Image: Mark Hachman / IDG
Microsoft is promising an AI-driven future for Windows 11—but initially, only select PC owners could try Copilot+ features as they rolled out in preview. If you didn’t own a laptop with a Snapdragon X Elite or X Plus processor, you had to wait. That changes today, with Microsoft’s announcement of two Copilot+ features becoming available to compatible Intel and AMD PCs: Microsoft Recall and Click to Do.
Of the two, Microsoft Recall has greater notoriety—it captures your activity as you use your computer, taking screenshots every few seconds. Windows then leans on AI to sift through the accumulated data when you’re seeking specific information like a recipe, conversation, or even document you previously worked on. Despite its obvious benefits, it also sparked debate over potential privacy and safety issues.
Microsoft
Click to Do offers related utility, though less controversial. Whenever you take a screenshot of text and images, you can jump to common tasks. If you’ve captured text, you can choose to copy the words, open the text in an app, search online for selected text, visit a URL, or start an email. For image capture, you can copy it to your clipboard, save to a specific location, share it, open in a specific app, start an image search in Bing, or edit the image in the Photos app to blur the background, erase elements, or remove the background.
For these features to work on your Intel or AMD PC, it must have a processor with an NPU that meets Copilot+ requirements. Currently, laptops with Intel Lunar Lake (aka Core Ultra 200V series) or AMD Ryzen AI 300 CPUs qualify.
It’s worth noting that Microsoft’s earlier messaging implied that an update would make all Ryzen AI 300 or Lunar Lake PCs compatible with the Copilot+ features inside the Windows 11 2024 Update, in one fell swoop. Now, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Other features that take advantage of the local NPU, such as Microsoft’s Studio Effects or the Cocreator tool within Paint, are not being made available, yet.
“The blog post intentionally focuses on what is rolling out today,” Brandon LeBlanc, who co-authored Microsoft’s blog post on Friday, responded to a message on Twitter, now called X. “If you don’t see something mentioned, it’s safe to say it’s not yet rolling out. So nothing new to share today re: Studio Effects or other Paint and Photos app features.”
If you haven’t already, you’ll need to join the Windows Insiders program and install Build 26120.2510, part of the Dev Channel to try Microsoft Recall and Click to Do. As is expected with these early preview versions of Windows, features may not yet fully work or have bugs—as is the case for Recall, which has a lengthy list outlining known issues in Microsoft’s blog post.
Updated at 12:40 PM with additional reporting by Mark Hachman.
Author: Alaina Yee, Senior Editor, PCWorld
A 14-year veteran of technology and video games journalism, Alaina Yee covers a variety of topics for PCWorld. Since joining the team in 2016, she’s written about CPUs, Windows, PC building, Chrome, Raspberry Pi, and much more—while also serving as PCWorld’s resident bargain hunter (#slickdeals). Currently her focus is on security, helping people understand how best to protect themselves online. Her work has previously appeared in PC Gamer, IGN, Maximum PC, and Official Xbox Magazine.
