Windows 11 Search might soon no longer suck so much... and it could be thanks to AI

Windows Search is supposed to be a powerful tool designed to help you find anything on your Windows 11 computer, kind of like Spotlight search in macOS, but it’s a feature that I’ve seen multiple people complain about due to it not working all that well. The good news is that as Windows Latest reports, it looks like Microsoft is trying to address Search’s drawbacks with artificial intelligence (AI).

The aim is to power up Windows 11’s Search using AI to enable you to search through audio and video files, and Windows Latest suggests this feature could be related to Microsoft's controversial Recall feature, which is also largely AI-powered. 

Windows Recall is designed to take snapshots of your activity on your device and make them searchable for specific content, compiling a timeline. So far, it’s been getting mixed reviews (and that’s putting it generously), but that apparently hasn’t put off Microsoft from trying to infuse Windows Search with “intelligent media search,” which is likely based on similar tech. This is term was discovered by X user @XenoPanther, in Windows 11 Preview Build 27695. 

AI-powered media search in Windows 11

In this early Windows 11 build, there are references to an AI feature that will search through the contents of your media files, which @XenoPanther observed will become available once your device downloads the necessary AI models to do this. This process will involve first transcribing whatever audio or video you want to search, and making those transcripts searchable - which could be useful if you’re looking for an audio clip that mentions a specific word, for example. These transcripts will then need to be indexed in a way as to make it possible to search through it.

There’s no mention of this feature in Microsoft’s blog post announcing the Windows 11 Preview Build, so I imagine it’s still very much a work in progress, but I do hope Windows Search is being improved. It could be a really useful feature that actually makes it easier to use your device. 

Given the privacy concerns associated with processing sensitive media files, this feature would likely rely on on-device AI to ensure that all transcriptions and searches are handled locally, rather than being sent to the cloud, making it both more secure and responsive. This means it will likely require a new Copilot+ PC with the necessary hardware such as an NPU. 

I am a little wary of how AI is applied and I hope it’s being meticulously thought out, but otherwise an improved Windows Search is something I’ve seen users asking for - and I hope they get it. 

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