Windows Fans Successfully Hijacked Microsoft's 'Recall' Feature For Running On Usang Devices

Microsoft, when launching the Copliot + PC (photo: x @bwwgpro1 ·)

JAKARTA - Less than two weeks after Microsoft announced its new Copilot Plus PC, which is designed to carry a wave of new AI features in Windows exclusively for new laptops, Windows fans managed to break into the AI-backed Microsoft flagship feature, Recall, in order to run on devices that are not supported or are outdated.

Recall using a local AI model on a new Copilot Plus PC to run in the background and take a snapshot of whatever you do or see on your PC. Then you get a timeline that you can slide and the ability to search for photos, documents, conversations, or anything on your PC.

Microsoft positions Recall as a tool that requires a very new neural processing unit (NPU) on a new PC, but you can actually run it on older Arm hardware.

Windows observer Albacore has created a device called Amperage, which allows Recall to run on devices that have old Qualcomm Snapdragon chips, Microsoft SQ processors, or Ampere chipsets. You need to install the latest Windows 11 24H2 update on one of these Windows on Arm devices, then the tool will unlock and activate Recall.

It only works on older Windows on Arm hardware today, but given that the Copilot Plus PC is coming from AMD and Intel, we will most likely see this opened more widely in the coming weeks or months. Microsoft has just published its AI component for the current Windows on Arm platform, which is a limiting factor in running this on Intel and AMD-backed hardware.

You can actually open Recall on the x86 device, but the app won't work much until Microsoft issues the AI x64 component needed to run it. Rumors say that both AMD and Intel are close to announcing PC Copilot Plus, so Microsoft's AI components for those machines may appear soon. Someone managed to run Recall on Windows 11 x64's virtual engine earlier today just to test their first experience on run.

Chances are we'll be looking at more of Microsoft's Copilot Plus PC features passed to the existing hardware. Recalls opened to run on Arm hardware much longer will definitely raise questions about why Microsoft is limiting this and many other AI-supported Windows features for new devices that have NPU capable of more than 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS).

Microsoft will probably argue that the 40 TOPS requirement lays the groundwork for a better future AI experience beyond Recall, Image Corretor, and other AI features that Microsoft showed last week. It also ensures these features run on separate NPUs rather than taking over CPUs and GPUs and depleting laptop battery power. But the reality is that the Copilot Plus PC is also designed for Microsoft and its OEM partners selling new hardware at the time IDC expects PC sales to grow this year thanks to the arrival of AI-capable PCs.