Apparently, the Windows 11 Recall feature works on low specs PCs without an NPU

There’s a whole dispute around the new Windows 11 Recall feature, or the AI Explorer. Some users don’t even want to hear about it due to privacy concerns. As we’ve shown recently, Recall is pretty harmless and you may even disable it. Others are curious to learn more about it and test it but as we know before, the feature was exclusively designed for the latest Snapdragon, or at least for SoCs with NPU on board.

Well, it seems like it can be enabled on Intel and AMD CPU based PCs and Albacore demonstrated that Recall can run on Windows 11 even without the NPU.

He shared his success in getting the Recall feature to run on a system equipped with a Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3, 3.4GB RAM, and one again, without an NPU. The developer described the performance as surprisingly good, despite the system’s modest specs. This revelation suggests that Recall might still be functional on lower-end systems, albeit without the NPU, challenging the initial assumptions about the feature’s requirements.

For those who know less about this whole story, Microsoft’s new CoPilot+ PC was designed to bring advanced AI features to the Windows 11 OS, with Recall being one of its flagship functionalities. This feature, aimed at enhancing productivity, allows you to access content you’ve viewed in the past. It was initially thought that Recall would demand high-end specs, specifically new processors like Snapdragon X chips and next-gen Intel and AMD processors, along with a CoPilot+ PC, 16GB RAM, and a powerful NPU.

The ability to run Recall on lower-end PCs without an NPU opens up the feature to a wider audience, but it also raises questions about the balance between functionality and security. What’s your take on this new feature? Do you think the benefits outweigh the potential privacy risks? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.