI processing power requirements. Performance may become even worse as time passes and the device accumulates more and more snapshots of your activity.

So, while you can enable Windows Recall on devices with unsupported CPUs, you probably shouldn’t. Or if you do, take it as something to spend your free time or a personal project.